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Weldon can take lead role in restoring ocean health

by REP Director Jim Stuhltrager
published in the Delaware County (PA) Daily Times on August 1, 2005

Two blue-ribbon commissions have agreed that when it comes to taking care of our oceans, this nation gets a failing grade. Because the future of our oceans is in Congress' hands, we need strong leaders to enact the recommendations by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy to improve how we manage them.

House Ocean Caucus Co-Chair Curt Weldon can take a first, significant step toward restoring our oceans by co-sponsoring legislation before Congress to improve the use of science in fishery management.

Many fishermen act as responsible stewards of our oceans because their livelihoods depend on abundant fish populations. All fishermen are dependent, however, upon federal fishery managers to effectively manage our ocean fish populations using sound scientific recommendations to ensure that those populations thrive and their businesses succeed.

Unfortunately, fishery managers have too often put economic or political considerations before sound science when making fishery management decisions, which has led to exploited fish populations, fishery closures, government buyout programs, and unhealthy ocean ecosystems.

For example, assessments made in 2003 show that more than one-third of the assessed fish stocks, 76 of 214 stocks (35.5 percent), are overfished, meaning that the number of fish in a population is at an unsustainably low level.

The North Pacific region has been the most successful in managing fish populations because its regional fishery management council has never allowed the total amount of catch for each species to exceed the limits recommended by its scientists. According to the most current assessment, no finfish population in the North Pacific is experiencing overfishing.

The Fisheries Science and Management Enhancement Act, HR 1431, would transfer the North Pacific model of science-based fishery management to all regions of the country and would go a long way toward restoring our fish populations to their once abundant levels. This bipartisan bill would:

1. Strengthen the use of science in fisheries management by requiring regional councils to develop fishery management plans that at a minimum conform to the recommendations of qualified scientific advisers.

2. Broaden the representation on fishery management councils by requiring the Secretary of Commerce to ensure balance between commercial fishing interests, recreational fishing interests, and representatives of the public.

3. Prohibit council members from voting on a matter affecting a fishery in which they have a financial conflict of interest.

4. Train newly appointed council members in fisheries science and economics, basic ecology, social sciences, and the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other relevant statutes and regulations.

5. Establish and fund a cooperative research, data collection, and gear modification program to improve scientific understanding of the health of our oceans and the impacts of fishing.