On January 7, 2011, President Obama signed P.L. 111-383 , including a provision expressing the sense of Congress regarding recreational fishing on military installations. On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed (1) P.L. 111-348 , including provisions (a) amending the MSFCMA to modify language related to prohibiting shark finning and (b) allowing the United States-Canada Transboundary Resource Sharing Understanding to be considered an international agreement so that federal fisheries managers could extend stock rebuilding deadlines for New England groundfish and scallop fisheries covered under the bilateral agreement, and (2) P.L. 111-353 , including provisions (a) directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to update the Fish and Fisheries Products Hazards and Control Guidance to take into account advances in technology and (b) requiring a report by the Food and Drug Administration on the post-harvest processing of raw oysters. On December 22, 2010, President Obama signed (1) P.L. 111-322 , including provisions to further extend the authority to make expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund and other trust funds, including various programs under the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, through March 4, 2011, and (2) P.L. 111-335 , authorizing a single fisheries cooperative for the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands longline catcher processor subsector for Pacific cod. On December 22, 2010, the Senate passed H.R. 6523 . On December 17, 2010, the House passed H.R. 6523 . On December 17, 2010, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation reported (1) S. 3597 (amended), including provisions (a) authorizing the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to identify U.S. areas where special navigational measures are warranted to reduce the risk of oil spills and potential damage to natural resources, including commercial fisheries and aquaculture facilities, (b) seeking to improve the ability of NOAA, the Coast Guard, and coastal states to sustain healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems relative to oil spills, and (c) amending and reauthorizing the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 through FY2014; (2) S. 3566 (amended), including a provision authorizing the Maritime Administration to establish a Green Ships Program to identify, evaluate, demonstrate, or improve technologies for control of aquatic invasive species; and (3) S. 2870 , amending various statutes implementing international fishery agreements to deter and combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. On December 14, 2010, President Obama signed P.L. 111-307 ( S. 1421 ), amending the Lacey Act to add bighead carp to the list of injurious species that are prohibited from being imported or shipped interstate. On December 14, 2010, the House passed S. 1609 , authorizing a single fisheries cooperative for the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands longline catcher processor subsector for Pacific cod. On December 10, 2010, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation reported S. 1748 (amended), establishing a research program for the recovery of the southern sea otter. On December 8, 2010, the House passed H.R. 3082 (amended), including the language of food safety legislation ( S. 510 ) in Division D, including provisions (1) directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to update the Fish and Fisheries Products Hazards and Control Guidance to take into account advances in technology and (2) requiring a report by the Food and Drug Administration on the post-harvest processing of raw oysters. (Members and staff may request e-mail notification of new CRS reports on marine and freshwater fisheries, aquaculture, and marine mammal issues by contacting Gene Buck at [email address scrubbed] and requesting to be added to the notification list.) Increasing use of coastal and marine resources is driving proposals for Congress and the Administration to alter current relationships between environmental protection and sustainable resource management. Recent reports note declines in marine resources and shortcomings in what are perceived as fragmented and limited approaches to resource protection and management in federal and state waters. A further concern is the increasing pressures and conflicts that arise from economic activity associated with continued human population growth in coastal areas. A common concern is habitat loss or alteration, due both to natural processes, such as climate variation, and to development, changes in land management practices, competition from invasive species, and other factors, nearly all related to economic, political, or social interests. Congress faces the issue of how to balance these diverse interests (which may fall on various sides of any given controversy) while promoting the sustainable management of fishery and other marine resources and protection of the marine environment. Congress last reauthorized and extensively amended the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA) in the 109 th Congress ( P.L. 109-479 ); the current funding authorization expires on September 30, 2013. The Marine Mammal Protection Act was last reauthorized in 1994 by P.L. 103-238 , and funding authorization expired on September 30, 1999. Historically, coastal states managed marine sport and commercial fisheries in nearshore waters, where most seafood was caught. However, as fishing techniques improved, fishermen ventured farther offshore. Before 1950, the federal government assumed limited responsibility for marine fisheries, responding primarily to international fishery concerns and treaties (by enacting implementing legislation for treaties, e.g., the Northern Pacific Halibut Act in 1937) as well as to interstate fishery conflicts (by consenting to interstate fishery compacts, e.g., the Pacific Marine Fisheries Compact in 1947). In the late 1940s and early 1950s, several Latin American nations proclaimed marine jurisdictions extending 200 miles or further offshore. This action was denounced by those within the United States and other distant-water fishing nations who sought to preserve access for far-ranging fishing vessels. Beginning in the 1950s (Atlantic) and 1960s (Pacific), increasing numbers of foreign fishing vessels steamed into U.S. offshore waters to catch the substantially unexploited seafood resources. Since the United States then claimed only a 3-mile jurisdiction (in 1964, P.L. 88-308 prohibited fishing by foreign-flag vessels within 3 miles of the coast; in 1966, P.L. 89-658 proclaimed an expanded 12-mile exclusive U.S. fishery jurisdiction), foreign vessels could fish many of the same stocks caught by U.S. fishermen. U.S. fishermen deplored this "foreign encroachment" and alleged that overfishing was causing stress on, or outright depletion of, fish stocks. Protracted Law of the Sea Treaty negotiations in the early and mid-1970s as well as actions by other coastal nations provided impetus for unilateral U.S. action. The enactment of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act (FCMA); later renamed the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act and more recently the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA; 16 U.S.C. §§ 1801 et seq. ), ushered in a new era of federal marine fishery management. The FCMA was signed into law on April 13, 1976, after several years of debate. On March 1, 1977, marine fishery resources within 200 miles of all U.S. coasts, but outside state jurisdiction, came under federal jurisdiction, and an entirely new multifaceted regional management system began allocating fishing rights, with priority given to domestic enterprise. Primary federal management authority was vested in the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, also popularly referred to as NOAA Fisheries) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The 200-mile fishery conservation zone was superseded by a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), proclaimed by President Reagan on March 10, 1983 (Presidential Proclamation 5030). Eight Regional Fishery Management Councils were created by the FCMA. Council members are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce from lists of candidates knowledgeable about fishery resources, provided by coastal state governors. The councils prepare fishery management plans (FMPs) for those fisheries that they determine require active federal management. After public hearings, revised FMPs are submitted to the Secretary of Commerce for approval. Approved plans are implemented through regulations published in the Federal Register . Together these councils and NMFS have developed and implemented 40 FMPs for various fish and shellfish resources, with 9 additional plans in various stages of development. Some plans are created for an individual species or a few related ones (e.g., FMPs for red drum by the South Atlantic Council and for shrimp by the Gulf of Mexico Council). Others are developed for larger species assemblages inhabiting similar habitats (e.g., FMPs for Gulf of Alaska groundfish by the North Pacific Council and for reef fish by the Gulf of Mexico Council). Many of the implemented plans have been amended (one over 30 times), and three have been developed and implemented jointly by two or more councils. The MSFCMA was reauthorized in the final hours of the 109 th Congress by P.L. 109-479 , the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006. The authorization of appropriations in Section 7 of the act expires at the end of FY2013. Today, individual states manage marine fisheries in inshore and coastal waters, generally within 3 miles of the coast. Interstate coordination occurs through three regional interstate marine fishery commissions (Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific) created by congressionally approved compacts.