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This story was originally published by HuffPost and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. House Republicans on Wednesday voted to weaken a much-praised 1976 law that helped revive the commercial fishing industry in the United States and bring its fisheries back from the brink of collapse.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), would remove annual catch limits on numerous fish species and roll back requirements for recovering overfished stocks. Many scientists, fishers and ocean advocacy groups say that will likely result in overfishing.

The legislation passed the House in a 222-193 vote, mostly along party lines. The measure must still be approved by the Senate, although it’s unclear if or when that chamber will take up the bill.

In comments on the House floor before the vote, Young said his measure will strengthen the existing law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, by giving regional fishery councils “the proper tools and flexibility needed to effectively manage their fisheries.” The goal, he said, is to “ensure a proper balance between the biological needs of fish stocks and the economic needs of fishermen and coastal communities.”

The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the primary law governing marine fishery management in federal waters to prevent overfishing and conserve habitat. The law was updated in 2006 with stricter overfishing measures, and over the past 12 years, stocks of fish like red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico have surged. Yet the recreational fishing lobby, which includes boating and fishing gear manufacturers, argue that the systems for determining annual quotas are tilted in favor of commercial fisheries and lead to unfairly truncated seasons and catch limits for private anglers.

“We need to recognize the system. While it’s been working, by and large, pretty darn well for commercial fisheries, there are some significant challenges for recreational fisheries that we need to come to grips with,” Mike Leonard, the conservation director at the American Sportfishing Association, said Wednesday afternoon at a talk in Tampa, Florida.

The recreational fishing lobby wants to relax those rules to allow more anglers to reap the benefits. But commercial fishers warn such a move could devastate the fisheries on which they rely. Gone are the days when most anglers banked on modest vessels, rods and lures, plus good luck. Modern fishing technology allows recreational fishers to catch far more fish, and improved motors and gear make even many modest-size boats seaworthy.