Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-110
§1826i Action to Strengthen International Fishery Management Organizations
Title 16 › CHAPTER 38 — FISHERY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT › SUBCHAPTER III — FOREIGN FISHING AND INTERNATIONAL FISHERY AGREEMENTS › § 1826i
Summary
The Secretary, working with the Secretary of State and fishery groups, must try to make international fishery organizations better at protecting and managing fish. The Secretary must push those organizations to use tools like market-based penalties, shared lists of vessels and owners that do illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing, a central system to track vessels, more observers and tracking technology (like vessel monitoring and automatic ID systems), stronger port checks where illegal fish are landed or moved, and shark protections that ban removing any fin (including the tail) and throwing the carcass back to sea. The Secretary must also push for import bans, landing limits, catch documentation and certification, and seek international shark conservation agreements. The Secretary should ask other countries and groups such as CITES and the World Trade Organization to stop trade in fish taken by IUU fishing. The Secretary may share information collected under U.S. fishing laws with other U.S. or state agencies, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or the secretariats of international fish groups if they protect the data. But U.S. confidentiality rules do not apply when the United States must share information under a regional fisheries group it belongs to, or for information about foreign vessels. The Secretary may create and publish lists of IUU vessels and owners and take actions against listed vessels or their fish under U.S. and international law. The Secretary may also make regulations to carry out these duties.
Full Legal Text
Title 16, §1826i
Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)In general
The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of State, and in cooperation with relevant fishery management councils and any relevant advisory committees, shall take actions to improve the effectiveness of international fishery management organizations, or arrangements made pursuant to an international fishery agreement, in conserving and managing fish stocks under their jurisdiction. These actions shall include—
(1)urging international fishery management organizations to which the United States is a member—
(A)to incorporate multilateral market-related measures against member or nonmember governments whose vessels engage in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing;
(B)to seek adoption of lists that identify fishing vessels and vessel owners engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing that can be shared among all members and other international fishery management organizations;
(C)to seek international adoption of a centralized vessel monitoring system in order to monitor and document capacity in fleets of all nations involved in fishing in areas under an international fishery management organization’s jurisdiction;
(D)to increase use of observers and technologies needed to monitor compliance with conservation and management measures established by the organization, including vessel monitoring systems and automatic identification systems;
(E)to seek adoption of stronger port state controls in all nations, particularly those nations in whose ports vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing land or transship fish; and
(F)to adopt shark conservation measures, including measures to prohibit removal of any of the fins of a shark (including the tail) and discarding the carcass of the shark at sea;
(2)urging international fishery management organizations to which the United States is a member, as well as all members of those organizations, to adopt and expand the use of market-related measures to combat illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing, including—
(A)import prohibitions, landing restrictions, or other market-based measures needed to enforce compliance with international fishery management organization measures, such as quotas and catch limits;
(B)import restrictions or other market-based measures to prevent the trade or importation of fish caught by vessels identified multilaterally as engaging in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing; and
(C)catch documentation and certification schemes to improve tracking and identification of catch of vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing, including advance transmission of catch documents to ports of entry;
(3)seeking to enter into international agreements that require measures for the conservation of sharks, including measures to prohibit removal of any of the fins of a shark (including the tail) and discarding the carcass of the shark at sea, that are comparable to those of the United States, taking into account different conditions; and
(4)urging other nations at bilateral, regional, and international levels, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora and the World Trade Organization to take all steps necessary, consistent with international law, to adopt measures and policies that will prevent fish or other living marine resources harvested by vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing from being traded or imported into their nation or territories.
(b)Disclosure of information
(1)In general
The Secretary, subject to the data confidentiality provisions in section 402 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1881a) except as provided in paragraph (2), may disclose, as necessary and appropriate, information, including information collected under joint authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) and the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act of 1975 (16 U.S.C. 71 et seq.), the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act (16 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.), any other statute implementing an international fishery agreement, to any other Federal or State government agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or the secretariat or equivalent of an international fishery management organization or arrangement made pursuant to an international fishery agreement, if such government, organization, or arrangement, respectively, has policies and procedures to protect such information from unintended or unauthorized disclosure.
