1998 Year of the Ocean Ocean Living Resources 



provide up to 180 million more jobs in associated sectors (FAO 1993). Recent trends indicate 

 that both worldwide and in the United States, about one-third of the resources on which these 

 fishers depend are overfished (Figure 1). 



The domestic and global status of many commercial fish stocks reveal a pattern of 

 declining populations and are increasingly a source of serious concern to scientists, managers, 

 and policy makers. On a global basis, fishery resource reports by the UN's Food and Agriculture 

 Organization (FAO) since the early 1990s have highlighted that many of the traditional 

 commercial stocks are overutilized and thus showing declining yields and productivity. Increases 

 in total catch from capture fisheries in the last two years consist of low-value pelagic species 

 taken by a small number of countries, and the harvesting of new deepwater stocks that are 

 unlikely to support current levels of exploitation. In its latest annual report, FAO has concluded 

 that 60 percent of commercial stocks are either overfished or fully harvested (Figure 1 ; FAO 

 1996). 



Since the enactment of the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 

 1976,'' fisheries in the United States have been managed by a system of eight regional councils, 

 which develop Fishery Management Plans in accordance with national standards. Under this 

 system, limits on catches, seasons, areas, and gear have contributed to the conservation of U.S. 

 fishery resources. Among management successes are Alaska groundfish, where the transition 

 from foreign fleet to U.S. fleet vessels for harvesting (provided for by the 1976 Magnuson Act) 

 was made while maintaining the stock, which is the most abundant in the nation. Other 

 management successes include king and Spanish mackerel, where significant declines in the late 

 1970s and early 1980s were reversed with a strict rebuilding plan and stocks are no longer 

 considered overfished. Other successes include management actions that led to the recovery of 

 stocks of striped bass , and surf and ocean quahogs on the Atlantic coast (Matlock in press). In 

 all, the Councils have developed 39 management plans covering hundreds of species. 



Despite management successes, many fish stocks in the United States are threatened. The 

 National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) 1997 "Report to Congress on the Status of 

 Fisheries in the United States " (NMFS 1997) covered 727 marine species under federal 

 management in the nation's 200-mile offshore exclusive economic zone. Of these 727 species, 

 sufficient information to determine their fishery status was available for only 279 species, less 

 than two-fifths of the total. Of these, 86 species (31 percent) were listed as "overfished," 183 

 species (66 percent) were listed as "not overfished," and 10 species (3 percent) were considered 

 to be approaching an overfished condition (Figure 1). The overfished species included some of 

 the most valuable commercial fish and shellfish. The basis for the identification of overfished 

 stocks in the NMFS report was the overfishing definition used in the Fishery Management 

 Plans, supplemented with information from the 1995 edition of "Our Living Oceans " (NMFS 

 1996). The Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 provided a more scientifically rigorous definition 



3 The Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 reauthorized and amends the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act 

 (which has been renamed the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.) 



C-9 



