16 U.S.C. § 1812
Section 1812 · Highly migratory species
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 13 court decisions — leading case Amoco Production Co. v. Village of Gambell (1987)
Most recently applied in Ten Taxpayer Citizens Group v. Cape Wind Associates, LLC (June 2004)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The United States shall cooperate directly or through appropriate international organizations with those nations involved in fisheries for highly migratory species with a view to ensuring conservation and shall promote the achievement of optimum yield of such species throughout their range, both within and beyond the exclusive economic zone.
In managing any fisheries under an international fisheries agreement to which the United States is a party, the appropriate Council or Secretary shall take into account the traditional participation in the fishery, relative to other nations, by fishermen of the United States on fishing vessels of the United States.
If a relevant international fisheries organization does not have a process for developing a formal plan to rebuild a depleted stock, an overfished stock, or a stock that is approaching a condition of being overfished, the provisions of this chapter in this regard shall be communicated to and promoted by the United States in the international or regional fisheries organization.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
This chapter, referred to in subsec. (c), was in the original “this Act”, meaning Pub. L. 94–265, Apr. 13, 1976, 90 Stat. 331, as amended, known as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 1801 of this title and Tables.
Amendments
2007—Pub. L. 109–479 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), inserted heading, and added subsecs. (b) and (c).
1996—Pub. L. 104–297 substituted “shall promote the achievement of optimum yield” for “promoting the objective of optimum utilization”.
1990—Pub. L. 101–627 amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section read as follows: “The sovereign rights and exclusive fishery management authority asserted by the United States under section 1811 of this title over fish do not include, and may not be construed to extend to, highly migratory species of fish.”
1986—Pub. L. 99–659 amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section read as follows: “The United States shall exercise exclusive fishery management authority, in the manner provided for in this chapter, over the following:
“(1) All fish within the fishery conservation zone.
“(2) All anadromous species throughout the migratory range of each such species beyond the fishery conservation zone; except that such management authority shall not extend to such species during the time they are found within any foreign nation's territorial sea or fishery conservation zone (or the equivalent), to the extent that such sea or zone is recognized by the United States.
“(3) All Continental Shelf fishery resources beyond the fishery conservation zone.”
Effective Date of 1990 Amendment
Section 103(c) of Pub. L. 101–627 provided that: “The amendments made by this section [amending this section] shall take effect on January 1, 1992.”