U.S.’s Largest Fisheries in North Pacific May Be Dying: Report Contradicts House Testimony on Fisheries Act Reauthorization

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, July 14 /U.S. Newswire/ — The seemingly healthy North Pacific ecosystem along Alaska’s coastline that generates half of America’s seafood catch and $2 billion in annual revenues may be dying and could collapse unless the problems are addressed when Congress soon reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). That’s the conclusion of a new report by the Marine Fish Conservation Network (www.conservefish.org) released on the eve of the Alaska Oceans Festival on Saturday, July 16 entitled: Vital Signs in North Pacific: Code Blue for the Ocean. The MSA calls for specific actions to recover depleted fish populations, minimize bycatch (the catching and killing of non-target ocean wildlife) from indiscriminate fishing technologies, and protect essential fish habitat. The Code Blue report concludes that despite some progress since then, grave problems remain.

“The North Pacific waters seemingly limitless productivity gives rise to the alluring illusion that the ecosystem is healthy enough to sustain this bounty into perpetuity,” said Mark J. Spalding, J.D., MPIA, Senior Program Officer of the Alaska Oceans Program (www.alaskaoceans.org), which funded the study. “In truth, it may be slowly dying, contrary to recent congressional testimony by the National Marine Fisheries Service.”

“The North Pacific is a highly productive ecosystem with no depleted or overfished groundfish stocks,” testified Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries in the Alaska Region of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) at a July 6 hearing on reauthorization of MSA before the House Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans. “Our success is driven by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s tenet to adhere to the underlying science provided by NMFS, the State of Alaska, universities, and other independent scientists.”

The Code Blue report directly contradicts that testimony. Among the report’s conclusions:

— From seafloor crabs to high-flying seabirds, many populations of marine life have experienced alarming declines in recent decades. These declines correlate to a massive increase in the annual fish catch, a take that has been encouraged to grow to what may be unsustainable levels thanks to a combination of policy decisions, economic pressures, and collapses of fishable populations in other regions.

— The status of most of the other 194 fish populations managed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is unknown, making it impossible for managers to make informed decisions affecting the health of these populations.

— The symptoms of decline are apparent both in fisheries managed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and in the astonishing declines in other species that rely either directly or indirectly on the species we fish for. Declines in one species can cause ripple effects throughout an entire ecosystem.

— In just two decades, the fisheries have wiped out four out of the five female pollock of reproductive age in the Gulf of Alaska. Pollock is used to make fish sticks, fish sandwiches and is an inexpensive substitute for crab and other seafood in Asia. There is serious concern that the depletion of Gulf of Alaska pollock has contributed to the decline of other species that eat pollock, such as endangered Steller sea lions.

— Population levels of Greenland turbot have declined by as much as 86 percent since the 1960s, despite efforts to recover the population with conservative catch levels.

— Populations of rougheye rockfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands have declined more than half since 1980.

— At least six crab populations in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands have crashed, with most of them now closed to fishing. The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery crashed a few years after the initiation of an indiscriminate fishing technology called bottom trawling.

— The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has failed to address the question of how removing huge numbers of fish and marine bycatch (the catching and killing of non-target ocean wildlife) affects other parts of the ecosystem. Management rules determining allowable catch levels of exploited populations are not scientifically based on what is sustainable for marine ecosystems.

— Current policies and practices turn a blind eye towards the many birds, mammals and other non-target species killed as a byproduct of indiscriminate fishing technologies, waste that regularly reaches 300 million pounds in a year.

— During the past 50 years, the total catch in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska has grown more than one hundred fold – from less than 31.6 million pounds and two species – to nearly 4.77 billion pounds, and several dozen species.

— During this same period, the number of seabirds such as the common murre, spectacled eider, and short-tailed albatross dropped by up to 96 percent. Marine mammals including harbor seals, sea otters, and northern fur seals have undergone similar declines.

— Even some species directly managed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, such as the Gulf of Alaska Atka mackerel and Bering Sea sablefish have reached dangerously low numbers.

— The adoption of ecosystem-based management measures can lead to remarkable recoveries. President Bush’s U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (USCOP) and other marine experts recommend a similar approach for our ailing oceans. The three tenets of ecosystem-based management are: sound science, adaptive management, and a commitment to the physician’s precautionary principal-First, do no harm.

— Failing to consider the entire ecosystem and the ecosystem effects of fishing could prove disastrous to both the ecosystem and the 55,000 fishing industry jobs that depend on it.

“If the status quo continues, declines in a vast array of marine life ranging from fish to crabs to birds to mammals could lead to extinction of threatened and endangered species, and other cascading effects, including the collapse of the North Pacific ecosystem,” Spalding added.

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