San Francisco, CA - Federal
data show that at least nine percent of Pacific Coast fish stocks for which
there is adequate information were overfished in 2007. However, for fully 70 percent of the fish
stocks (129 out of 182) along the PacificCoast, the government doesn’t
have adequate information to know whether these stocks are healthy or not,
according to a report released by Environment California today.
“It’s very troubling that ten percent of the Pacific Coast’s known fish species are
overfished”, said Gina Goodhill, Preservation Associate with Environment
California. “But the even worse news is
that we only know how healthy a third of our fish stocks are; for the other
two-thirds we are fishing blind.”
The report, Net Loss to Net Gain: Improving Pacific
Coast Fisheries, analyzed data through the end of 2007 from the National
Marine Fisheries Service, the government agency that manages the nation’s
marine fisheries in coordination with eight regional councils. One of the eight regional councils is the
Pacific Fishery Management Council which manages fisheries along the California coast.
Environment California
found that out of the fish stocks for which there was adequate information, 9
percent (5 out of 53) of the Pacific
Coast’s most important
fish were overfished. Overfished typically means that a fish species has been
reduced to below 20 or 25 percent of its original population. When eight out of
ten fish of any one kind are missing from the ocean it has profoundly negative
effects on the rest of the ocean’s ecosystem.
The overfished species
managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council include several rockfishes
like Cowcod and Bocaccio. They were
overfished for decades, prized by commercial and recreational fishermen, and
have been reduced to a tiny fraction of their original population.
“New gear,
greed and a flawed system of fisheries management brought about the crash of
what was once considered an inexhaustible resource,” said Paul Johnson, President
of Monterey Fish Market, who has been selling seafood from the San Francisco docks for 30 years, and
remembers the rockfish
crash well. “The fishing community was devastated, prices skyrocketed and Fish
Alley disappeared,” he said.
These findings are only a
small part of the overall picture of ocean and fish health because the Pacific
Fishery Management Council collects adequate information to make a health
assessment on only 30 percent of fish stocks it manages. For the other 70
percent, the Pacific Council does not have sufficient data to know whether or
not the fish populations are healthy.
“Marine scientists tell us
that oceans need to be managed as a whole ecosystem, not one species at a time.
How can we manage that way if we can only see what is happening with one third
of the ocean’s fish stocks,” said Goodhill.
The Nation’s primary marine
fish management law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act, was signed into law at the beginning of 2007. It required managers to use
independent science panels to set annual catch limits which prevent overfishing
and to enforce these limits with specific consequences. For the past year, the National Marine
Fisheries Service has worked on rules and regulations, called National Standard
1, to implement the new law. The new
rules have not been published yet but should be released in the next few weeks.
Goodhill noted that the
Magnuson-Stevens Act and the new rules should help the Pacific Council do a better
job at managing fisheries. Strong new rules will help rebuild overfished fish
stocks more rapidly, prevent any new ones from being damaged, and will force
essential work on assessing the health of additional fish stocks.
“Where precautionary
principles and good science have been part of fishery management, such as in Alaska, we see the
results,” said Johnson. “We have sustainable, healthy, economically viable
fisheries.”
Environment California called on the Bush administration
and the Pacific Council to support new fishing rules that:
Set conservative numerical annual catch limits
for fishermen that will prevent overfishing.
Require the annual catch limits to be established
by independent scientists, not industry participants sitting on the
council.
Establish consequences for overfishing.
Preserve environmental reviews of fishery
management decisions and an opportunity for the public to comment on
fishery plans before decisions are made.
“If the new rules are strong
and the Pacific Council follows through, five or ten years from now we won’t be
talking about overfished fish stocks or overfishing. We’ll be out on the water enjoying a healthy
ocean filled with sea life,” concluded Goodhill.
FINAL-FISHING-PRESS-RELEASE.doc