December 15, 2003 — NOAA Fisheries, along with the eight Regional Fishery Management Councils, convened in Washington, D.C., on November 13 for a conference on "Managing Our Nation's Fisheries: Past, Present and Future." More than 500 people attended the conference, including representatives from regional fisheries management councils, NOAA, recreational and commercial fishing interests, NGOs, academia, congressional members and staff, the public and media. The conference was preceded by a November 12 media event at the National Press Club hosted by Bill Hogarth, director of NOAA Fisheries. Hogarth convened a panel representing the wide range of constituent groups to discuss media coverage of fisheries issues. At the opening session of the conference, Hogarth introduced some very distinguished speakers, including Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), Deputy Secretary of Commerce Samuel Bodman, and Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr. (vice admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. During his speech, Lautenbacher highlighted what NOAA is doing to protect and manage the nation’s living marine resources — salient points are described below.

Recognizing the need to effectively communicate with both stakeholders and constituents, NOAA leadership has increased its outreach efforts to the fisheries community. Not only has Lautenbacher held a number of constituent roundtables and meetings with diverse fisheries constituent groups, Hogarth conducted 17 constituent meetings around the country since May of this year.

Admiral Lautenbacher also emphasized that understanding the complexity of marine ecosystems and how humans impact coastal and marine resources through various activities is a critical part of the complex fisheries management puzzle. Attempting to understand these issues has historical roots back to the creation of the original national fisheries management organization. Seeking solutions to reverse the decline of New England’s fisheries in 1871, Congress created the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The first appointed Commissioner, Spencer Baird, initiated marine ecological studies as one of his first priorities. Baird understood the presence or absence of fish was related not only to fishing pressures, but also to the dynamics of physical and chemical oceanography. The U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries later became the National Marine Fisheries Service, and fisheries management has continued to evolve into what it is today.

25 Years Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act
It’s been more than 25 years since Congress passed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, one of several environmental laws that were passed in the 1970s. During that time the public focused its attention on the health and welfare of the nation’s oceans. This unprecedented interest ushered in a suite of marine conservation laws that reshaped the way Americans viewed marine resources, stewardship responsibilities and the need to invest in marine science and management of ocean resources to redress excesses of the past and ensure a sustainable future. Developed in 1976, the MSA provides for federal management of fisheries in the 200-mile U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. It established authority with the Department of Commerce, through NOAA Fisheries and the eight regional fishery management councils, for management of U.S. fishing operations. The fisheries management process established by the MSA is a dynamic and successful management regime that has evolved to meet new challenges. The public-private partnership of the regional fisheries management process is both democratic and transparent, although not without contention and dissension at times.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the nation’s fisheries management process must be viewed as an evolutionary process that continues today. After more than 25 years, the collaborative stewardship conducted by NOAA Fisheries, the regional councils and fisheries constituents has produced a world-class body of science and management strategies that are leading the way toward ecosystem management, international stewardship and most important, the successful rebuilding and sustainable harvest of the nation’s fisheries.

1996 Reauthorization — Sustainable Fisheries Act
Responding to the increasing challenges facing fisheries management, Congress overhauled the MSA in 1996, through a re-authorization known as the Sustainable Fisheries Act or SFA. Nearly six years have passed since NOAA began implementing the provisions of this Act. Under the SFA, Congress provided fisheries managers with rigorous management standards to address human impacts on the environment and to enact more proactive management strategies. The SFA presented many new mandates with the fundamental goals of:

• Preventing overfishing,
• Rebuilding overfished stocks,
• Protecting essential fish habitat,
• Minimizing bycatch,
• Enhancing research and
• Improving monitoring and compliance.

