Congress strengthened Magnuson with the “Fishery Conservation and Management Amendments.” Delaying recovery was made more difficult by the requirement that annual, sustainable catch limits be in place by 2010 for depleted stocks and by 2011 for other stocks. The amendments also strengthen the role of scientists in council decision-making, provide for National Environmental Policy Act compliance in management plans, expand research, improve data and enhance habitat protection. The new law isn’t perfect; it retains the “stake-holder” councils, for example. But it’s a huge step forward.
And it’s working.
“Closing the fishery with almost no advance warning last October was bad enough,” Olander writes in his January 2010 editorial, “but to announce such a closure during the last days of the very popular annual fishing rodeo in Destin, Florida, simply reiterates how out of touch and some fishery council members seem to be with the recreational fishing community.”
On October 27, 2009, Jane Lubchenco—chief of NMFS’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—made this declaration to the American Sportfishing Association at its annual meeting in San Diego: “It is my intention to improve our relationship. I look forward to a new era of cooperative relations between NOAA and anglers across the country.”
The Magnuson Act and our marine fish would be a lot safer if Lubchenco would get on with that.
Read the complete story at Fly Rod and Reel Magazine.