Red Listing Monterey Bay Aquarium Act
Bill: S.5067 | Sponsor: Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. (I-ME)
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources

Summary:
Red Listing Monterey Bay Aquarium Act
This bill prohibits federal funds from being appropriated, awarded, or granted to the Monterey Bay Aquarium located in Monterey, California.

To provide that no Federal funds shall be appropriated, awarded, or 
                 granted to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Red Listing Monterey Bay Aquarium 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Lobstering has served as an economic engine and family 
        tradition in Maine and the other New England States for 
        centuries.
            (2) The lobster fishery supports thousands of families who 
        make their livelihoods from catching, processing, or serving 
        lobsters, employing people of all ages year-round, with many 
        harvesters beginning as children and staying in the industry 
        for their entire working lives.
            (3) Maine's lobster fishery alone has an estimated ex-
        vessel value of $725,000,000, generating more than 
        $1,000,000,000 in economic activity and supporting more than 
        15,500 jobs throughout the supply chain.
            (4) The lobster industry has spearheaded sustainability 
        measures for more than 150 years, ensuring the health of the 
        lobster stock and the marine environment through the following:
                    (A) In 1872, Maine passed the first law banning 
                taking of egg-bearing female lobster.
                    (B) In 1874, Maine passed the first laws regulating 
                the minimum size of lobster that could be harvested.
                    (C) In 1948, Maine passed a requirement that 
                fishermen mark female, egg-bearing lobsters with a V-
                shaped notch.
                    (D) In 1997, Maine lobstermen removed all surface 
                floating rope and, in 2009, replaced an estimated 
                27,000 miles of floating line with whale-safe sinking 
                lines.
                    (E) In 2015, Maine lobstermen adjusted their gear 
                in certain areas to a newly required minimum number of 
                traps per buoy, reducing the amount of vertical rope 
                present in the water by an additional 3,000 miles.
                    (F) In 2022, lobstermen converted their gear once 
                again, including more ``weak links'', more ``weak 
                rope'', and more traps per buoy, to further reduce 
                vertical line in the water column, in additional to 
                removing nearly 1,000 miles of gear from prime fishing 
                grounds.
            (5) These measures are the reason why there has never been 
        a serious injury or death of the endangered North Atlantic 
        right whale attributed to the Maine lobster fishery and there 
        has not been a known right whale entanglement with Maine 
        lobster gear since 2004.
            (6) According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
        Administration, the majority of known right whale deaths since 
        2017 have been attributed to vessel strikes in Canada and of 
        the 33 right whale mortalities occurring between 2017 and 2020, 
        24 of those whales were confirmed to be attributed to 
        entanglements in Canadian fishing gear and vessel strikes in 
        Canadian waters.
            (7) Despite these facts, Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood 
        Watch program added the American lobster fishery to a ``red 
        list'' of seafood that consumers should avoid due to the risk 
        that the fishery poses to right whales.
            (8) This red list designation for American lobster by 
        Seafood Watch is speculative and conjecture, not supported by 
        the data or the science as they state in their report, ``until 
        there is more specific information available regarding which 
        fisheries are responsible for the unattributed entanglements, 
        Seafood Watch considers that all relevant fisheries that may 
        overlap with North Atlantic right whales pose risks''.
            (9) In their own press release announcing the red listing 
        for American lobster, Seafood Watch states, ``More than 90% of 
        entanglements cannot be linked to a specific gear type, and 
        only 12% of entanglements can be linked to a specific 
        location.''.
            (10) Monterey Bay Aquarium ignores the efforts by the 
        lobster industry to reduce their risk to right whales for the 
        past 150 years, admitting in their report that ``effects on 
        mitigation of whale entanglement have yet to be determined''.
            (11) This new, unsubstantiated designation has a real world 
        impact; with the lobster industry already facing challenges, 
        the inaccurate designation will hurt the thousands of 
        hardworking lobstermen, their families, and businesses across 
        Maine and has already prompted seafood retailers such as Blue 
        Apron and HelloFresh to pull lobster from their menus.
            (12) Monterey Bay's Seafood Watch Program has produced 
        recommendations that rely on pseudoscientific claims and false 
        assumptions that ignore scientific principles that should 
        underpin any legitimate ratings and, by ignoring the facts, 
        Seafood Watch is not encouraging safe fishing, but rather 
        damaging the reputation of its certification process by 
        smearing an entire industry and misleading consumers.
            (13) Monterey Bay Aquarium receives millions of Federal 
        taxpayer dollars for scientific research and to promote ocean 
        conservation and seafood sustainability, yet the Monterey Bay 
        Aquarium has irresponsibly ignored scientific facts and the 
        lobster fishery's history of sustainability.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL FUNDING FOR THE MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM.

    No Federal funds shall be appropriated, awarded, or granted to the 
Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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