The Fishery Conservation Transition Act, introduced July 15 by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) as S.3594, has been designed to preserve the crucial conservation standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) while providing federal fisheries managers some much-needed tools to address critical fisheries issues. In particular the AFCTA provides marine fisheries managers the time, resources and specific direction to address current deficiencies in procedures mandated by the MSA.

Under current provisions of the MSA, NOAA does not have the tools to address overfishing without resorting to drastic and disruptive closures, such as the total closure of fishing for all bottom species when only one species  may require additional regulation...

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