This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act, the primary law governing marine fisheries in U.S. waters. The Act ushered in a new era of managing marine fisheries and conserving fish stocks by extending federal fisheries jurisdiction out to 200 miles and establishing the Regional Fishery Management Council system. To fully appreciate the scale of this monumental change, let’s look at how fisheries were managed before the Act was put in place.
