A bill to protect diverse and structurally complex areas of the seabed in the United States exclusive economic zone by establishing a maximum diameter size limit on rockhopper, roller, and all other ground gear used on bottom trawls.

Summary: Ocean Habitat Protection Act of 2002 - Amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to place size limits on ground gear used on bottom trawls. Treats as unlawful the use of rollers, bobbins, tires, rockhoppers, or any other devices attached to a trawl's foot rope that are more than eight inches in diameter for fishing subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ocean Habitat Protection Act of 
2002''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The fish and other marine species that are associated 
        with three-dimensional structurally complex seafloor habitats 
        within the exclusive economic zone of the United States--
                    (A) constitute valuable and renewable natural 
                resources;
                    (B) are an essential component of marine 
                biodiversity;
                    (C) contribute to the food supply, economy, and 
                health of the United States;
                    (D) support the economies of coastal communities; 
                and
                    (E) provide recreational opportunities.
            (2) Commercial and recreational fishing constitute major 
        sources of employment and contribute significantly to the 
        economy of the United States.
            (3) The United States is dependent upon healthy and diverse 
        ocean ecosystems for income, nutrition, medicines, raw 
        materials, and valuable natural processes.
            (4) Diverse types of sponges, deep sea corals, and other 
        species are found in marine habitats, many of which have not 
        been adequately studied for their potential benefit to society 
        or their ecological importance to fish species and other forms 
        of marine life.
            (5) Habitat complexity and marine biodiversity created by 
        geologic structures and structure-forming organisms on the 
        seabed are essential to numerous fish species, including 
        commercially and recreationally harvested species, that rely on 
        them for food and shelter from predation.
            (6) Bottom trawling reduces habitat complexity and 
        biological diversity by smoothing geologic bedforms and by 
        removing, crushing, burying, and exposing benthic organisms to 
        predators and scavengers.
            (7) The reduction of biodiversity caused by bottom trawling 
        is detrimental to many commercially and recreationally 
        important species and to the industries and people that depend 
        on them.
            (8) In the past, the practice of bottom trawling was 
        conducted mainly on soft bottom areas, and was rarely used in 
        three-dimensional, structurally complex habitats.
            (9) Technological modifications to bottom trawls, including 
        the creation of large rockhopper and roller gear and chafing 
        gear, facilitate the use of bottom trawls in rocky and other 
        complex marine habitats that were once refuges for fishes and 
        other marine life.
            (10) The expansion in the use of bottom trawls from soft 
        bottom areas to three-dimensional, structurally complex 
        habitats over the past 20 years has had and continues to have 
        significant, adverse effects on the diversity and habitat 
        complexity of these areas.
            (11) Numerous scientific studies show that bottom trawling 
        is especially damaging to three-dimensional, structurally 
        complex habitats such as corals, boulder fields, sponge beds, 
        and gravel bottoms.
            (12) Bottom trawling in these habitats significantly 
        reduces their value for economically and ecologically important 
        fishes and other marine life. Reductions in structural 
        complexity may be long-term and irreversible. Recovery of some 
        of these areas to their natural state after a single pass of a 
        trawl may take decades or centuries. With repeated trawling in 
        the same area, the damage may be irreversible.
            (13) Prohibiting the use of large rockhopper, roller, and 
        other ground gear is a practical, precautionary, and 
        enforceable measure to protect structurally complex, benthic 
        marine habitats from the damaging effects of bottom trawling.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON USE OF LARGE ROCKHOPPER AND ROLLER GEAR ON 
              BOTTOM TRAWL NETS.

    (a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to prevent bottom 
trawls from accessing and damaging three-dimensional, structurally 
complex marine habitats that are needed by commercially and 
recreationally important fish and other marine life for food and 
shelter from predation.
    (b) Prohibition.--Section 307(1) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1857(1)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``or'' at the end of subparagraph (O);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (P) 
        and inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by inserting after subparagraph (P) the following:
                    ``(Q) to use a bottom trawl with rollers, bobbins, 
                tires, rockhoppers, or any other devices attached to 
                the foot rope of the trawl net that are in excess of 8 
                inches in diameter for fishing that is subject to the 
                jurisdiction of the United States, including fishing by 
                a vessel of the United States beyond the equivalent of 
                the exclusive economic zone of all countries.''.
    (c) Rebuttable Presumption.--Section 310(e) of the Magnuson-Stevens 
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1860(e)) is 
amended--
            (1) by aligning paragraph (3) with paragraph (2); and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(4) For purposes of this Act, it shall be a rebuttable 
presumption that any vessel that is shoreward of the outer boundary of 
the exclusive economic zone or beyond the equivalent zone of all 
countries, and that has on board gear comprised of a bottom trawl net 
with rollers, bobbins, tires, rockhoppers, or any other device attached 
to the foot rope of the trawl net that is in excess of 8 inches in 
diameter, is engaged in fishing using such gear.''.