May 4, 2013 — Fish stocks off the U.S. coasts, restored to health over the past four decades by cooperation among competing interests and careful management, are threatened anew by warming and increasingly acidic waters, according to a new report and experts who are gathering in Washington this week for a conference on the future of fisheries.
The report, released Saturday by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Ocean Conservancy, hails the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and subsequent amendments for bringing commercial and recreational fishermen, marine scientists and legislators together to ensure that fish populations would be sustained.
As Congress approaches another reauthorization of the law, the report says that salmon, scallop and other sea life populations have been brought back from the brink of collapse to a healthy and sustainable state, largely through enforced catch limits.
The “domestic harvest, export, distribution, and retailing of seafood in America . . . generates more than $116 billion in sales and employs more than 1 million people,” according to the report. “Recreational fishing adds nearly $50 billion and more than 327,000 jobs to that total.”
Connie Barclay, spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries, said that acting administrator Sam Rauch had not yet read the report but “we welcome stakeholders’ input as we move toward reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is hosting this week’s conference.
Read the full story at The Washington Post