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MANY United States fishermen may be having a difficult time following the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, but things are looking up for the industry in catching grounds around other parts of the country.
Four fisheries stocks, including Atlantic swordfish, have now been rebuilt to healthy levels, according to a report to Congress from the federal National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA). Three stocks were removed from the overfishing list – those fished at a level that would threaten the stocks. For the first time since the report was issued in 1997, no stocks were added to the overfishing list.
In the report Status of US Fisheries, NOAA scientists reported that 85 per cent of the stocks examined (212 of 250 stocks) were free from overfishing, or not fished at too high a level. The report also examined whether stocks are overfished – a fish population too low to ensure a maximum sustainable harvest – and found that 77 percent of the stocks examined (157 of 203 stocks) were not overfished.
“By working with our regional fishery councils and commercial and recreational fishermen, we are getting closer every year to ending overfishing in our waters,” said Eric Schwaab, NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “With annual catch limits coming into effect this year, we expect our progress to accelerate.”
The report shows a continuing trend of year-over-year national improvements. This year’s report matches last year’s for the most stocks reported rebuilt – Atlantic scup, Atlantic black sea bass, and St. Matthew’s Island, Alaska, blue king crab and Atlantic swordfish. Four more stocks – Winter skate and sailfish in the Atlantic, and bocaccio and darkblotched rockfish in the Pacific – had populations at an overfished level in 2008, but began rebuilding in 2009.
Atlantic scup, Gulf of Maine thorny skate, and Gulf of Mexico pink shrimp, along with two stocks of Alaskan king crab, which were previously fished at too high a level, were found to be free from overfishing now.
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