Forage Fish Conservation Act of 2025

This bill, called the Forage Fish Conservation Act of 2025, aims to protect small schooling fish that many bigger fish, marine mammals, and birds rely on for food. It recognizes that big swings in these fish populations can disrupt ocean food webs, so management should keep enough forage fish in the water to support predators and sustainable fisheries. It tells science advisors to help set plans that maintain healthy, well‑distributed forage fish populations, and it requires catch limits that consider the diet needs of wildlife that eat these fish .

The bill pauses any new fisheries that directly target unmanaged forage fish until the impacts are studied and a proper plan is in place; this pause starts two years after the bill becomes law. The Secretary of Commerce must define what “forage fish” means within 12 months and issue national guidelines within 18 months to help put these rules into action. It also adds river herring and shad to existing Atlantic fishery plans within 180 days, requires full conservation measures within a year after that, and boosts at‑sea monitoring to cover at least half of certain mid‑water trawl trips in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries. The bill does not change state control over their own waters .

Key points

• Who is affected: Regional fishery councils, the Secretary of Commerce, Atlantic herring and mackerel fleets using mid‑water trawls, and coastal communities that depend on healthy fish populations .
• What changes: Define “forage fish,” use science to keep enough in the ocean for predators, set catch limits with wildlife diets in mind, pause new unmanaged forage fisheries until reviewed and planned, add river herring and shad to Atlantic plans, and increase monitoring on at least 50% of relevant trips .
• When: 12 months to define “forage fish,” 18 months for national guidelines, 180 days to add river herring and shad to plans, 1 year after that for full measures, 2 years until the pause on new unmanaged fisheries begins, and 5 years until the new catch‑limit rule takes effect .