Ocean Conservation News

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As the new home of NHPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Hampshire may be contacted about this release.

CONCORD—Only 10 of 36 ocean fish stocks in the New England region are known to be healthy, finds a new report released today by the Marine Fish Conservation Network and NHPIRG.

“There simply aren’t enough fish in the sea,” said the NHPIRG’s Erika Staaf. “Congress needs to take action now to protect critical fish stocks like cod, yellow tail flounder, and haddock. It’s critical to our food supply, our environment, and our economy.”

"Shell Game: How the Federal Government is Hiding the Mismanagement of Our Nation’s Fisheries," reveals that although the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) continues to tout a downward trend in the number of stocks that are overfished or experiencing overfishing, these improvements have primarily been due to finessing of the data presented in its annual report to Congress on the status of fish stocks. The groups’ analysis showed that 60 percent of the overfished stocks and 75 percent of the stocks experiencing overfishing between 2001 and 2004 were taken off the list due to administrative shuffling. Nationally, only 91 ocean fish stocks, 13 percent of all federally managed ocean fish stocks – are known to be healthy, and this number has not improved since 2001.

“NMFS has not been straightforward with Congress or the American public because it consistently finesses data to mask management failures from year to year,” said Lee Crockett, executive director of the Network, the largest national coalition devoted to promoting sustainable marine fisheries. “We need to take an honest look at what is and isn’t working in fisheries management if we are to make any progress in the future.”

Shell Game also discloses that NMFS continues to allow overfishing to occur on 49% of the New England’s overfished stocks, which prevents these already depleted fish stocks from rebuilding.

The report will be submitted the report to Congress and the U.S. House of Representatives Resources Committee, which is expected to hold a hearing in late April on proposals to renew and amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the primary law that protects U.S. ocean fish.

While each regional fishery management council has its own strengths and weaknesses, the report highlights the following problems that exist in many regions:
• Councils have a pattern of allowing overfishing to continue on overfished stocks
• When councils do attempt to enforce limits, they lack the tools and resources to do so effectively.
• Councils too often disregard scientific recommendations when making fisheries management decisions, with disastrous results.
• Councils are setting deadlines for rebuilding healthy stocks so far in the future that they defy credibility.
• NMFS simply lacks adequate data to know whether fish stocks are healthy or not.
• Out-of-date data is prevalent for some councils, particularly the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and Caribbean.

One House bill, the Fisheries Science and Management Enhancement Act of 2005, H.R. 1431, would require fishery managers to base all management decisions on sound science. This common sense principle would help alleviate some of the management problems with overfishing and slow rebuilding of stocks.

“We will only be able to move forward on an effective ocean policy that protects the vast abundance and diversity of our oceans if we use the best-available science as our guiding principle for all management decisions,” said Staaf.

Shell Game analyzes federal data and regional fishery management plans to find trends in how well fishery managers have implemented the mandates of the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 (the 1996 reauthorization of Magnuson-Stevens Act) to end overfishing and rebuild depleted fish stocks over the last five years. The report recommends preventing overfishing by adopting enforceable annual catch limits based on scientific recommendations of how many fish should be caught. It points out that regions, such as the North Pacific, that have used these annual catch limits have been more successful than regions, such as New England, that have tried to control overfishing with indirect management measures such as limiting the number of fishing days.

The use of annual catch limits is perhaps one of the most controversial issues facing Congress as it reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Senate Commerce Committee was unable to resolve this issue when it met to consider its bill, S. 2012, to renew the fisheries law in December 2005. A delegation of senators from New England objected to including enforceable annual catch limits in the bill despite strong support for them from Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI), the Co-chairs of the Commerce Committee. We strongly support the inclusion of these limits in the final Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization bill.

The most recent data available shows that saltwater recreational fishing generates $316,568,146 in economic activity and 3123 jobs every year in New Hampshire. In 2001, 99,520 recreational boaters were registered in New Hampshire.

NHPIRG is a statewide public interest advocacy organization. For more information, please visit www.nhpirg.org.

The Marine Fish Conservation Network is a coalition of more than 175 national and regional environmental organizations, commercial and recreational fishing groups, aquariums, and marine science groups dedicated to conserving marine fish and to promoting their long-term sustainability. For more information, please visit www.conservefish.org.