Responsible Fisheries Management in the U.S.-It Works; 'Sustainable Management Is A Reality,' Marine Conservation Alliance Says

6/2/2003

From: Terry Leitzell of the Marine Conservation Alliance, 206-281-5372; E-mail: terryl@icicleseafoods.com

JUNEAU, Alaska, June 2 -- Ecosystem-based, sustainable fisheries management works for many fisheries under the current federal regional council system, according to Marine Conservation Alliance (MCA) President Terry Leitzell, a former head of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The MCA is composed of numerous stakeholders in fisheries off Alaska, including fishing communities, industry associations, processors, fishermen, and Alaska native groups.

Responding to the just released Pew Oceans Commission Report, Leitzell says that the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the nation's federal fishery management statute, provides a successful system for judicious and responsible management, based on sound science.

The Pew Report pounds the regulatory table in Washington, D.C., appealing to Congress and the Administration to discard our unique and effective fisheries management system, and ignoring the vision of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and former Washington Senator Warren Magnuson in 1976. The Report insists on an impossibly ambitious solution to its catalogue of ocean problems, sweeping agencies from five federal departments into a new Oceans Department and a National Oceans Council parallel to the National Security Council. Implementation would take years, even with the obviously absent political will, stalling progress toward improvements in the current system. Oceans concerns certainly require more visibility and higher sustained funding levels for research, but not a new bureaucracy.

U.S. fisheries management continues to improve, dealing with new challenges and finding better solutions, in many parts of the country. The fisheries off Alaska, which provide half of annual U.S. landings, have been well-managed for over two decades, with no groundfish species overfished, fleets reduced through industry-funded buybacks and rationalization, and conservation decisions by world-class scientists. Fisheries managers in the region set annual catch limits at, or below, sustainable harvest levels recommended by fishery scientists.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has the most open, transparent, regulatory process in the country, with thirty-forty scheduled days a year of public testimony and deliberation, all in public. The Council receives comprehensive scientific advice from a panel of fifteen scientists from federal and state government and academia and stays within conservation recommendations.

"Even Leon Panetta, chairman of the Pew Commission, and Ransom Myers, an author of the recent Nature article of overfishing, point to the North Pacific as an example of good management", Leitzell said. He attributed the North Pacific fisheries management success to the use of the following tools, all available throughout the federal regional council system:

1. Science-based management decisions; 2. Conservative, sustainable fishing quotas; 3. Effective monitoring and enforcement of fish harvesting limitations, including all bycatch; 4. Effective limitations on fishing effort; 5. Protection of fisheries-dependent communities; 6. Incorporation of ecosystem-based management principles into Fishery Management Plans; and 7. An open, transparent public process where all stakeholders can and do participate.

"We need to build on the successes in Alaska and in other regions, not put the entire system on hold for years. Ecosystem-based management is difficult to obtain, but we must continue to adapt management strategies and objectives to that end. The next steps must be to dramatically increase funding for fisheries research and then to maintain our research efforts at a new, higher level, and to hold fisheries management decision-makers accountable. Congress and the Administration must provide the funding. Accountability for fisheries management decisions is best provided through the open, public process of the eight regional fishery management councils, not through pulling decisions back into the federal bureaucracy in Washington. We are all stakeholders in the oceans and its resources-it would be a travesty to diminish public input at the very time when more awareness and involvement is critical to success."

The MCA was established in 2001 by fishing associations, communities, Alaska Native Community Development Quota groups, harvesters, processors, and support sector businesses to promote the sustainable use of North Pacific marine resources by present and future generations -- based on sound science, prudent management, and a transparent, open public process. The Marine Conservation Alliance supports research and public education about the fisheries resources of the North Pacific, and seeks practical solutions to resource use questions to both protect the marine environment and minimize adverse impacts on the North Pacific fishing community.

For more information, contact:

Terry Leitzell, MCA President, 206-281-5372, terryl@icicleseafoods.com or visit the organization's Web site at http://www.marineconservationalliance.org