In Washington, both parties increasingly talk about restoring American industry, protecting working communities and pushing back against corporate greed that leaves ordinary Americans paying the price. One place where that conversation has been largely absent, however, is U.S. fisheries policy.

That needs to change.

Forage fish like menhaden, herring and mackerel are the foundation of the marine food chain. They transfer energy from plankton to the larger species that support America’s commercial and recreational fisheries. Yet despite their ecological and economic importance, industrial-scale fishing operations have driven many of these fish populations to historic lows, with devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and coastal economies.

Globally, more than 30% by tonnage of all fish harvested are forage species, and nearly all are reduced into animal feed. In U.S. waters, the primary drivers are the Atlantic menhaden reduction fleet and the industrial midwater trawl fleet in the Northeast.

Americans have seen this story before.

In the 1970s, Congress created the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone after foreign factory fleets, particularly from the Soviet Union, devastated Atlantic herring and mackerel stocks off the East Coast. But after forcing foreign fleets out, the federal government subsidized the growth of domestic industrial fleets that ultimately repeated many of the same practices.

By 2019, Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries had again collapsed after years of........

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