Foreword 



This is the fifth edition ot Our Living Occdin, 

 the report card on the state ot the U.S. living ma- 

 rine resources prepared by the National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration's National Ma- 

 rine Fisheries Service. These reports are neither 

 mandated nor intended to fulfill any legal require- 

 ment. Rather, they are written to provide an over- 

 view of and a perspective on a very complex sub- 

 ject for the interested reader. 



The full set of Our Living Oceans spans a pe- 

 riod of tremendous change in the management of 

 living marine resources in the United States. Since 

 1991 when the first edition was published, there 

 have been several profound legal and conceptual 

 changes in the management landscape — notably, 

 major revisions to the Marine Mammal Protec- 

 tion Act (1994) and the Magnuson-Stevens Fish- 

 ery Conservation and Management Act (1996). 

 IntcrnationalK', the development of the United 

 Nations Treaty on Straddling Fish Stocks and 

 Highly Migratory Fish Stocks and a major new 

 emphasis on the use of a precautionary approach 

 to fishery management have refocused efforts on 

 dealinti with the problems of overfishing. These 

 national and international legal changes direct fish- 

 ery management authorities to implement pro- 

 grams that end overfishing quickly and rebuild 

 overfished resources in a timely manner. 



Our Living Oceans 1999 reflects the beginning 

 of implementation of many new management 

 imperatives. Biological populations often respond 

 slowly to management changes. The fishing com- 

 munities which depend on marine life for food 

 and commerce also need time to adjust to changes 

 in management practices, though in many cases 

 efforts to address overfishing have been underway 

 for many years. Furthermore, as this report clearly 

 shows, the majority of our marine stocks are 

 healthy or at least improving. 



Ultimately, it is not just the passage of new 

 laws that will improve the condition of our living 

 marine resources; it is changes on the water that 

 matter most. This report does not tell the Ameri- 

 can public that the job is done, hut that it has 

 begun. Thus it describes our efforts to improve 

 the conservation and management of the Nation's 

 living marine resources so that their full and enor- 

 mous benefits are available for all Americans. 



Andrew A. Rosenberg, Ph.D. 



Deputy Assistant Administrator for Fisheries 



Silver Spring, Maryland 

 June 1999 



Our marine resource legislation is among the 

 strongest in the world. The Magnuson-Stevens 

 Fishery Conservation and Management Act re- 

 quires strict deadlines for the development of fish- 

 ery management plans, very conservative manage- 

 ment targets, tight timeframes for rebuilding 

 stocks, and consideration of a broader scope of 

 resource issues, ranging from habitat impacts to 

 bycatch, and to impacts on fishing communities. 

 For Federally protected species, similarly strict 

 mandates to rebuild depleted stocks are now in 

 place. 



