Protecting Our Atlantic Legacy News

As the new home of MASSPIRG's environmental work, Environment Massachusetts can be contacted regarding this news release   

The Marine Fish Conservation Network Urges Congress To Strengthen Existing Overfishing Protections In Magnuson-Stevens Act

BOSTON—Only 10 ocean fish stocks in New England – currently 28 percent of all federally managed ocean fish stocks under management of the New England Fishery Management Council – are known to be healthy, and this number has worsened since 2001, finds a new report released today by MASSPIRG and the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman’s Association on behalf of the Marine Fish Conservation Network. Nearly 50 percent of New England’s fish stocks are in jeopardy—overfished and/or experiencing overfishing. The report clearly demonstrates that Congress should not weaken the overfishing protections in the main U.S. fisheries law, and should instead strengthen conservation measures when renewing it.

“The New England Fishery Management Council has a long history of failing to protect against overfishing despite clear evidence that some stocks teeter on the brink of collapse,” said Virginia Robnett, Field Associate for MASSPIRG. “Before these stocks go belly up, Congress needs to strengthen fisheries law with enforceable catch limits and a reliance on the best available science to finally end overfishing and allow depleted fish stocks to recover.”

"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 manipulations of the data presented in its annual report to Congress on the status of fish stocks. The Network’s 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 – currently 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 clear with Congress or the American public because it consistently finesses the 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 a hard 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 25 percent of New England’s overfished stocks, which prevents these already depleted fish stocks from rebuilding. For example, the New England council continues to allow overfishing on Georges Bank cod even though this signature stock has plummeted by 21 percent since 2001, and the stock size now struggles at 10 percent of a scientifically healthy and sustainable level.

The Network will submit the report to Congress and will urge lawmakers to strengthen overfishing protections when renewing and amending the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the primary law that governs U.S. ocean fisheries. A bill proposal by the National Marine Fisheries Service and a new bill introduced by Barney Frank (D-MA) both proposed to roll back overfishing protections and extend time frames for rebuilding depleted populations.

The report also points out that regional fishery managers in New England too often do not follow scientific information when making management decisions. It took a federal lawsuit filed in 2000 to force the New England council to adopt an amendment in 2004 that had a chance of rebuilding a portion of its groundfish stocks. As a result, Georges Bank cod may be rebuilt by 2026. As documented in the report, this management failure has led to continued overfishing and a decrease in rebuilding in New England. 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 that still exist today.

“Some people think that if you ignore the scientific information, you can duck nature’s limits. That kind of head-in-the-sand thinking has brought us the ocean disasters we’re saddled with. In the few cases where science does guide policy – in Alaska for example – many fish populations remain robust and people are making big money. Science must guide policy; anything less ensures more pain and robs the future from fishing communities,” said Dr. Carl Safina of the Blue Ocean Institute.

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 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.

“Catch limits benefit fishermen because they protect the long-term health of this important ocean resource, and by extension they protect our way of life,” said Mark Leach, a commercial hook fisherman from Chatham, Massachusetts. “How else are we going to stop overfishing if we don’t limit the number of fish that we catch?”

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 the limits from Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI), the Co-chairs of the Commerce Committee. The Network strongly supports the inclusion of these limits in the final Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization bill.