S. 4938 — Bycatch Reduction Act

This section directs the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to establish a pelagic trawl gear performance standard for vessels in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries and to identify a baseline of its effects on benthic habitat within one year, subject to independent National Academies review. It requires the NOAA Administrator to issue regulations reducing those impacts through gear modifications including seafloor contact detection systems, effort reductions, and prohibitions in areas closed to nonpelagic trawl gear or supporting juvenile recruitment, with monitoring, data protocols, and enforcement under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

This section requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to establish gear performance standards for nonpelagic trawl catcher/processor vessels ineligible for pollock under the American Fisheries Act in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries. It directs the Administrator to report within one year on baseline benthic habitat effects, phase in modified footropes and trawl sweeps over the following year to reduce seafloor contact, obtain an independent National Academies review, achieve full compliance within two years, enforce violations under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and consult affected subsistence, commercial, and recreational participants.

This section requires each Regional Fishery Management Council to hold recorded votes on all non-procedural matters and to include vote details in official minutes. It mandates that councils post webcasts, audio or video recordings, and searchable transcripts of meetings and advisory body sessions online within 30 days, with the Secretary maintaining a permanent public archive. It updates the definition of designated official for conflict-of-interest reviews, adds contractors to covered relationships, and requires posting on both NOAA and council websites. It directs the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to establish a minimum 4-week public comment period before meetings. It also requires NOAA to review financial interest and recusal procedures within one year and report gaps and recommendations in its 2027 annual report.

This section requires all vessels using pelagic trawl gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries to equip operational salmon excluder devices that have been field tested, scientifically reviewed, and verified to reduce salmon bycatch. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council must implement the requirement within one year of enactment, the Administrator must support testing and provide technical assistance and outreach, and noncompliance is subject to penalties under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

This section reconstitutes the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force as the Bycatch Reduction Task Force and adds 7 members with expertise in salmon, groundfish, and invertebrate ecology, regional residency in the Bering Sea or Gulf of Alaska, and trawl gear technology. It directs public-private partnerships for satellite tagging and genetic sampling of Alaska origin salmon in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska to reduce bycatch, establishes a competitive grant program for real-time genetic stock identification, and requires public availability of data, methods, models, and analyses.

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 comparably to U.S. national standards under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. It requires the Secretary to seize violating seafood and 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 also establishes the Flume Tank Assistance Fund to provide grants for prototype development, sensors, gear designs, and workforce training programs aimed at the same reductions.

This section directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator to establish timelines and streamlined processes for approving exempted fishing permits for electronic monitoring and bycatch-reduction gear in North Pacific fisheries, including for vessels using the Bycatch Mitigation and Habitat Protection Assistance Fund. It requires public stakeholder consultations every three years with at least 60 days for comment, a data integration strategy to incorporate electronic monitoring into stock assessments with reduced latency, online publication of observer coverage requirements and layman’s-term bycatch explanations for Federal trawl fisheries, and a report to Congress within three years that includes recommendations on real-time catch-sharing technologies and bycatch minimization for Pacific halibut, Alaska crab, and Alaska-origin salmon in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska.

This section authorizes $10 million annually for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 for the bycatch reduction engineering program. It adds a purpose statement for the program to develop technological devices and conservation engineering changes that minimize bycatch, seabird interactions, unobserved fishing mortality, and post-release mortality in federally managed fisheries. It also 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 that reduces bycatch and marine benthic habitat contact from mobile or fixed gear.