The law requiring annual limits, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, was reauthorized in 2007 with support from President George W. Bush and has been carried out by the Obama administration.

This step also brings the country’s eight regional fishery management councils, which are established by the act and frame fishery plans for their waters, into accord with the federal agency. Each council is a coalition of state and federal representatives, fishermen and conservationists. The new limits were produced in partnership with the regional councils, which in the past have sometimes set higher catch limits than scientists at the federal agency deemed sustainable.

Not everyone supports the idea of annual catch limits or the way they are set. Some commercial fishermen and fishing coalitions complain that there simply isn’t enough data to judge the size of some fish stocks, much less define overfishing limits, made enforceable with fines or seasonal restrictions.

They have accused the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of placing the well-being of fish above the well-being of the fishing industry and sacrificing jobs on the basis of scientific research that is underfinanced and fish counts that are performed infrequently. But conservative catch limits are the only way to keep species like cod from being fished out of existence. Annual limits are the most responsible way to ensure that there will be fish — and fishing jobs — in the future.

Read the complete editorial from The New York Times