I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 9440 
To require a strategy to increase United States interagency cooperation with 
partner African countries to counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated 
fishing, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 30, 2024 
Mr. MORAN (for himself and Mr. AMO) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to 
the Committees on Foreign Affairs, and Transportation and Infrastruc-
ture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each 
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To require a strategy to increase United States interagency 
cooperation with partner African countries to counter 
illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Securing Enforcement 
in African Seas Act of 2024’’ or the ‘‘SEAS Act of 2024’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (in this 
Act referred to as ‘‘IUU’’) fishing off Africa’s coasts 
undermines regional fisheries management and 
international agreements aimed at curbing IUU fish-
ing activities and is a threat to the food and eco-
nomic stability of coastal African countries. 
(2) Reports estimate that Illicit Financial 
Flows linked to IUU fishing leads to an economic 
loss of up to $11,490,000,000 per year for Africa. 
(3) The Financial Transparency Coalition, in a 
joint report with several other organizations, re-
ported in 2022 that 48.9 percent of all industrial 
and semi-industrial vessels identified as being in-
volved in global IUU fishing were found to be oper-
ating off of Africa’s coasts, with 40 percent in West 
Africa alone. 
(4) The People’s Republic of China (in this Act 
referred to as the ‘‘PRC’’) is the largest exploiter of 
global marine fisheries, has the largest distant-water 
fleet in the world and 8 of the 10 companies most 
responsible for IUU fishing are based in China. 
(5) IUU fishing often occurs in conjunction 
with violations of internationally recognized worker 
rights, forced labor, and other human rights abuses. 
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(6) In a June 27, 2022, national security 
memorandum the White House stated that ‘‘left un-
checked, IUU fishing and associated labor abuses 
undermine United States economic competitiveness, 
national security, fishery sustainability, and the live-
lihoods and human rights of fishers around the 
world’’. 
(7) In 2019, Congress passed the Maritime Se-
curity and Fisheries Enforcement Act (Public Law 
116–92) to support a whole-of-government approach 
across the Federal Government to counter IUU fish-
ing and related threats to maritime security. 
(8) Efforts to combat IUU fishing benefit from 
strategies that also target the associated maritime 
labor abuses like violations of internationally recog-
nized worker rights and forced labor. 
(9) The 2022 National 5-Year Strategy for 
Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated 
Fishing identified the Gulf of Guinea as a ‘‘Tier One 
Priority Region’’, Northwest Africa (Atlantic Ocean) 
and East Africa as a ‘‘Tier Two Priority Region’’, 
and Senegal as a ‘‘Priority Flag State’’, the only 
country in Africa to be selected for that status. 
(10) In 2020, the Coast Guard called IUU fish-
ing the ‘‘leading global maritime security threat’’ in 
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its Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing 
Strategic Outlook. 
(11) In 2023, there were zero Coast Guard 
attache´s or liaisons deployed in Africa. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the United States 
should— 
(1) work with and encourage African countries 
committed to countering IUU fishing to adopt legal 
requirements mandating the continual use of vessel- 
tracking technologies, including vessel monitoring 
systems, automatic identification systems, or other 
vessel movement monitoring technologies pertaining 
to fishing and transshipment activities, as appro-
priate, during the port- or ocean-based operations of 
vessels flagged by these nations and foreign vessels 
operating in their exclusive economic zone— 
(A) to ensure that all such operations are 
legal; 
(B) to identify vessels suspected of IUU 
fishing activities; and 
(C) to counter the illicit or unregulated 
shipment of illegally caught fish products, par-
ticularly through ship-to-ship transfers of such 
products; 
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(2) document instances of private commercial 
entities or foreign government-owned fishing vessels 
fishing without authorization within the exclusive 
economic zones of African countries or within high 
seas areas under the management of regional fish-
eries management organizations; 
(3) compile and publish— 
(A) a list of private commercial entities or 
foreign government-owned fishing vessels, in-
cluding licenses and registration data, author-
ized to operate in the exclusive economic zone 
of coastal African countries; and 
(B) details of foreign fishing fleet access 
agreements with African countries (unless pro-
hibited under national law or contractual 
terms), management plans, and regulations for 
marine fishery stocks; 
(4) develop and include in counter-IUU strate-
gies efforts to address associated maritime violations 
relating to violations of internationally recognized 
worker rights and forced labor; and 
(5) work to coordinate efforts to address forced 
labor and violations of internationally recognized 
worker rights with foreign countries and partners, 
where appropriate. 
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