The SFA also called for greater consideration of fishing communities and safety at sea, the formation of constituent advisory panels and analysis of fishing capacity. Additionally, Congress charged NOAA Fisheries with assessing the extent to which ecosystem principles are used in fisheries management and research, and to recommend how such principles can be implemented further to improve the nation’s management of living marine resources. An Ecosystem Principles Advisory Panel forged a consensus on how to expand the use of ecosystem principles in fishery management. They didn’t come up with a magic formula but did offer a practical combination of principles and actions they believe will propel management onto ecologically sustainable pathways. We expect that ecosystem-based fishery management will contribute to the stability of employment and economic activity in the fishing industry and to the protection of marine biodiversity on which fisheries depend.

The SFA provided NOAA Fisheries with a number of necessary tools to meet the challenges of the new millennium as world-class leaders in fishery stewardship. The agency has placed a stronger emphasis on reducing bycatch, protecting marine habitats, halting overfishing and rebuilding fish stocks to sustainable levels. NOAA has already seen many fish stocks rebound as a direct result of the changes to the MSA. However, the true magnitude of achievements has yet to be realized, as these sweeping changes to the Act have been in place for a relatively short period of time. It will likely take many years before the results can be fully realized. In the meantime, NOAA Fisheries has achieved a number of important milestones.

Achievement: Status of the Stocks
Key to achieving sustainable fisheries is the need to rebuild depleted stocks. Though fish stocks will take many years to recover from overfishing practices of the past, the councils and NOAA Fisheries are well on the way toward meeting this challenge. In the last five years, NOAA has reduced the number of stocks from both the overfished and overfishing categories, for a net gain of 13 stocks taken off the overfished list (20 removed, seven added) and 14 off the overfishing list (26 removed, 12 added). In addition, 70 rebuilding programs have been developed and implemented for stocks that are overfished. Rebuilding a depleted stock to a point where it can be fished sustainably is the desired outcome — one that will benefit both the environment and the economy.

In the few short years since implementing the SFA, the nation has already begun to witness the benefits of stewardship and sustainable harvests. For example, in 2002, commercial fishermen brought 908.1 million pounds of fish and shellfish to the port of Dutch Harbor (Unalaska, Alaska) an increase of 73.6 million pounds over 2001 landings — surpassing the 32-year volume record of 848.2 million pounds held by the port in Los Angeles, Calif. As the world’s fifth largest fishing nation, the USA's total commercial landings in 2002 totaled 9.4 billion pounds, worth $3.1 billion.

Additionally, the recreational fishing industry in the United States makes an enormous contribution to the U.S. economy. More than 17 million Americans participated in recreational fishing in 2002, making more than 65 million fishing trips and supporting almost 350,000 jobs with an economic impact of more than $30 billion. Healthy fish stocks are critical to maintaining this economic base.

Achievement: Habitat Restoration
Part of rebuilding stocks is not only to lessen fishing pressures on certain species, but to provide more habitat for fish for every life stage. NOAA was thrilled to hear that ESA-listed Pacific salmon stocks are now more abundant, in some cases up to 800 percent over recent lows, due in part to investment in habitat restoration and conservation partnerships. In 2003, NOAA also initiated 200 new grass-roots fishery restoration projects that will restore 3,000 acres of habitat through dedicated funding to national and regional partners. Although the science of restoration is still young, it is something that deserves more of the agency's resources.

Achievement: Better Data Collection and Research
Another critical area of study for NOAA Fisheries is to continue improving the quality and quantity of fisheries research data in order to better manage the nation’s living marine resources. On October 17, NOAA launched the first of four planned NOAA fisheries survey vessels to either augment or replace aging ships in the NOAA fleet. Christened the NOAA Ship OSCAR DYSON by Mrs. Peggy Dyson-Malson, wife of the late Alaska fisheries industry leader for whom it is named, the ship will be one of the most technologically advanced fisheries survey vessels in the world. The same day NOAA “cut steel” on the second fisheries survey vessel, which will replace the 40 year-old NOAA Ship ALBATROSS IV in New England. These ships will provide higher quality data to fisheries managers about targeted fish populations and the environment that sustains them.

