Download February 12, 2008 - The Public Interest Network

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Contact: Gina Goodhill
Environment California
(213) 447 – 8583
[email protected]
New Federal Rules Will Help Pacific Ocean Fisheries Rebound
San Francisco, CA - Federal data show that at least nine percent of Pacific Coast fish stocks for
which there is adequate information were overfished in 2007. However, for fully 70 percent of
the fish stocks (129 out of 182) along the Pacific Coast, the government doesn’t have adequate
information to know whether these stocks are healthy or not, according to a report released by
Environment California today.
“It’s very troubling that ten percent of the Pacific Coast’s known fish species are overfished”,
said Gina Goodhill, Preservation Associate with Environment California. “But the even worse
news is that we only know how healthy a third of our fish stocks are; for the other two-thirds we
are fishing blind.”
The report, Net Loss to Net Gain: Improving Pacific Coast Fisheries, analyzed data through the
end of 2007 from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the government agency that manages the
nation’s marine fisheries in coordination with eight regional councils. One of the eight regional
councils is the Pacific Fishery Management Council which manages fisheries along the California
coast.
Environment California found that out of the fish stocks for which there was adequate
information, 9 percent (5 out of 53) of the Pacific Coast’s most important fish were overfished.
Overfished typically means that a fish species has been reduced to below 20 or 25 percent of its
original population. When eight out of ten fish of any one kind are missing from the ocean it has
profoundly negative effects on the rest of the ocean’s ecosystem.
The overfished species managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council include several
rockfishes like Cowcod and Bocaccio. They were overfished for decades, prized by commercial
and recreational fishermen, and have been reduced to a tiny fraction of their original population.
“New gear, greed and a flawed system of fisheries management brought about the crash of what
was once considered an inexhaustible resource,” said Paul Johnson, President of Monterey Fish
Market, who has been selling seafood from the San Francisco docks for 30 years, and remembers
the rockfish crash well. “The fishing community was devastated, prices skyrocketed and Fish
Alley disappeared,” he said.
These findings are only a small part of the overall picture of ocean and fish health because the
Pacific Fishery Management Council collects adequate information to make a health assessment
on only 30 percent of fish stocks it manages. For the other 70 percent, the Pacific Council does
not have sufficient data to know whether or not the fish populations are healthy.
“Marine scientists tell us that oceans need to be managed as a whole ecosystem, not one species
at a time. How can we manage that way if we can only see what is happening with one third of
the ocean’s fish stocks,” said Goodhill.
The Nation’s primary marine fish management law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
and Management Act, was signed into law at the beginning of 2007. It required managers to use
independent science panels to set annual catch limits which prevent overfishing and to enforce
these limits with specific consequences. For the past year, the National Marine Fisheries Service
has worked on rules and regulations, called National Standard 1, to implement the new law. The
new rules have not been published yet but should be released in the next few weeks.
Goodhill noted that the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the new rules should help the Pacific Council
do a better job at managing fisheries. Strong new rules will help rebuild overfished fish stocks
more rapidly, prevent any new ones from being damaged, and will force essential work on
assessing the health of additional fish stocks.
“Where precautionary principles and good science have been part of fishery management, such as
in Alaska, we see the results,” said Johnson. “We have sustainable, healthy, economically viable
fisheries.”
Environment California called on the Bush administration and the Pacific Council to support new
fishing rules that:
 Set conservative numerical annual catch limits for fishermen that will prevent
overfishing.
 Require the annual catch limits to be established by independent scientists, not industry
participants sitting on the council.
 Establish consequences for overfishing.
 Preserve environmental reviews of fishery management decisions and an opportunity for
the public to comment on fishery plans before decisions are made.
“If the new rules are strong and the Pacific Council follows through, five or ten years from now
we won’t be talking about overfished fish stocks or overfishing. We’ll be out on the water
enjoying a healthy ocean filled with sea life,” concluded Goodhill.
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Environment California is a citizen based statewide environmental advocacy organization
www.environmentcalifornia.org