On January 14, 2013, President Obama signed P.L. 112-270 ( H.R. 6060 ), amending P.L. 106-392 to maintain annual base funding for the Upper Colorado and San Juan River fish recovery programs. On January 2, 2013, President Obama signed (1) P.L. 112-240 ( H.R. 8 ), including language amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to include algae-based biofuel in the cellulosic biofuel producer credit, and (2) P.L. 112-239 ( H.R. 4310 ), including language creating a maritime environmental and technical assistance program, with one focus being research, development, assessment, and deployment of emerging marine technologies and practices related to controlling aquatic invasive species. On January 1, 2013, the Senate passed H.R. 6060 . On December 28, 2012, President Obama signed P.L. 112-237 ( S. 3687 ), including language (1) directing the Secretary of the Interior to convey the McKinney Lake National Fish Hatchery to the state of North Carolina and (2) exempting from the Lacey Act certain water transfers by the North Texas Municipal Water District and the Greater Texoma Utility Authority for zebra mussel control. On December 28, 2012, the Senate passed H.R. 1 (amended), including $150 million for fishery disasters declared during 2012. On December 18, the House passed S. 3687 . On December 17, 2012, the Senate passed S. 3687 . On December 20, 2012, President Obama signed P.L. 112-213 ( H.R. 2838 ), including provisions (1) clarifying restrictions on American Fisheries Act vessels; (2) creating a maritime environmental and technical assistance program, with one focus being research, development, assessment, and deployment of emerging marine technologies and practices related to controlling aquatic invasive species; (3) amending the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act, including adding language defining a severe marine debris event and directing that a determination for such an event be made for the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and for Hurricane Sandy; and (4) extending the authorization to engage foreign citizens in the U.S. distant water tuna fleet and give distant water tuna vessels in the western Pacific Ocean the option of using Guam as their required port of call. On December 12, 2012, the Senate concurred with the House-amended H.R. 2838 . On December 5, 2012, the House amended and passed H.R. 2838 . On December 4, 2012, the Senate passed S. 3254 , amended, and substituted this measure in H.R. 4310 as an amendment. Increasing use of marine resources is driving proposals for Congress and the Administration to alter current relationships between environmental protection and sustainable resource management. In response to reports by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission noting 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, the Obama Administration released the final recommendations of its Ocean Policy Task Force on July 19, 2010. A further concern is the increasing pressures and conflicts that arise from economic activity associated with continued human population growth. A common concern is habitat loss or alteration, due both to natural processes, such as climate variation and ocean acidification, and to development, competition from invasive species, and other factors, primarily related to economic and social interests. Congress faces the issues of how to balance these diverse interests (which may fall on various sides of any given controversy), and whether to alter current laws that promote the sustainable management of fishery and other marine resources and protect the marine environment. The primary laws governing fisheries, aquaculture, and marine mammals are MSFCMA (16 U.S.C. §§1801 et seq. ), the National Aquaculture Act of 1980 (16 U.S.C. §§2801 et seq. ), and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA; 16 U.S.C. §§1361 et seq.). Congress last reauthorized and extensively amended 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 almost all 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 (e.g., by enacting laws implementing treaties, such as was done by the Northern Pacific Halibut Act in 1937) as well as to interstate fishery conflicts (e.g., by consenting to interstate fishery compacts, such as was accomplished by enactment of 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 to coastal waters 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, 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. Such unilateral action occurred when the United States enacted 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), ushering 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 waters, came under federal jurisdiction. This 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). With the enactment of the FCMA, 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. In addition, the FCMA established eight Regional Fishery Management Councils, with members appointed by the Secretary of Commerce from lists provided by coastal state governors of candidates knowledgeable about fishery resources. Each regional council prepares 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 more than 40 FMPs for various fish and shellfish resources, with additional FMPs 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 more than 30 times), and three have been developed and implemented jointly by two or more councils. Under initial FCMA authority, a substantial portion of the fish caught from federal offshore waters was allocated to foreign fishing fleets. However, the 1980 American Fisheries Promotion Act (Title II of P.L. 96-561 ) and other FCMA amendments orchestrated a decrease in foreign catch allocations in response to domestic fishing and processing industries expansion. Foreign catch from the U.S. EEZ declined from about 3.8 billion pounds in 1977 to zero since 1992. Accompanying the decline of foreign catch, domestic offshore catch in federal EEZ waters increased dramatically, from about 1.6 billion pounds (1977) to more than 6.3 billion pounds in 1986-1988. After this peak, annual landings hovered around 6 billion pounds until about 2006, when Bering Sea pollock stocks began a decline and increased efforts to reduce overfishing in federal EEZ waters began to take effect. Beginning in 2010, recovery of overfished stocks began to support larger harvests ( Figure 1 ). The economic status of U.S. commercial fisheries is updated and reported annually. In 2011 (the most recent data available), U.S. commercial fishermen landed 7.9 billion pounds of edible, unprocessed fish and shellfish from combined state, federal, and international waters, worth more than $5.1 billion at the dock. U.S. imports of mostly processed edible seafood products supplied 5.3 billion pounds, worth $16.6 billion.