The National Marine Fisheries Service recently painted a rosy picture
of the country's ocean fisheries, noting that most fish species are not
being over harvested. This assessment does not hold true, especially
for New England, according to a soon-to-be-published study. The study
finds that only three of 67 types of fish labeled by federal regulators
as "overfished" in 1996 have seen their population increase to the
level deemed acceptable by NMFS.
The
study is further evidence that a bill in the U.S. House of
Representatives to weaken existing federal fisheries regulations is
misguided. Instead, the laws should be strengthened, as the Senate
version of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries and Conservation and
Management Act would do.
According
to the fisheries service's report on the status of U.S. fisheries for
2005, the majority of fish stocks are not overfished. However, the
status of more than half the species of fish in U.S. waters is not
known. Of the 530 stocks monitored by NMFS, 206 have a known status,
with 54 of these considered overfished by the agency.
The
annual report lists 14 of the 35 stocks overseen by the New England
Fisheries Management Council as overfished, with two species -
yellowtail flounder and winter flounder - added to that list this year.
Three lesser-known species - barndoor skate, bluefish and golden
tilefish - were removed from the overfished list this year.
New
England has done the worst job of meeting federal population rebuilding
targets, according to Andy Rosenberg, the lead author of the study that
will be published next month in Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment. Mr. Rosenberg was NMFS regional administrator for New
England from 1994 to 1998 before becoming deputy director of the
agency. He is now a professor at the University of New Hampshire.
His
study examined the nine years following the 1996 re-write of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs the nation's fisheries and requires
that the population of depleted fish stocks be rebuilt within a 10-year
limit.
Of
the 18 New England fish stocks with rebuilding plans, only two -
haddock and scallops - are no longer being overharvested, according to
the study. This is because regulators have been slow to develop
recovery plans and plans that are not working have not been revised.
Worse, the New England Fisheries Management Council has allowed
fishermen to continue to overfish stocks even when they have greatly
exceeded fishing limits in previous years.
That
is why strict catch limits, such as those included in the Senate's
re-write of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, are necessary. It is also why a
bill, being promoted in the House by Rep. Richard Pombo, chair of the
House Resources Committee, moves in the wrong direction by allowing
even more time to rebuild depleted stocks and does not set a time
requirement for ending overfishing.
Rep.
Tom Allen, co-chair of the House Ocean Caucus, seeks to amend the Pombo
bill with provisions to enforce catch limits and remove extensions of
rebuilding timelines which would make the legislation more in line with
the version already passed by the Senate.
This
is a sensible approach that would benefit fishermen by working to boost
fish populations so there will be more to catch in the future.
