Identification

• The act establishes eight regional councils to oversee their region's fisheries, with the power to create laws in the fisheries of those areas. The eight regions are the North Pacific, West Pacific, Caribbean, Gulf, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic and New England. Each region has a council consisting of anywhere between seven and 17 members, as appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.
  
  

Features

• The act also makes it illegal for foreign fishing to occur in protected fisheries unless the foreign fishers are acting under an express agreement between the United States and the nation in question.
  
  

History

• The act originally became law on Apr. 13, 1976, under the title of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. Its common name--the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act--comes from the name of its co-sponsors, Sen. Warren G. Magnuson and Sen. Ted Stevens.