H.R. 9953 — Bycatch Reduction Act

This section requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to establish a pelagic trawl gear performance standard for vessels operating under the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Fishery Management Plans and to implement regulations limiting benthic habitat impacts and unobserved mortality of subsistence, commercial, or recreational species. It directs the Council to set a baseline for gear effects on marine benthic habitat within one year, subject to independent National Academies review, after which the NOAA Administrator must issue rules requiring seafloor contact detection systems, effort reductions, and fishing prohibitions in specified closed areas.

This section requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to establish gear performance standards for nonpelagic trawl catcher/processor vessels ineligible for pollock harvest under the American Fisheries Act in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries. It directs the Administrator to report on baseline benthic habitat impacts within 1 year, phase in modified footropes and trawl sweeps over the following year to reduce seafloor contact, obtain an independent National Academies review, and require full compliance within 2 years, with violations subject to Magnuson-Stevens Act penalties.

This section requires each Regional Fishery Management Council to hold recorded votes on all non-procedural matters and to publish meeting webcasts, audio or video recordings, and searchable transcripts on its website within 30 days, with the Secretary maintaining a permanent public online archive. It updates the definition of designated official for conflict-of-interest reviews, adds contractors to covered relationships, and requires financial disclosures on both NOAA and Council websites. It directs the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to provide a minimum 4-week public comment period before meetings. It also requires the NOAA Administrator to review financial interest and recusal procedures for compliance within 1 year and to report gaps and recommendations in the 2027 annual report.

This section requires all vessels using pelagic trawl gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fishery Management Plan and Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Fishery Management Plan to equip operational salmon excluder devices that have been field tested, scientifically reviewed, and verified to reduce salmon bycatch. It directs the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to implement the requirement within one year, requires the Administrator to support testing and outreach, provide technical assistance to vessel operators, and consult with affected industry participants, and subjects noncompliant vessels to penalties under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

This section reconstitutes the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force as the Bycatch Reduction Task Force, adds seven members with expertise in salmon, groundfish, invertebrate ecology, regional residency, and trawl gear technology, and exempts the task force from the Federal Advisory Committee Act while requiring public posting of membership, agendas, and nonproprietary materials. It directs the Administrator to enter public-private partnerships for satellite tagging and genetic stock identification of Alaska-origin salmon in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska, mandates open data standards and modern analytical methods, and establishes a competitive grant program for real-time genetic sampling of incidentally caught salmon.

This section prohibits any person in the United States from importing, procuring, or selling seafood from a foreign vessel or its beneficial owner unless the Secretary of Commerce determines that the originating fishery harvests fish in a manner comparable to the national standards under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. It requires seizure of violating seafood and directs the Secretary to determine its disposal.

This section directs the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to enter into a public-private partnership to build a flume tank for testing fishing gear and technology to reduce bycatch and contact with marine benthic habitats in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska. It establishes a Flume Tank Assistance Fund to provide grants for prototype development, sensors, fishing gear designs, and related workforce training.

This section directs the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish timelines and processes for approving exempted fishing permits and electronic monitoring pilot projects in federally managed North Pacific fisheries to reduce bycatch, unobserved mortality, and habitat disturbance. It requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to publish observer coverage requirements and bycatch explanations online in lay terms. It also mandates reports within 3 years on integrating observer and electronic monitoring data, including recommendations on real-time technologies and bycatch reduction for Pacific halibut, Alaska crab, and Alaska-origin salmon in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska.

This section reauthorizes the bycatch reduction engineering program and adds an explicit purpose to develop technological devices and conservation engineering changes that minimize bycatch, seabird interactions, bycatch mortality, unobserved fishing mortality, and post-release mortality in federally managed fisheries. It authorizes appropriations of $10 million annually for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 and establishes the Bycatch Mitigation and Habitat Protection Assistance Fund, administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and financed through donations, to provide financial assistance to fishing industry participants for purchasing or modifying gear and technology that reduces bycatch and marine benthic habitat contact.