(2)Exceptions
The data confidentiality provisions in section 402 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1881a) shall not apply with respect to this Act—
(A)for obligations of the United States to share information under a regional fisheries management organization (as that term is defined by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) of which the United States is a member; or
(B)to any information collected by the Secretary regarding foreign vessels.
(c)IUU vessel lists
The Secretary may—
(1)develop, maintain, and make public a list of vessels and vessel owners engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing or fishing-related activities in support of illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing, including vessels or vessel owners identified by an international fishery management organization or arrangement made pursuant to an international fishery agreement, that—
(A)the United States is party to; or
(B)the United States is not party to, but whose procedures and criteria in developing and maintaining a list of such vessels and vessel owners are substantially similar to such procedures and criteria adopted pursuant to an international fishery agreement to which the United States is a party; and
(2)take appropriate action against listed vessels and vessel owners, including action against fish, fish parts, or fish products from such vessels, in accordance with applicable United States law and consistent with applicable international law, including principles, rights, and obligations established in applicable international fishery management agreements and trade agreements.
(d)Regulations
The Secretary may promulgate regulations to implement this section.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
References in Text
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, referred to in subsec. (b)(1), is Pub. L. 94–265, Apr. 13, 1976, 90 Stat. 331, which is classified principally to chapter 38 (§ 1801 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see
Short Title
note set out under section 1801 of this title and Tables. The Atlantic Tunas Convention Act of 1975, referred to in subsec. (b)(1), is Pub. L. 94–70, Aug. 5, 1975, 89 Stat. 385, which is classified generally to chapter 16A (§ 971 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see
Short Title
note set out under section 971 of this title and Tables. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act, referred to in subsec. (b)(1), is Pub. L. 109–479, title V, Jan. 12, 2007, 120 Stat. 3635, which is classified generally to chapter 88 (§ 6901 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see
Short Title
note set out under section 6901 of this title and Tables. This Act, referred to in subsec. (b)(2), probably means title VI of Pub. L. 104–43, Nov. 3, 1995, 109 Stat. 391, known as the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act, which is classified generally to sections 1826d to 1826k of this title. For complete classification of title VI to the Code, see
Short Title
of 1995 Amendment note set out under section 1801 of this title and Tables. Codification Section was enacted as part of the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act, and also as part of the Fisheries Act of 1995, and not as part of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act which comprises this chapter.
Amendments
2015—Pub. L. 114–81 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), inserted heading and “, or arrangements made pursuant to an international fishery agreement,” after “organizations” in introductory provisions, and added subsecs. (b) to (d). 2011—Par. (1)(F). Pub. L. 111–348, § 102(a)(1), added subpar. (F). Par. (2)(C). Pub. L. 111–348, § 102(a)(2), struck out “and” at end. Par. (3). Pub. L. 111–348, § 102(a)(4), added par. (3). Former par. (3) redesignated (4). Par. (4). Pub. L. 111–348, § 102(a)(3), redesignated par. (3) as (4).
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Construction
Pub. L. 111–348, title I, § 104, as added by Pub. L. 115–228, § 2(1), Aug. 2, 2018, 132 Stat. 1628, provided that: “Nothing in this title [see
Short Title
of 2011 Amendment note set out under section 1801 of this title] or the
Amendments
made by this title shall be construed as affecting, altering, or diminishing in any way the authority of the Secretary of Commerce to establish such conservation and management measures as the Secretary considers necessary and appropriate under section 302(a)(3) and 304(g) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1852(a)(3), 1854(g)).” [Another section 104 of Pub. L. 111–348 amended section 4107 of this title, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 115–228, § 2(1), Aug. 2, 2018, 132 Stat. 1628.]
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
16 U.S.C. § 1826i
Title 16, Conservation
Last Updated
Sep 23, 2026
Release point: 119-110