In January, the United States became the first country ever to place catch limits on every species it manages for all federally managed fisheries.  The limits, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are the latest step taken by the U.S. to sustain both commercial and recreational fishing.  And unlike many other environmental policies that are supported by one political party or the other, this policy was created under George W. Bush and has the full support of the Obama administration. 

Quoted in the Washington Post, Eric Schwab, the NOAA’s assistant administrator for fisheries, said, “It’s something that’s arguably first in the world.  It’s a huge accomplishment for the country.”

The NOAA’s jurisdiction spans more than 300,000 square miles of ocean and 85,000 miles of U.S. coastline, and it is responsible for enforcing the laws and regulations set out by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, among others, that was reauthorized by President Bush in 2006.  The act dates back to the 1970s and governs all fishing in U.S. waters.  A bipartisan group of lawmakers, environmentalists, and scientists as well as some fishing interests to craft the law requiring each fishery to have annual catch limits in place by the end of 2011.

While the NOAA didn’t meet the December 31^st deadline, it has completed 40 of the 46 fishery management plans in charge of all federally managed stocks, and the organization is confident it will have all annual catch limits in place by the time the 2012 fishing season begins for all species.  The timing depends on the fish; most seasons start around May 1 or later.  Some species, such as mahi mahi and wahoo in the southeast Atlantic, will have catch limits for the first time.

In the Washington Post article, Joshua Reichart, managing director of the Pew Environmental Group, said the law’s ban on overfishing forced fisheries to impose limits that some had been resisting for years.  “This simple but powerful provision had eluded lawmakers for years and is probably the most important conservation statute ever enacted into America’s fisheries law,” he said.

Still, some commercial and recreational operators do not agree with the new restrictions, arguing that regulators don’t have enough scientific data to justify them.  They also say that the law, that includes a mandate to rebuild depleted fish stocks within a decade, is too rigid. Some stocks, such as the summer flounder, or fluke in the mid-Atlantic, was once so overfished that its population in 1989 was estimated 88 percent below healthy levels, but an assessment last fall showed that the species had been rebuilt, with close to 137 million pounds of mature summer flounder in the region.

The NOAA conducts stock assessments of commercial species every few years, using independent trawl surveys and other data and interviews with fishery operators.  The organization is working with researchers to develop more effective tools to better estimate fish populations.

Member of the European Union are considering whether to adopt a law mandating the same kind of catch limits imposed by the U.S.