Saving Seafood

Good news: Overfishing is at an all-time low. Bad news: Fish species face new threats.

August 5, 2024 — Most fisheries in South Carolina are doing well. Their populations are mostly healthy, thanks to effective government oversight and the caution of fishermen. But some species still are struggling, and officials suspect warming waters have something to do with it.

In the South Atlantic Fishery, which extends from North Carolina to Florida, red porgy and red grouper are overfished. Red snapper, snowy grouper and gag are overfished and subject to overfishing, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries’ latest assessment of federally managed fish species.

When a stock is subject to overfishing, it means too many fish are being taken. When a stock is overfished, it means the fish population is too low and needs to be rebuilt, said Kelly Denit, director of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, first passed in 1976 and reauthorized in 2007, requires the regional fishery management council to take immediate action once an assessment reveals overfishing, said Kerry Marhefka, co-owner of Abundant Seafood and member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

“We can’t manage the fish,” Marhefka said. “What we’re managing are the fishermen.”

This means changing the annual catch limits for recreational and commercial fishermen, or implementing area closures to give those stocks a chance to rebuild, she said.

Read the full article at The Post and Courier 

Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization back on the docket

June 28, 2024 — A bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives has re-introduced a bill in the latest bid to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).

U.S. representatives Jared Huffman (D-California), who is the ranking member of the U.S. Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries, along with Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), and U.S. Delegate James Moylan (R-Guam), reintroduced the “Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act” in a bid to renew the MSA – the law governing fisheries management at a federal level. The law was enacted in 1976 and was last reauthorized in 2006.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

 

Snohomish coho salmon stock rebuilt; 50th success under Magnuson law

October 25, 2023 — Snohomish coho salmon was declared overfished in 2018 and has now been rebuilt to a sustainable level. It’s the 50th achievement in rebuilding a U.S. fish stock under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

NOAA Fisheries and our fishery management partners reached a major milestone this summer. We rebuilt our 50th fish stock. The Snohomish coho salmon stock was declared overfished in 2018 and has now rebuilt to its sustainable level. A combination of responsive fishery management and habitat restoration helped to rebuild this iconic fish population.

U.S. commercial and recreational fishing provided 1.7 million jobs and $253 billion in sales in 2020. When we rebuild overfished stocks to sustainable levels, fishermen are able to catch more fish. Sustainable fisheries support thriving fishing communities, healthy marine ecosystems, and a strong economy.

There are more than 20 different stocks of coho salmon on the West Coast and Alaska. In 2022, commercial landings of coho salmon totaled 13 million pounds and were valued at $16 million.

Salmon is an important source of spiritual and physical sustenance for Western Native American tribes and Alaska natives. For decades, the tribes living near the Snohomish River have restored degraded habitat in the watershed to improve the chance of survival for returning salmon.

Under the 2018 rebuilding plan for Snohomish coho salmon, fishery managers began adjusting catch limits based on how many fish were expected to return each year. They set catch limits lower in years when fish numbers were expected to be down. Together, these rebuilding measures – and habitat restoration efforts –rebuilt Snohomish coho salmon to a sustainable level that will support increased catches for fishermen.

The following was released by the National Fisherman

With ‘slim chance’ to change Magnuson-Stevens Act, Peltola favors ‘workaround’

May 24, 2023 — Alaska’s subsistence fishing advocates want to change the nation’s primary fishing law to crack down on the accidental catch of salmon by the Bering Sea trawl fleet. Changing the law is looking increasingly unlikely, but there might be another way.

Congresswoman Mary Peltola focused on revising the Magnuson-Stevens Act since the start of her campaign. But she said it’s not in the cards now.

“I think everybody recognizes that there’s a very slim chance that Magnuson-Stevens will be authorized this year” or next, Peltola said in a recent video call arranged by a public affairs firm called Ocean Strategies.

Rather than change the law, the new strategy is to change a set of guidelines for the law that’s already on the books.

It’s a fallback position. It’s not likely to yield quick results. But this year is shaping up to be another grim one for chinook and chum runs on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.  Peltola and other salmon advocates say it’s important to take some kind of action now to preserve the possibility of a return to salmon abundance.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Chance of Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization slim, says Mary Peltola

May 18, 2023 — Alaska’s sole member of the U.S. House Representatives said Congress is unlikely to pass a reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act this year or next.

“I think that there is not a very strong likelihood – I think everybody recognizes that there’s a very slim chance that Magnuson-Stevens will be authorized this year or this Congress,” U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) said in an interview with Ocean Strategies this week.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US fishing policy is boosting fish populations, not constraining most fisheries, finds research

May 11, 2023 — Commercial fishing employs 1.2 million Americans and generates more than $165 billion annually. Yet warming waters are threatening fish populations and disrupting fisheries around the world—a challenge set to worsen as climate change advances.

