ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN 



16 



As noted in the Introduction, one purpose 

 of this document is to serve as a report card 

 on the Nation's stewardship of its living 

 marine resources. Although this report 



does not assign a qualitative "grade," there 

 are several areas where performance 

 needs to improve. 



OVERUTILIZATION, 

 EXCESS FISHING EFFORT, 

 AND RESOURCE 

 DEPLETION 



This document reports on 232 species or 

 fishery resource groups (Table 3). Of the 

 153 species or species groups for which 

 status has been assessed, 65 or 42% are 

 overutilized. The list includes many of the 

 Nation's most valuable fishery resources 

 (e.g., most traditional New England 

 groundfish and flounders, Atlantic salmon, 

 sea scallops, Atlantic bluefin tuna, sword- 

 fish, large coastal pelagic sharks, Atlantic 

 menhaden, spiny lobsters in the Southeast, 

 Pacific ocean perch, blue marlin in the 

 Pacific, albacore in the North Pacific, and 

 nearshore oysters, hard clams, and abalo- 

 nes). The status of many populations of 

 marine mammals and sea turtles is also of 

 concern. Of the 37 stocks considered in 

 this document, 13 are classified as endan- 

 gered, 6 as threatened and 1 as depleted 

 (Table 2). Current trends in abundance are 

 known for only 15 stocks, and about half 

 of them are declining. 



For most overutilized resources, fishing 

 effort is far in excess of what is needed to 

 harvest the CPY or LTPY. Many resources 

 are severely depleted as a result of excess 

 fishing. As a result, the Nation is wasting 

 large economic benefits and many recrea- 

 tional opportunities. 



Still, the abundance of some fishery re- 

 sources is high. In some cases, there is little 

 economic demand for the resource (e.g., 

 dogfish off the U.S. northeast coast and 

 arrowtooth flounder in the North Pacific), 

 but, in other cases where demand is great, 

 a high biomass has been maintained by 

 setting total allowable catches conserva- 

 tively to reduce the risk of overharvesting 

 the resource. There are also notable exam- 

 ples to be found in the marine mammal 

 populations that have recovered under 

 protection afforded to them by the MMPA 

 (e.g., the eastern North Pacific gray whale 

 and California sea lion). 



Table 3.— Utilization of assessed 

 stocks of U.S. living marine 

 resources. 



Unit and fishery 



Unknown Over 



Full 



Under 



Total 



