List of Foreign Fisheries

NOAA Fisheries has published its final 2020 List of Foreign Fisheries, as required by 50 C.F.R. § 216.24(h) implementing the Fish and Fish Product Import Provisions Section 101(a)(2) of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.

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The Import Provisions, which aim to reduce marine mammal bycatch associated with international commercial fishing operations, require foreign fisheries exporting fish and fish products to the United States to be held to standards comparable to those U.S. commercial fishing operations are governed by.

The 2020 final LOFF identifies over 2,800 foreign commercial fishing operations, within 131 nations, that export fish and fish products to the United States and classifies those fisheries based on the frequency of incidental and intentional mortality and serious injury of marine mammals in those fisheries.

About the List of Foreign Fisheries

An essential component in implementing the import provisions of the MMPA Import Provisions Rule is the List of Foreign Fisheries. It lists foreign commercial fisheries that export fish and fish products to the United States and that have been classified as either “export” or “exempt” based on the frequency and likelihood of incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals. The entire list of these export and exempt fisheries, organized by nation (or subsidiary jurisdiction), constitutes the List of Foreign Fisheries.

By December 31, 2022, a harvesting nation must apply for and receive a comparability finding for each of its export and exempt fisheries on the list to continue to export fish and fish products from those fisheries to the United States.

Developing the List of Foreign Fisheries

To develop this list, NOAA Fisheries reviewed and considered, when available, multiple sources of information, including documentation provided directly by the nations or subsidiary jurisdictions. Fisheries are classified, based on their frequency of marine mammal bycatch, as either “exempt” or “export” fisheries. Exempt fisheries are fisheries that have no known or a remote likelihood of marine mammal bycatch and are exempt from instituting a regulatory program. Export fisheries are those fisheries with more than a remote likelihood of marine mammal bycatch or insufficient information available on marine mammal interactions.

The LOFF is organized by harvesting nation and other defining factors including the geographic location of harvest, gear type, target species, or a combination thereof. It also includes a list of the marine mammals that interact with each commercial fishing operation, where known, and, when available, indicates the level of incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals in each commercial fishing operation.

Impact of the List of Foreign Fisheries

The LOFF is the first comprehensive list of its kind. Publication of the LOFF is an important milestone because it provides the global community a view into the marine mammal bycatch levels of commercially relevant fisheries. In addition, it offers us a better understanding of the impacts of marine mammal bycatch, an improvement of tools and scientific approaches to mitigating those impacts, and establishes a new level of international cooperation in achieving these objectives.