STATEMENT: New NOAA Fisheries Priorities Could Weaken Bedrock Sustainable Fisheries Principles

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) today released a list of its priorities to implement Executive Order 14276 “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” Ocean Conservancy experts are conducting an initial review of these priorities and are available for interviews on request. Ocean Conservancy’s Senior Director of Fish Conservation, Meredith Moore issued the following statement in response:

“Conservation and competitiveness go hand in hand because fishing communities need abundant fish stocks, and fish stocks need a healthy ocean. The guideposts of sustainable fisheries management, the “National Standards” laid out in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, America’s premier fishing law, helped bring American seafood back from the brink because they encourage management with an eye to the future. 

The agency’s proposals to change how they implement these standards means that everything from the way we prevent overfishing, what stocks we manage, how we avoid damaging ecosystems, and what science we use could be weakened. The agency also says it will weaken protections for ecologically important habitats, even though we know fisheries will suffer when habitats are degraded by damaging fishing gear, mining, or other extractive activities.   

Weakening the standards and science that protect fish stocks is not the path to strong fishing communities and continued opportunity for future generations. At risk are not only the species that power our seafood economy, but the whales, turtles, fish and corals that make up a healthy and productive ocean.”

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