Achievement: NEPA Compliance
In addition to collecting high quality data, NOAA is working hard to make sure it has all its “i’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed when it comes to environmental regulations. NOAA has been meeting with Fisheries Management Councils and NOAA NEPA coordinators to front-load the NEPA process into management plans and to reduce NEPA process-based litigation. Overall, the nation’s compliance with NEPA has improved over the last few years. According to NOAA’s new Fisheries Litigation Database, the number of new cases filed against NOAA Fisheries has fallen each year since 1999.

Achievement: Bycatch Reduction
Another central issue of concern for fisheries management is bycatch. It actually generates numerous lawsuits when the bycatch in question is an endangered or protected species. Over the past 27 years, NOAA Fisheries and the management councils have responded to this concern by placing more effort into R&D for better models to monitor and reduce bycatch, new gear technologies and various management and regulatory measures to both monitor and reduce bycatch.

In March 2003, NOAA Fisheries unveiled its strategy to further reduce bycatch and achieve the national goal of minimizing bycatch and the mortality of bycatch to the extent practicable through regional approaches and implementation plans. The strategy also includes an initiative to develop new international approaches to reducing bycatch on a global scale.

Achievement: Capacity Reduction
In addition to bycatch reductions, another successful management tool is to reduce overcapacity, or put simply — the level of fishing effort within a fishery. At the end of October, 86 percent of participants in the West Coast groundfishery voted for a buyback within the industry. A total of 92 boats (or 35 percent of the boats in the fishery) will be taken out of service. The buyback program was created by fishermen and approved by Congress, which appropriated $10 million and $36 million in loans to buy the boats and permits of West Coast fishermen. The loans will be paid back based on landings by the reduced fleet. In New England, NOAA went through a similar exercise in 2002, purchasing groundfish 245 limited access permits (21,500 groundfish days at sea are permanently removed) with $10 million appropriated.

Achievement: Cooperative research programs with the fishing industry
Just as NOAA has worked cooperatively with the fishing industry to reduce bycatch and remove overcapacity from certain fisheries, NOAA and the regional management councils are working cooperatively with advisory groups comprised of fishermen, academia, scientists and members of the environmental community to improve integration of management efforts and research initiatives and to increase information available for decision-making. In several regions, funds have been made available to support research projects that address gear issues, bycatch reduction strategies, habitat characterization and electronic data collection methods.

Challenges for the Future
NOAA is pleased with the gains that it has made in the area of fisheries management over the past few years. However, despite all these gains, there are still a number of challenges facing NOAA in the future.

Challenge: U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy
The U.S. Commission for Ocean Policy will be releasing a report in early 2004 that is expected to make a number of far reaching recommendations on how to improve management of the nation's oceans and marine resources. Those recommendations will be carefully evaluated by NOAA when the report issued. NOAA’s Ocean Council, chaired by Rick Spinrad, is poised to respond to the recommendations in the report.

Challenge: The Need for Better International Fisheries Management
Despite the fact that domestic fisheries and their management seem to have turned a corner in the past several years, the same cannot be said for international fisheries — many of which appear to be in fairly serious conditions. The United States has always been a world leader in the fisheries management and plans to continue this trend. NOAA is working hard with its constituents to not only export its policies and management tools, but also its fishing technologies, which have reduced impacts on targeted and non-targeted resources. Additionally, Hogarth recently traveled to Ireland where he headed up the U.S. delegation at ICCAT — the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

Challenge: Earth Observation System
NOAA takes its mission to, “protect, restore and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management,” very seriously. Within this context, NOAA is working with its partners to move toward a better scientific understanding of ocean ecosystems, as well as ways to manage living marine resources on an ecosystem basis. The degree to which the nation will be successful in rebuilding fisheries and recovering protected species through this type of management will depend not only on how well NOAA does its job but on how well NOAA works with its partners to achieve those goals.

NOAA has also embarked upon an exciting new initiative aimed at understanding the Earth and its complex systems. To that end, NOAA is committed to the development of a comprehensive, integrated and sustained Earth observing system that will link thousands of individual technological assets, including space-borne, airborne and in situ observation systems around the world. The information obtained from an Earth observing system, particularly the ocean observing portion of it, will be of great value to fisheries managers. By better understanding the physical, chemical and biological components of the oceans, and how those factors interact, NOAA will greatly improve the understanding of ocean and coastal ecosystems, as well as the impact of humans on those systems.

By aligning the organization, mission and research agenda of NOAA in a way that looks at the whole Earth system, the agency is poised to fully understand and implement ecosystem-based management of marine and coastal resources such that we can manage coastal and marine resources in a responsible, sustainable manner for generations to come. Sustainable management of fisheries resources is the goal of NOAA Fisheries, as well as the MSA.

Challenge: Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization
The MSA is currently up for reauthorization. As a result, the Act is once again under public review to examine its effectiveness, revisit its goals and determine what changes are necessary to build on current achievements and meet future challenges. In response, NOAA transmitted an Administration Magnuson-Steven reauthorization bill to Congress in June 2003. The NOAA recommendations for reauthorization are the result of six years of council and agency regulatory experience under the SFA amendments to the MSA. These recommendations include:

• Making the fisheries management more efficient by streamlining the comment, review and approval process for fishery management plans,
• Developing standards for individual fishing quotas,
• Improving the effectiveness of fishing capacity reduction programs,
• Imposing tougher fines and penalties for fishery violations,
• Funding alternatives for fishery observer programs,
• Removing restrictions on access to essential economic data and
• Providing a statutory distinction between the terms “overfishing” and “overfished.”

The fisheries management process has undergone dramatic changes since the 1970s, when eliminating foreign fishing and developing domestic fisheries were the primary objectives. Today, the regional management framework has become a leading forum for advancing science-based management of living marine resources. Together, the regional fishery management councils and NOAA Fisheries continue managing ocean resources for the maximum benefit to the nation, ensuring long-term recreational fishing opportunities for the American public, supporting coastal communities and fishing families and maintaining a sustainable seafood supply.

Hogarth said it best when he stated, “Our fisheries management system is one of the most successful in the world, and with refinement, we can look forward to an even better system.” Hopefully the reauthorization of the MSA will provide that needed refinement.

Admiral Lautenbacher Unveils a New Poster for NOAA Fisheries During the conference, Alaskan fish artists, Ray Troll and Terry Pyles, joined Admiral Lautenbacher and NOAA Fisheries' national outreach coordinator, Laurel Bryant to unveil the agency's exciting new poster. The artwork, "Sustainability: It's In Our Hands," depicts the complexity of marine ecosystems and the importance of stewardship over the nation’s living oceans that we share as American citizens. Framed, signed copies were presented to the House and Senate for display in public forums on Capitol Hill. To view the artwork in its entirety and learn about all the sea creatures featured, visit http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/about_bios/about.htm.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Fisheries

Regional Fishery Management Councils

Managing our Nation's Fisheries: Past, Present and Future

NOAA

Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.

William T. Hogarth, Ph D. Director of NOAA Fisheries

U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries

Spencer Baird

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act

U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone

Sustainable Fisheries Act

PANEL TO ADVISE FISHERIES SERVICE ABOUT ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT IN MARINE FISHERIES

NOAA fleet

VT HALTER MARINE AND NOAA LAUNCH HI-TECH FISHERIES SURVEY VESSEL;
ANNOUNCE CONTRACT AWARD FOR SECOND VESSEL

NOAA Ship ALBATROSS IV

NOAA NEPA

VESSEL MONITORING SYSTEM AND LITIGATION DATA BASE NET NOAA FISHERIES PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL AWARD

NOAA Fisheries Bycatch Page

U.S. Commission for Ocean Policy

NOAA’s Ocean Council

International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas

NOAA Global Observing System

Magnuson-Steven reauthorization

Sustainability: It's In Our Hands - Artwork for NOAA Fisheries

Media Contact:
Susan Buchanan or Jennifer Koss, NOAA Fisheries, (301)713-2370 and (202)482-1412