Despite the importance of sustaining fisheries, the reauthorization of the cornerstone  protecting them in the United States—the Magnuson-Stevens Act—has been stalled in Congress for a decade. The holdup? Some blame the policy for being too stringent and leading to what they call “underfishing,” while others argue the policy is not doing enough to rebuild depleted fish populations. Others go so far as to argue that fish populations would have rebounded without any policy.

A pair of studies finds these concerns to be largely unsubstantiated. In analyzing the policy’s impact on fish populations, fishing, and industry revenue, they find that it is working essentially as it should. It is rebuilding fish populations, and in most cases it is not unduly holding back fishers from making their catch.

“Many people talk about the need to manage our resources sustainably,” says Eyal Frank, a lead author of the studies and an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. “Too often, this becomes just talk with little evidence that our policies are making a difference. Our studies provide that evidence. Our fishing policy is working, and that is very encouraging news at a time when sustaining our fisheries couldn’t be more vital.”

Read the full article at PHYS.org

Annual ‘Status of Stocks’ reports incremental improvement – and climate challenges

April 28, 2023 — The annual National Marine Fisheries Service “Status of Stocks” report says the agency and its eight regional fishery management council continue to show slow, steady results in rebuilding U.S. fish stocks to sustainable levels.

This latest fisheries scorecard summarizes 2022 results, notching findings for 492 fish stocks and stock complexes managed under federal law.

“In 2022, the number of stocks on the overfishing list decreased slightly, the number of overfished stocks also slightly decreased, and two stocks were rebuilt,” the report states in opening. “We continue to implement management measures that will end overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, and sustain our fisheries for future generations.”

The paper offers an explanation of how NMFS has been calculating the overall state of U.S. fisheries since the overarching federal law – the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act – was authorized by Congress in 1996.

As defined in the report, a stock is considered “overfished” when it is being harvested at a rate faster than what biologists calculate would produce its maximum sustainable yield, or MSY.

An “overfished” stock has a population size that is too low, jeopardizing the stock’s ability to produce its MSY.

A “rebuilt” stock is one that was previously overfished, and now has abundance is now at the managers’ ideal target population size to support maximum sustainable yield.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

US Court strikes down charter boat tracking rule

February 27, 2023 — An appeals court has struck down a federal fisheries management rule requiring operators of privately owned charter boats in the Gulf of Mexico to equip their vessels with tracking devices, a victory for a group of Louisiana and Florida charter operators who challenged the rule in a 2020 lawsuit.

Thursday’s ruling by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed a lower court decision upholding the regulation, which had been developed to help regulators keep track of the amount of fish caught on recreational charter vessels.

Rejecting government arguments, the panel said that tracking devices are not the type of equipment regulators can require on recreational vessels under a federal fishing regulation law passed by Congress — the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Read the full article at the Washington Post

Forcing fishermen to pay for the privilege of being monitored

November 30, 2022 — Imagine you live somewhere in small-town America where residents routinely exceed the posted speed limits. To address this problem, the town council votes to require a police officer to ride along with each member of the community every time they venture out in an automobile.

The purpose of the new program is to make sure the speed limits are obeyed. Anyone caught speeding is fined to pay for the program. It sounds like a win-win for everyone, but there’s a problem: The people who designed the program underestimated how much it would cost — there being a fair number of people in the town who go places by car — but overestimated the amount of money it would bring in from fines assessed on people caught driving above the posted limits.

Read the full article at The Washington Times

Magnuson-Stevens changes move through House committee

September 30, 2022 — The House Natural Resources Committee voted Thursday to report out the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act, setting a course for Congressional action on the first major overhaul of federal fisheries law in 16 years.

Known as H.R. 4690, the measure would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management after a three-year effort headed by lead sponsor Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif. Huffman and supporters say the measure is needed to update the law, especially in recognition of long-term climate changes effects on fisheries.

H.R. 4690 “addresses for the first time the impacts of a changing climate on U.S. fisheries and incorporates the growing reality of climate change into proactive fisheries management planning, including preparing for a geographic shift in fish stocks due to warming waters,” said Robert C. Vandermark, executive director of the Marine Fish Conservation Network, in a statement after the committee vote.

“All of these fisheries management improvements will help us meet the current and future challenges facing our oceans and fisheries and will benefit the communities and people who depend on them,” said Vandermark.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource