NOAA made its annual report Monday to Congress on the status of the nation's fish stocks, and noted that, in 2011 the so-called Fish Stock Sustainability Index — a kind of Dow Jones Industrial Average for 230 key fish stocks — continued improving for the 11th straight year.
When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration created the index in 2000, it stood at 357.5; after 2011 it was at 598.5, an improvement of more than 67 percent, according to Monday's report.
The index calculations are shorthand for slow, steady improvement, which Emily Menashes, deputy director of the Office of Sustainable Fisheries, and Galen Tromble, chief of the Domestic Fisheries Division, emphasized in their joint national teleconference. The presentation came as the NOAA budget for fiscal 2013 remains divided, having cleared the House and the Senate Commerce Committee with a variety of amendments needing reconciliation.
The Senate version would defund the Northeast Division offices here in Gloucester and consolidate them in Silver Spring, Md., where NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service is headquartered.
Read the complete article in The Gloucester Times