Sustaining Our Fisheries

SUSTAINING OUR FISHERIES

As a senator actively involved in fisheries issues for more than 30 years, I am deeply concerned about recent press reports saying our nations fish stocks and fishery management programs face a catastrophe.

Several recent articles suggest our fishery management system and policies are in utter shambles, and this crisis has caused
U.S. fishermen to destroy many fish stocks through overfishing and abuse.

Many articles predicting such doom and gloom refer to a scientific paper published in Nature Magazine or recent conclusions of a Pew Oceans Commission. But the actual Nature article came to the unremarkable conclusion that fish stocks were different 50 years ago. The objective of fishery management is not - and should not be - to return fish stocks to their size and condition prior to man landing the first fish.

Congress has clearly articulated our national fishery objectives: effective conservation and sustainable use of our nation's fishery resources for the greatest food and recreational benefits. While it may be important for fishery managers to imagine the theoretical sizes of fish stock before the onset of a fishery, the public should not believe there is a problem if fish stocks do not match up to these theoretical stocks, nor that our fishermen are to blame for this "crisis."

Fishery management in the U.S. is perhaps the most advanced and effective in the world, and our fishermen are
overwhelmingly compliant. The National Marine Fisheries Service reports consistent progress in maintaining healthy fish stocks and rebuilding those that are "overfished" - since Congress passed the Sustainable Fisheries Act in 1996. In addition, I believe fishery managers are making great strides at employing state-of-the-art, ecosystem-based management by protecting sensitive fish habitat and developing technologies to help fishermen avoid the incidental harvest of non-target species.

In 1996, Congress strengthened our nation's principle fisheries management law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, with significant amendments and, as a result, there are numerous fishery management successes all along our coasts. Consider the following:

In New England, the overall groundfish complex has increased by more than 150 percent in the past five years and, in particular, Georges Bank haddock and yellowtail flounder, silver hake and witch flounder have produced substantial gains, while the New England scallop resource is thriving.

In the Mid-Atlantic, striped bass, summer flounder, Atlantic monkfish, sea scallops and other species extremely important to recreational and commercial fishermen and coastal communities are at or approaching record levels of abundance, and the remaining stocks are being rebuilt on schedule.

In the South Atlantic, king and Spanish mackerel have been successfully rebuilt while in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery - the 3rd largest and the most valuable in the United States - parent stocks are healthy, not overfished and remain safely above the overfishing index level.

On the Pacific coast, sardines have returned to Monterey Bay and recent salmon returns have been phenomenal. Stocks of flatfish, squid, mackerel, swordfish, tuna and many rockfish stocks are all reported in good condition. And in Alaska, where fisheries account for half of all seafood landed in the U.S., healthy fish stocks are the rule, not the exception.

Internationally, management bodies in which the United States participates have successfully rebuilt the once overfished North Atlantic swordfish population and managed other larger species in the Eastern Tropical Pacific while minimizing dolphin mortalities.

These are just a few examples of robust fisheries conservation and use in the United States which, far from needing massive overhaul and reform, requires only minor adjustments to ensure sustainable use remains the guiding principle for U.S. fisheries policy.

I believe these successes and others demonstrate the current system to conserve and manage our fisheries, while not perfect, is working remarkably well. Cooperative relationships among federal fishery managers, scientists, industry leaders and others, have been a key to our success and must remain an integral part of our future. Management plans based on sound
science, informed experience and effective enforcement are the key to successful conservation.