Fishermen are here in Washington, D.C. this week to express their concerns with fisheries today—and they have good reason to be frustrated. Even after decades of regulations aimed at restoring fisheries big problems still exist.
Today over 60 federal fish stocks are overfished or have overfishing occurring, resulting in declining catches and shrinking revenues. We must rebuild these fish populations to restore vibrant fishing communities, because economic recovery requires biological recovery. But, the key is picking the path that makes common sense.
Until recently, fishery managers didn’t see a good choice. Controlling overfishing has usually meant shrinking fishing seasons or even implementing closures, approaches that have serious economic impacts. For example, in the New England groundfish fishery significant reductions in resource abundance, allowable catches, and the number of active vessels reduced total fishing days by about half between 1995 to 2008 (Green, 2009; Thunberg, NEFSC, pers. comm.). Commercial and recreational fishermen in the Southeast U.S. are just beginning to feel the cost of a closure on red snapper. If better management options don’t surface soon, these impacts are expected to continue for the foreseeable future and grow as other regional fisheries close down too.