This report seeks to describe the process and pitfalls through the experience of the United States in enacting and amending legislation to manage its fisheries resources. Why the U.S. experience? The American legislation, known as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), sought to rebuild and then stabilise the country's fishery resources. This experience of devising legislation and negotiating the many stakeholder interests—in particular, the adoption of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) as a limit rather than a target—makes it a valuable example for the present reform of the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).