Houston,
Texas— Federal data show that in 2007 nearly three out of ten Gulf
of Mexico fish species for which there is adequate information were
overfished or were caught faster than they can reproduce, a
condition known as overfishing. For 67 percent (36 out of 54) of the
species in the Gulf that the federal government oversees there is not
enough information to know whether the populations are healthy or
not, according to a report released by Environment Texas today.
“With
depleted numbers of red snapper and great amberjack, declining
loggerhead sea turtle populations, and an annual dead zone, the Gulf
of Mexico is in trouble,” said Luke Metzger, Director of
Environment Texas. “It’s very troubling that almost thirty
percent of the Gulf’s fish species are overfished. But even worse
news is that we only know how healthy a third of our fish are at
best. We are fishing blind on the other two thirds.”
The
report, The Gulf: From
Overfishing to Healthy Waters, analyzed
data through the end of 2007 from the National Marine Fisheries
Service, the government agency that manages the nation’s marine
fisheries in coordination with eight regional councils. One of the
eight regional councils is the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management
Council which recommends annual catch limits and rules for fishing in
federal waters in the Gulf.
Environment
Texas found that of the Gulf’s fish for which there was adequate
information, 29 percent (2 out of 7 fish stocks) were overfished and
31 percent (4 out of 13) experienced overfishing. Overfished
typically means that a fish species has been reduced to below 20 or
25 percent of its original population. When eight out of ten fish of
any one kind are missing from the ocean it has profoundly negative
effects on the rest of the ocean’s ecosystem. The overfished
species overseen by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council
include red snapper and greater amberjack. The stocks experiencing
overfishing are: red snapper, greater amberjack, gag grouper, and
gray triggerfish. Most have been prized by generations of Gulf
fishermen but species like red snapper have been depleted to less
than 2-3% of their original numbers.
The
nation’s primary marine fish management law, the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act, was signed into law at the
beginning of 2007. The law requires regional councils to use more
conservation minded standards in deciding how much fish can be caught
sustainably and strong environmental reviews of the impacts of its
decisions on fish, other marine animals and habitat to ensure that
its decisions improve the whole ecosystem not just optimize the
amount of fish caught.
Metzger
noted that new rules on overfishing and environmental impact
assessment should help the Gulf Council do a better job at managing
fisheries. Strong new rules will help rebuild overfished fish
species more rapidly; will prevent any new ones from being damaged;
could force essential work on assessing the health of additional fish
stocks; and should result in more balanced decisions because the
health of other fish and marine animals must be assessed in the
environmental reviews.
Metzger
added, “The Gulf Council has begun to set more sustainable catch
limits and fishing rules that will help fish rebound. Recent
decisions to set tighter limits on red snapper and shrimp bycatch
show that the Council can take strong positions that will help to
restore the Gulf.”
He
said, “Unless the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposes
strong National Standard 1 rules on overfishing to back up the
Council’s recent decisions and strengthens rules for doing
environmental reviews of fishery decisions we fear that the Council
could reverse direction and backslide into its old ways.”
Environment
Texas called on the Bush administration and the Gulf Council to
support new fishing rules that:
Set
conservative numerical annual catch limits for fishermen that will
prevent overfishing.
Require
the annual catch limits to be established by independent scientists,
not industry participants sitting on the council.
Establish
consequences for overfishing.
For
environmental reviews, Environment Texas urged the Gulf Council and
the Bush Administration to:
Make
clear that National Marine Fishery Service is the lead agency in the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.
Retain
the existing forms of NEPA documentation and process that have been
established over the past thirty years of practice.
Ensure
that the public involvement process allows sufficient time for
meaningful input.
Allow
the public to comment on alternatives raised by decision makers
after the initial phase of comments.
“If
the new rules on fishing and environmental reviews are strong enough,
five or ten years from now we won’t be talking about overfishing,
we’ll be out on the water enjoying a healthy Gulf filled with sea
life. That’s our vision for the future of the Gulf,” concluded
Metzger.
