THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By BILL MOTT
LENGTH: 75 lines
America's fisheries, once abundant and seemingly inexhaustible, are being devastated by overfishing and mismanagement, causing social and economic upheaval in fishing communities around the country. As the prime summer fishing season winds down, Congress has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to reform federal fisheries law and set a new course of long-term economic and ecological health for our fisheries into the 21st century.
Last October, after three years of discussion and delay, the House of Representatives passed a bill to reauthorize and strengthen the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act by an overwhelming 388-37 bipartisan majority. The Senate has yet to pass its version, S.39, and time is quickly running out in this campaign-shortened session. Congress must not miss this opportunity to preserve our fishing communities and markets, vital marine ecosystems and the future of ocean fishing in America.
The Senate should pass its bill for the same common-sense economic and environmental reasons that persuaded the House: (1) to ensure that there will always be ample fish, employment, recreation and profits from catching fish for generations to come; (2) to cut our annual trade deficit by $2 billion and recover the more than $3 billion a year in lost revenue from unsustainable fishing; and (3) to create 300,000 jobs the Commerce Department says would be gained if our fisheries were managed sustainably.
Like the House bill, the Senate version effectively addresses the problems of overfishing, habitat destruction and excessive bycatch (the waste of nontargeted marine species thrown overboard dead or dying). These problems have reduced populations of snapper, cod, tuna, haddock, swordfish and other valuable species to all-time lows. Some are already commercially extinct. As an Aug. 24 New York Times editorial states, ``Failure to pass it now would mean that congressional hearings and logrolling would start all over again, leading to further assaults on fish stocks.''
During the past few years, $15 million in taxpayers' money has gone to commercial fishing interests along the Gulf of Mexico, and $30 million in federal aid has been dispensed in the Pacific Northwest, where 200 of the 300 salmon runs have become extinct mainly due to habitat loss. In New England alone, where overfishing has forced the closure of large parts of offshore fishing grounds, the industry has netted a commitment of $85 million in federal assistance.
Federal fisheries reform has the potential to restore the health of fish populations. In New England alone, for example, it could generate 14,000 more jobs and an additional $350 million in annual gross income. Waste of billions of pounds of fish is a little-known but critical issue. Last year in the Gulf of Mexico, the shrimp industry discarded 80 percent of what was caught - four pounds of fin fish for every pound of shrimp, including: 13 billion Atlantic croaker, more than 4.4 million longspine porgies and 35 million red snapper, all thrown back dead or dying. Each year in the waters off Alaska, gigantic factory trawlers fishing for pollock discard more than 700 million pounds of sea life, including 17 million crabs and 3.5 million halibut. Altogether that is more than the annual haul of the entire New England fishing fleet. The legislation Congress is expected to complete during September would greatly reduce this bycatch and waste.
Two decades ago, Congress enacted the nation's primary law governing fisheries, the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act. It established a 200-mile exclusive U.S. fisheries zone off our shores in order to force out foreign fishing fleets, which were overfishing. The federal government subsequently subsidized the rapid expansion and modernization of our domestic commercial fishing industry, in effect ``Americanizing,'' but not solving the problem.
In the 20 years since its original passage, the Magnuson Act has never undergone the substantial overhaul needed to update and correct its many flaws until now. Scores of conservation and fishing organizations representing millions of Americans are working hard to turn the tide. Concerned citizens must urge our senators to reauthorize the Magnuson Act now, for all of us who fish, eat fish or pay taxes, as well as our children, grandchildren and all generations beyond. MEMO: Bill Mott is director of the Marine Fish Conservation Network, a
coalition of 100 conservation, fishing and scientific organizations
raising awareness of marine fishing issues nationwide. by CNB