Murkowski bill adds eDNA to NOAA's nationwide stock surveys

Federal fish surveys leave gaps in coverage, and legislation introduced Thursday would let NOAA try filling some of those holes with water samples collected alongside its traditional gear. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the Fisheries Science Modernization Act, which cites cost and vessel availability as general constraints on fisheries surveys and would direct NOAA to establish an eDNA Fishery Stock Assessment Pilot Program, write an agency-wide eDNA implementation plan, and collect environmental DNA samples during surveys it already runs. The release describes eDNA as a tool meant to bolster, not replace, traditional stock-assessment surveys.

The bill amends the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the core federal law governing fisheries in federal waters, to fold eDNA into fisheries research and ecosystem monitoring across federally managed fisheries nationwide. It also creates a National Aquatic Biomolecular Coordination Network to set national standards for sampling, laboratory workflows, quality control and bioinformatics, and it requires annual reports to the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Congress. Other provisions promote collaboration among NOAA, fishermen, Tribal Nations, academia and industry; expand NOAA's workforce and laboratory capacity; and train National Marine Fisheries Service technicians in eDNA collection, handling and modeling. Sens. Dan Sullivan, Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, Patty Murray, Angus King and Adam Schiff are co-sponsors.

"Without accurate stock assessments, we cannot make the informed, science-based management decisions needed to ensure our fisheries remain sustainable for generations to come," Murkowski said. Sullivan tied the bill to changing conditions in Alaska waters: "changing ocean conditions are impacting our subsistence, recreational, and commercially important species and the communities that depend on them," he said. Whitehouse framed the measure around a broader push to keep federal fisheries science current: "With climate change wreaking havoc on fisheries, researchers need to stay ahead of the curve."

One Alaska stock assessment illustrates the kind of survey-data gap the bill seeks to address. At a North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, stock assessment scientist Katie Palof described Aleutian Islands golden king crab as "the only stock that we have that we do not have survey information," while still carrying a Tier 3 assessment, with a 25% buffer applied below the overfishing limit reflecting several uncertainties, the largest of them the absence of fishery-independent survey data.

Alaska industry voices in the release are supportive, with conditions. Linda Behnken of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association called eDNA "a promising new tool." Andrea Keikkala of United Catcher Boats urged Congress to fund the new duties "without reducing investment in existing stock assessments, fishery-independent surveys, cooperative research, observer programs."