S. 4938 · In committee · Public Lands and Natural Resources

Bycatch Reduction Act

What it does

Directs the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to establish pelagic trawl gear performance standards and enforceable regulations to reduce impacts on benthic habitat and unobserved mortality of subsistence, commercial, and recreational species in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska.
Requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to identify a baseline of pelagic trawl gear effects on marine benthic habitat within one year of enactment, using methods such as gear design standards, field testing, and sensors, and orders an independent National Academies review of the methodology.
Directs the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to promulgate regulations requiring pelagic trawl vessels to be equipped with commercially available seafloor contact detection systems and to implement gear modifications, fishing effort reductions, or area closures.
Requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to establish a gear performance standard system for nonpelagic trawl catcher/processor vessels and directs the Administrator to deliver a baseline report within one year and require full compliance with modified footrope.

Sep 16, 2026: Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.

Committee: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation