Of 67 Fish Stocks Declared Overexploited In 1996, 3 Have Recovered

[hatrack]

PORTLAND, Maine -- A University of New Hampshire study to be published next month shows that of the nation's 67 fish stocks identified in 1996 as overfished, only three have been rebuilt. And of the eight fishery management regions, New England ranks lowest for recovering ailing fish stocks, according to Andrew Rosenberg, the report's chief author and a professor of natural resources policy and management at the University of New Hampshire.

The study, described in the Maine Sunday Telegram, looks at the nine-year period that followed the 1996 changes to the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which requires depleted fish stocks be rebuilt within a 10-year time limit. Congress is considering the act again.

``Nearly half of the stocks for which there are rebuilding plans are still subject to overfishing," the study says, ``so that fishing pressure is still too high to allow recovery."

According to Rosenberg's study, federal managers have allowed for numerous delays in implementing recovery plans. ``The one thing that surprised me the most," Rosenberg told the Telegram, ``is that in so many cases, even though the stocks have been under a rebuilding plan for a number of years, overfishing was still going on." The study, ``Rebuilding US Fisheries: Progress and Problems," will be published next month in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The report relied on previously published information from regional groups and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

EDIT

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2006/07/10/study_finds_us_fish_stock_slow_to_rebound/

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Magnuson-Stevens is one thing

old Ted has done right in his Senate life.