{"id":29691,"date":"2011-04-12T14:04:43","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T18:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/29691\/overfishing-101-ocean-fish-populations-managed-u-s\/"},"modified":"2011-04-12T14:04:43","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T18:04:43","slug":"overfishing-101-ocean-fish-populations-managed-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/29691\/overfishing-101-ocean-fish-populations-managed-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Overfishing 101: How Ocean Fish Populations are Managed in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by:
\nAnimal Rights<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Overfishing 101: How Ocean Fish Populations are Managed in the U.S.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

posted by: Alicia L<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"Overfishing<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em>NOTE: This is a guest post from Lee Crockett<\/a>, Director of Federal Fisheries Policy at Pew Environment Group<\/em> <\/strong><\/div>\n
\n
This post is the second in a series, “Overfishing 101.” <\/em>Read the first post here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/strong>Fish are an essential component of life in the world’s
\noceans, with the state of their populations serving as a bellwether of
\nthe health of ocean life overall. Unfortunately, many species around
\nthe world are in trouble.<\/strong><\/div>\n
Pollution<\/a>,
\nhabitat destruction and overfishing (removing fish from the ocean
\nfaster than they can reproduce) have impoverished our oceans. The United
\nNations Food and Agriculture Organization reported recently that nearly a third of the Earth’s fish populations are overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion<\/a>.<\/strong><\/div>\n
All too often, the discussion around the issue of overfishing has
\nbeen limited to a small group of stakeholders such as fishermen,
\nconservationists and scientists. To help open up this debate to the
\nbroader public, I’ve developed a short series nicknamed “Overfishing
\n101.” Here are some of the basics of why all Americans should care
\nabout how our ocean fish are managed.<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/strong>Understanding Overfishing<\/strong><\/div>\n
Overfishing is a problem that affects the entire marine environment,
\nextending far beyond just the species being caught. For example, in the
\nCaribbean, depleted parrotfish numbers have been directly linked to the declining health of Caribbean coral reefs<\/a>.
\nParrotfish eat organisms such as algae that grow on corals, ingesting
\nbits of hard material in the process, which is excreted as white sand.
\nWithout this species, however, algae would take over corals, killing
\nthe tiny organisms. <\/strong><\/div>\n
Today, 40 ocean fish populations managed by the U.S. government<\/a>–including Caribbean parrotfish–are subject to overfishing. In New England<\/a>, recent federal assessments found that 10 of 20 groundfish populations<\/a>–species that live near the ocean floor, such as cod–are subject to overfishing. And nine populations in the South Atlantic<\/a>–the
\nmajority of which are types of snapper and grouper–are also suffering
\nfrom overfishing. To make matters worse, these are long-lived fish
\nthat reproduce slowly, and populations would take decades to recover<\/a>.<\/strong><\/div>\n
On the other hand, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service
\n(NMFS), the economic value of ending overfishing and rebuilding all of
\nour depleted U.S. fish populations could add up to $31 billion in sales and support 500,000 new jobs<\/a>.
\nBut to achieve the benefits of healthy fish populations, we must set
\nfirm catch limits that are based on science, and those limits must be
\nenforced.<\/strong><\/div>\n
While many fishermen understand and support the need to sustainably
\nmanage fisheries, some within the industry balk at the limits necessary
\nto achieve sustainability. They have begun lobbying Congress to revise
\nthe current laws and regulations. Weakening existing standards,
\nthough, would impair the health of our marine ecosystems for decades to
\ncome, making recovery harder and more expensive.<\/strong><\/div>\n
For example, lax management of South Atlantic red snapper allowed
\nchronic overfishing for 50 years. This has reduced the breeding
\npopulation to 11-14 percent of what scientists consider a healthy
\nlevel. To reduce the number of red snapper taken, fisheries managers were forced to impose a moratorium<\/a>, stopping all fishing for South Atlantic red snapper until the species makes measurable progress towards full recovery.<\/strong><\/div>\n
Weakening federal laws that govern the management of our ocean fish
\nwould not only have implications for commercial and recreational
\nfishermen, but also countless others who depend on the bounty of our
\noceans for a livelihood and for recreation.<\/strong><\/div>\n
In my next post, I’ll explore how U.S. ocean fish populations are
\nmanaged and why. And in subsequent parts of the series, we’ll examine
\nwhy good science is so important to rebuilding depleted fish
\npopulations.<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

<\/strong>More about us<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Federal Fisheries
\nPolicy Project leads efforts to ensure that Congress and the National
\nMarine Fisheries Service effectively implement the law to end
\noverfishing, rebuild depleted fish populations and protect ocean
\necosystems.<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

The campaign works closely with scientists,
\npolicy makers, fishery managers, fishermen and conservation
\norganizations throughout the country to promote adequate funding and
\nsupport current fish conservation mandates.<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

To find out how you can help, please visit www.pewenvironment.org.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Posted by: Animal Rights Overfishing 101: How Ocean Fish Populations are Managed in the U.S. posted by: Alicia L NOTE: This is a guest post from Lee Crockett, Director of Federal Fisheries Policy at Pew Environment Group This post is the second in a series, “Overfishing 101.” Read the first post here. Fish are an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}