The House on Wednesday rejected a push from Rep. Jim Langevin to let his state join the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, which regulates several species of fish that are caught mostly by fishermen from Langevin’s home state of Rhode Island.
The amendment would have added two seats on the 21-seat council for the state of Rhode Island. But after explaining why his state should join the group, the House rejected Langevin’s amendment in a voice vote, and Langevin, a Democrat, didn’t demand a recorded vote.
Langevin said on the floor that Rhode Island fishermen catch a large amount of fish that are regulated by the council, including 85 percent of all east coast butterfish, and also catch half of all squid landed on the east coast. Langevin has been pushing for legislation to add Rhode Island to the mid-Atlantic group for at least six years so a representative from his state can have a voice on the council on matters related to these and other kinds of fish.
Langevin also pointed out a precedent on the issue in North Carolina, which was added to the council in 1996 for similar reasons.
“All we ask is that we do the same for Rhode Island,” he said. “It’s only fair.”
Langevin was trying to attach his amendment to a bill reauthorizing federal funding to help manage fishing industries around the country. But Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who sponsored the main bill, opposed Langevin’s proposal, and said it would erode the “regional management” approach to fishing regulation in the country. He noted the main bill would already create a way for the New England Fisheries Management Council to liaise with the mid-Atlantic council, and said that was enough.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., also argued in favor of the bill, saying that Rhode Island accounts for more fish landings under the jurisdiction of the mid-Atlantic fisheries management council than any other state in the region with the exception of New Jersey.
“Yet despite all of this, my state does not have a seat on this council, leaving Rhode Island fishers without a say in a say in how a significant portion of its industry is managed,” he said.
