June 11, 2015 — What if there were one thing that we could do to rebuild struggling fish populations, while helping coastal communities, fishermen, and ecosystems, all in one fell swoop? And what if, to make this magic happen, we didn’t even need to do anything new — we just have to maintain some safeguards that have been in place since 1996?
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), currently under attack by a handful of short-sighted interests, is just that: the magic wand, so to speak, that governs how we conserve and use our nation’s fisheries.
The MSA requires the rebuilding of depleted fish populations as quickly as possible, generally within 10 years, with certain limited exceptions. The law also requires science-based annual catch limits for all fisheries, so that they don’t become overfished in the first place.
The success of the MSA has helped us nurse many overfished stocks back to health and abundance since the 1990s and early 2000s, when they were at their lowest points. A 2013 study showed that nearly two-thirds of fish stocks put in rebuilding plans since 1996 had either been rebuilt to healthy population levels, or had made significant rebuilding progress, resulting in increased gross commercial revenues of $585 million — 92% higher (54% when adjusted for inflation) than before the rebuilding plans.