Four fisheries stocks, including Atlantic swordfish, have now been rebuilt to healthy levels, according to a report to Congress from NOAA’s Fisheries Service issued on May 11, 2010.
Three stocks were removed from the overfishing list – those fished at a level that would threaten the stocks. For the first time since the report was issued in 1997, no stocks were added to the overfishing list.
In Status of US Fisheries, NOAA scientists reported that 85 percent of the stocks examined (212 of 250 stocks) were free from overfishing, or not fished at too high a level. The report also examined whether stocks are overfished – a fish population too low to ensure a maximum sustainable harvest – and found that 77 per cent of the stocks examined (157 of 203 stocks) were not overfished.
“By working with our regional fishery councils and commercial and recreational fishermen, we are getting closer every year to ending overfishing in our waters,” said Eric Schwaab, NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “With annual catch limits coming into effect this year, we expect our progress to accelerate.”
Read the complete story at The Fish Site.