That fishermen are the best stewards of our marine resources.

That maintaining traditional fishing communities and supporting small-boat, family-owned fishing businesses is critical to the future of fish.

 That fishermen are innovators capable of building solutions to the complex problems facing our fisheries today.

That the future of commercial fishing depends on fishing smarter, not harder.

That the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) is working and has largely been successful in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and promoting responsible and sustainable fisheries management.

That reauthorization of this critical law provides an opportunity to promote conservation and improved fishery data, better protect fishing communities, and build on the law’s past successes.

That reauthorization opens the door to the following improvement.

• Better science through more frequent stock assessments, increased data collection on data-poor stocks, decreased lags/more real-time information, and usage of a greater diversity of fisheries-dependent data

• Improved accountability through more comprehensive monitoring and more complete catch information

• Reducing bycatch and protecting directed fisheries as a means to promote improved fisheries management

• Creating opportunities for communities to safeguard traditional fisheries through quota appropriations.

That creating additional flexibility in the law and/or relaxing rebuilding requirements will hinder strong fisheries management and will not serve our fishing communities over the long-term.

That accountability is necessary to a successful quota-based management system.

That monitoring programs must have clearly defined goals and objectives, be cost-effective, and provide comprehensive data capable of rapidly informing management decisions.

That there needs to be monitoring solutions that meet the unique needs of different fisheries and recognize the barriers faced by fishermen on small-boats or located at remote ports.

That innovative monitoring solutions, such as video cameras, electronic logbooks and dockside monitors, are viable tools to overcome obstacles to maintaining fleet diversity while collecting the catch data we need to manage our fisheries.

That there are additional opportunities to further minimize bycatch and improve management of our fisheries/make additional catch available for directed fisheries.

That practical, scientifically sound, and community-based bycatch reduction measures are necessary to allow non-target species to thrive and also account for the needs of fishermen and their businesses.

That bycatch caps should be proportional to stock health, with mechanisms in place that prioritize directed fisheries.

That greater emphasis should be placed on public-private partnerships as a means to improve fisheries management by reducing cost and increasing efficiency of the bycatch accounting process

That an effective quota-based management system requires tools/mechanisms to support fishing businesses and maintain fleet diversity.

That community quota/permit banks offer a quota-based management solution to:

• Avoid pitfalls like excessive fleet consolidation

• Encourage new entrants into fishery and support the next generation of fishermen

• Promote growth by allowing established entrants to reinvest

• Maintain traditional fishing communities

• Reduce bycatch

That industry-based solutions like this are critical to supporting community-based, small-boat, commercial fishermen and fishing communities.

In healthy marine ecosystems that support sustainable fish populations and profitable fisheries.

In stakeholders working together to build balanced solutions between commercial harvesting and resource protections that ensure there will be fish both now and later.

In a proactive, transparent and participatory stakeholder decision-making process.

In stakeholders working together to build balanced solutions between commercial harvest and resource protections that ensure there will be fish both now and later.

In managing forage fish with an eye towards the needs of the larger food web.

In management that considers the scale of a fishery and takes steps to mitigate potential ecosystem impacts of large, high-volume operations.

In proactive, not reactive, management that takes a precautionary approach to newly emerging fisheries.