Watch: Seafood Harvesters’ Habegger on how conservation measures could resurface in 2021...

Watch: Seafood Harvesters’ Habegger on how conservation measures could resurface in 2021...

By Jason Huffman

A big change that could be seen should this year’s US election result in a "blue wave" of Democrats taking control of the White House and Senate in addition to the House of Representatives is that conservation groups could see more of their agenda put forward, suggested Leigh Habegger, executive director of Seafood Harvesters of America, in Undercurrent News' recent webinar, "Seafood and the US Election". Watch the webinar in full by clicking here.

Habegger, whose trade association represents 18 commercial fishing groups and thousands of harvesters, in particular, pointed to the "Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act", HR 8632, introduced earlier this month by US representative Raul Grijalva, chairman of the House’s Natural Resources Committee, as reported by Undercurrent. Among numerous changes, the bill would require creating a task force that would have one year to develop a plan and schedule to place 30% of federal waters under conservation by 2030 – a provision known casually as the "30 by 30 plan".

"I think the introduction of this bill was largely sort of a messaging bill and sort of a blueprint for what an ocean package might look like in the next Congress, but I think there is recognition amongst many of the co-sponsors, if not all of them, that this bill is going to change before it's reintroduced in the next Congress," she said. Watch her comments in full below.