August 8, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service notified regional Councils recently than nine stocks around the country are overfished or subject to overfishing. Of those, five are salmon stocks on the West Coast.
The Klamath River fall Chinook, Queets coho, Juan de Fuca coho, Snohomish coho and Sacramento River fall Chinook have been listed as overfished. Upper Columbia River summer Chinook is listed as being subject to overfishing. In other regions, thorny skate and the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico stock of sandbar shark remain overfished. The Gulf of Maine/Cape Hatteras Atlantic mackerel stock is listed is overfished and also subject to overfishing.
The listing of the salmon stocks is no surprise. Unusually warm ocean waters in recent years — thank The Blob — had detrimental effects on many salmon stocks, particularly coho runs. In-river environmental changes and ongoing draught also affected stocks, especially the commercially valuable Sacramento and Klamath rivers fall Chinook runs.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has already directed its Salmon Technical Team to develop rebuilding plans for each of the overfished stocks for the Council’s consideration. However, only two, the Klamath and Sacramento Chinook stocks, are completely under the Council’s purview. The other four are also managed via international agreements, so there is Council has limited ability to control ocean fisheries in waters outside its jurisdiction, NMFS said in a notice.
The thorny skate determination was made based on a 2017 stock assessment that used data through 2016. NMFS continues to work with the New England Fishery Management Council to implement conservation and management measures to rebuild thorny skate. Thorny skate is the only one of seven managed in the Northeast skate complex that is still overfished. The New England Council, NMFS and industry have successfully rebuilt three other species in the complex during the last 15 years.
The sandbar shark listing is based on a 2018 stock assessment that used data through 2015. It is managed under the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan.
NMFS said the data on which the Gulf of Maine/Cape Hatteras Atlantic mackerel overfished/subject to overfishing status was made using a 2018 benchmark assessment that included data through 2016. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council must now adopt measures to end overfishing and approve a rebuilding plan, the NMFS notice said. The MAFMC has already been working on the issue and intends to address rebuilding the stock through a framework action to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan, including modifications to the 2019-21 harvest specifications. The Council in June received an update on proposals to rebuilding Atlantic mackerel in 3, 5, or 7 years and is scheduled to take final action on a rebuilding plan when it meets in Virginia Beach, Virginia, next week.
This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.