Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) introduced H.R. 3109, the Keep America’s Waterfronts Working Act of 2012, along with 17 original co-sponsors late in 2011. The bill is very similar to one introduced by Rep. Pingree two years ago, which had the support of several national and state marine trades associations, including MRAA. MRAA has joined a newly formed coalition organized to support the bill.

H.R. 3109 recognizes the importance of keeping water-dependent commercial activities in many coastal communities and specifically identified commercial fishing, recreational fishing, tourism, aquaculture, boat building, transportation, and “other” businesses that support these activities. For example, boat yards that support any of these activities would be included under the special protections of the bill. It further says these activities are dependent on coastal access in the form of docks, wharfs, lifts, wet and dry storage in marinas, boat ramps, boat hauling, repair, and construction facilities.

Many of these activities are threatened due to loss of access and the pressures of conversion to privately owned commercial and residential activities.

The bill sets up a grant program to establish a working waterfronts plan in coastal states. The bill authorizes $25 million in 2012, $50 million in 2013, and $75 million in 2014 and 2015. In addition, funds from the program could be used by a state to purchase working waterfronts or to acquire an interest in a working waterfront. The state may also allow a non-government organization to manage the properties. However, the bill requires the property be open to the public. Private clubs would not qualify for usage of the funds.

A working waterfront is defined as real property including support structures over water and other facilities that provide access to coastal areas and to people engaged in commercial waterfront activities.

The issue of working waterfronts has been one of considerable concern to boating and fishing businesses and trade associations. With the escalating property values on the waterfronts in most communities and the increasing pressures to develop waterfronts for residential use, many small marine businesses are squeezed from declining revenues and rising taxes. The commercial, cultural, and historical values of the working waterfronts are adversely impacted by private residential development with devastating consequences for any coastal communities.

In an unprecedented effort to sustain commercial and recreational fishing in the next several decades, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration set the world’s first catch limits for every species of marine animal it manages from Alaska Polluck to Caribbean conch making an important shift in public policy that could easily impact recreational fishing and boating. There are approximately 528 species of marine animals being managed by the federal government.

Unlike most recent public policy debates divided along party lines in Congress, this decision was originally forged by a Republican president and finished with the backing of a Democratic president. Five years ago when President George Bush signed the re-authorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which dates to the mid-1870s and governs all fishing in our country, language was inserted in the bill requiring each fishery to have animal catch limits in place by the end of the 2011 to end “overfishing.”

To date NOAA has set catch limits on 40 of the 46 fishery management plans and expects the remaining six plans to have catch limits by the beginning of the 2013 fishing season beginning on May 1. Some fish like Mahi-Mahi and Wahoo, a game fish in the southeast Atlantic, will have catch limits for the first time.

Until recently, regional management councils representing a mix of local interests and anglers wrote the rules of fish stocks and regularly used scientific advice to establish fish management plans. Critics of the NOAA decision, like MRAA, argue the new plan lacks the scientific data to justify the restrictions and seeks to undo them. Efforts are underway led by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Rep. Water B. Jones (R-N.C.) to relax some of the new catch limits.

Anglers are increasingly concerned that fishing will be curtailed without sufficient justification due to the pressure exerted by environmental groups and even a few fishing groups.

To date controls over recreational fishing are spotty. NOAA has created an expanded dockside survey and will use new methods to analyze the results. After an annual catch limit is set for a recreational fishery, NOAA managers can adopt several measures, such as limiting the season or the size of fish that can be taken.

“Boating and fishing groups face a long battle to relax these new catch limits,” says Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “MRAA is committed to the support of recreational fishing and recognizes the importance of a strong fishing industry for a strong boating industry. We will work hard to relax these new rules.”

In 2009, after a long fought battle by a coalition of recreational boating trade groups, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act was successfully amended by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to exclude certain additional recreational vessel yard workers from the federal law’s definition of “employee” as it related to repair and dismantling of recreational vessels. For the past couple of years, the Department of Labor has been writing the federal regulation to the law, which is of great interest to businesses that employ workers who build, repair, or dismantle recreational vessels. The boating industry was very concerned that the Longshore issue would require duplication of insurance coverage increasing the overhead costs and making repairs in certain areas uncompetitive to boat yards in nearby countries.

On December 30, 2011, the Department of Labor published its final rule to implement the law. The final rule includes nearly all the changes requested by the coalition of recreational boating groups working on the issue. The preamble provides guidance that will directly result in many boat manufacturers and repair facilities to be able to revisit whether their operations need a Longshore rider on their Workers’ Compensation policy.

The following are highlights of the Department of Labor final rule.

1. Clear guidance is provided that if a boat manufacturer or repair facility is landlocked (not adjacent to navigable body of water), there is no need for LHWCA coverage.
2. For manufacturing facilities adjacent to a navigable water, the exemption for the under 65 foot exemption continues to apply for boats intended for the recreational market.
3. Work on vessels owned by police, government, and municipalities are excluded. This exemption frees up facilities to do work on these vessels without triggering the LHWCA coverage.
4. The 65-foot exemption limitation is lifted for facilities that repair recreational vessels adjacent to or on navigable waters. However, these facilities will have to look at the current use of the vessel to apply the exemption.

One of the keys to the re-write of the rule, is the definition of “recreational vessel.” The rule incorporated the Coast Guard’s standards for categorizing vessels. The final rule also contains two key provisions designed to make the definition easier to apply. The final rule provides that manufacturers and builders may determine whether a vessel is recreational by the nature of the vessel’s design rather that the end use of the vessel, and rule includes within the definition of recreational vessels non-military vessels that are recreational by design and owned or chartered by federal, state, or municipal governments.