Implementing a science-based system for preventing overfishing and guiding sustainable fisheries in the United States

Abstract

Methot, R. D., Tromble, G. R., Lambert, D. M., and Greene, K. E. 2014. Implementing a science-based system for preventing overfishing and guiding sustainable fisheries in the United States. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 71: 183–194. Fisheries management in the United States is primarily governed by the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, first enacted in 1976. Overarching principles are that fishing mortality rates should not jeopardize the capacity of a stock to produce maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and that overfished stocks (i.e. biomass is too low) should be rebuilt to the level that will support MSY. The science-based system for achieving sustainable fisheries is implemented, in part, through setting annual catch limits (ACLs) that cannot exceed the acceptable biological catch that is recommended by Scientific and Statistical Committees using methods that account for scientific uncertainty. Accountability measures (AMs) are management measures to prevent ACLs from being exceeded or correct any overages that occur. Implementation in 2012 of ACLs and AMs in all Federal fisheries was a historical achievement in the United States; one that will help rebuild stocks and ensure sustainable fisheries into the future. Some remaining challenges include: determining appropriate catch levels and management approaches for stocks with incomplete data; assessing more stocks, more frequently; addressing differences between managing stocks as a complex vs. managing individual stocks in a multistock fishery; and incorporating social and economic factors in determining the appropriate response to uncertainty.

System-level optimal yield: increased value, less risk, improved stability, and better fisheries

“…What is less clear is not if a systems approach is allowable, but if it is called for. In the US context, Link (2015a, 2015b) (Darcy and Matlock 1999;Methot et al 2014) to see how OY and EBFM are related. What they and others have found is that, in fact, at least under US fisheries law, the need for OY and associated management measures is not legally mandated on a stock-bystock basis, but rather mandated on a fishery basis.…”

“…In the US context, there are provisions in the national standard guidelines and associated technical guidance (e.g., Darcy and Matlock 1999;Federal Register 2009;Methot et al 2014) for using stock complexes (i.e., aggregated groups of stocks). Thus, doing an aggregate OY is clearly allowable.…”

Scientific Considerations Informing Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Reauthorization

“…The most recent reauthorization required each RFMC to set stock-specific annual catch levels that are lower than that associated with overfishing-the overfishing limit (OFL; Methot et al 2014). The most recent reauthorization required each RFMC to set stock-specific annual catch levels that are lower than that associated with overfishing-the overfishing limit (OFL; Methot et al 2014).…”

Whatever Happened to the Wreckfish Fishery? An Evaluation of the Oldest Finfish ITQ Program in the United States

“…These changes were precipitated by changes in 2006 in US fisheries law requiring fishery management councils to set per-species catch levels that do not exceed the recommendations of their scientific and statistical committees (SSCs) (Crosson 2013;Methot et al 2014). Noting the lack of a peer-reviewed stock assessment of the wreckfish population, the SAFMC's SSC made a binding recommendation that the fleet quota be lowered from the longstanding two million pound total catch to a number approximating the fleet's actual catch in recent years (235,000 lbs.).…”