US Code

Public Law 119-87 (04/30/2026)

16 U.S.C. § 1826d

Prohibition

The United States, or any agency or official acting on behalf of the United States, may not enter into any international agreement with respect to the conservation and management of living marine resources or the use of the high seas by fishing vessels that would prevent full implementation of the global moratorium on large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas, as such moratorium is expressed in Resolution 46/215 of the United Nations General Assembly.

Pub. L. 104–43, title VI, § 603109 Stat. 392 (, , .)

Editorial Notes

Codification

Section was enacted as part of the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act, and also as part of the Fisheries Act of 1995, and not as part of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act which comprises this chapter.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Congressional Findings

Pub. L. 104–43, title VI, § 602109 Stat. 391

“The Congress finds that—
“(1)
Public Law 100–22016 U.S.C. 1822Public Law 101–62716 U.S.C. 1826Public Law 102–582section 1801 of this title Congress has enacted and the President has signed into law numerous Acts to control or prohibit large-scale driftnet fishing both within the jurisdiction of the United States and beyond the exclusive economic zone of any nation, including the Driftnet Impact Monitoring, Assessment, and Control Act of 1987 (title IV, ) [ note], the Driftnet Act Amendments of 1990 () [], and the High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act (title I, ) [see Short Title of 1992 Amendment note set out under ];
“(2)
the United States is a party to the Convention for the Prohibition of Fishing with Long Driftnets in the South Pacific, also known as the Wellington Convention;
“(3)
the General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted three resolutions and three decisions which established and reaffirm a global moratorium on large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas, beginning with Resolution 44/225 in 1989 and most recently in Decision 48/445 in 1993;
“(4)
the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted these resolutions and decisions at the request of the United States and other concerned nations;
“(5)
the best scientific information demonstrates the wastefulness and potentially destructive impacts of large-scale driftnet fishing on living marine resources and seabirds; and
“(6)
Resolution 46/215 of the United Nations General Assembly calls on all nations, both individually and collectively, to prevent large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas.”
, , , provided that: