NOAA ACTIONS HELPING TO KEEP SEAFOOD
ON YOUR TABLE

February 1, 2006 — If you’ve followed the recent media blitz about the state of the oceans’ fish, it’s easy to understand why you might be concerned about the health of America’s seafood supply. Conscientious seafood consumers face unparalleled challenges when deciding what to eat. Even the savvy consumer will have a tough time sorting through the vast array of conflicting, often misleading information available through news articles, environmental campaigns and other special interest forums. People often ask NOAA: is seafood safe and healthy to eat, and if they eat fish, will it contribute to depletion of the species and environmental problems?

As the government agency responsible for monitoring and regulating the seafood industry and America’s marine fish populations, NOAA can help consumers find credible, unbiased, up-to-date facts and make informed decisions about seafood choices.

Are fish species disappearing from the oceans? The short answer is no, at least not in waters controlled by the United States. In fact, production of seafood in U.S. waters has been stable as consumption of fish has trended upwards over the past five years.

A recent study published in Science Magazine inaccurately projected that all seafood and fish species would collapse by 2048. Newspapers throughout the nation picked up this story, with headlines telling consumers to say goodbye to tuna sandwiches and shrimp cocktails. Fortunately, the study is wrong. NOAA scientists say the study is overly pessimistic. They dispute both the study’s methods and conclusion, stating that it “utterly misrepresents” the true status of regulated fish stocks throughout the world and particularly in the United States.

NOAA is working to ensure the protection and future productivity of our oceans. For the United States, our job is two-fold: ensuring sustainable wild fish and developing environmentally friendly marine aquaculture.

The NOAA Fisheries Service mission is to ensure that the American people enjoy the riches and benefits of healthy and diverse marine ecosystems. Throughout the past thirty years, the agency has developed world-renowned fisheries science and management programs. In the United States, the era of fisheries expansion and widespread overfishing is a by gone era. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006, recently signed into law by President Bush, gives NOAA authority to take its fisheries conservation stewardship goals to the next level; Congress and the President have set the bar and the vision for long-term healthy marine ecosystems higher than ever before, and NOAA is working to carry out that vision.

Part of the reason consumers hear about overfishing and depletion of fish stocks, such as the 2048 study, lies in our past. When the Magnuson-Stevens Act was first enacted in 1976, NOAA had marching orders to help grow the nation’s fishing industries. The focus was on gaining the most economic benefit from our ocean resources. In the 1990s, we began to realize the rapid expansion, coupled with technological advances making fisheries more efficient, had taken a toll on these resources. In 1996, Congress reauthorized the Act, refocusing NOAA on rebuilding depleted fish stocks.

Using the tools available through the Act, NOAA continued to rebuild our nation’s fisheries over the next decade, making moderate but steady progress as we worked to replenish fisheries while protecting the economic foundation of our coastal communities. This approach has been criticized by some who believed rebuilding should have been swift and unforgiving. Both commercial and recreational fishermen have felt the sting of regulations with reduced fishing opportunities, strict gear requirements, lower catches, area closures and total fishery shut-downs over the past decade. Overfishing has been largely curtailed. These sacrifices have been painful, but necessary. Currently, only about 20 percent of America’s fish stocks are overfished, and the proportion is not increasing. NOAA’s aggressive policies are restoring these stocks to sustainable populations.

The 1996 law also put NOAA on a course of considering how single-species fisheries impact the marine ecosystem in which they live. The agency began identifying and protecting essential fish habitats and working to minimize bycatch — unmarketable species that are caught incidental to the target catch.

Between 1996 and 2006, much was accomplished and much was learned. The Bush Administration’s U.S. Ocean Action Plan charts the course for protecting and sustaining marine resources and ecosystems for the 21st Century. Based in part on this plan, the Administration asked Congress to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act by giving NOAA better mandates and legal strength to end overfishing through annual catch limits for every fishery with strict accountability measures; and support the increased use of quota-based management, which allows NOAA to allocate a portion of the annual catch to individual harvesters thereby improving market conditions and fostering better ownership and conservation ethic among users.

One of the real and difficult challenges NOAA still faces is on the international stage. Though the agency has made in roads in negotiating strong international conservation measures for some fisheries, continued overfishing and illegal fishing might threaten the future viability of others. The new Magnuson-Stevens Act gives NOAA more support for fighting the global problem of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, often carried out by pirate fishermen operating on the high seas. As the world’s third largest seafood consumer behind Japan and China, the United States imports 80 percent of its seafood and therefore has a major stake in sustainable fisheries on a global scale.

Through the 2006 authorization bill, NOAA now has the right combination of management tools and mandates to end all overfishing in U.S. waters by 2010, to work with industry to develop market-based management programs that are streamlined, less confusing, and that foster a safer, more profitable U.S. fishing industry, to improve our recreational fisheries data program by registering all recreational fishermen, and to fight global fish pirates.

With the progress to end overfishing and rebuild depleted stocks made during the past decade, coupled with these new tools paving the way forward and a bright future for marine aquaculture, NOAA stands to prove the 2048 prediction wrong.

Relevant Web Sites
New Legislation on the Horizon – Aquaculture

Status of U.S. Fish Stocks

Seafood and Health

Media Contact:
Susan Buchanan, NOAA Fisheries, (301)713-2370