Resources

Fact Sheets

Fishery Management:

• Management in the Mid-Atlantic Region (PDF)
  

  A brief overview of US fisheries management and conservation.

• Pew Environment Group Letter: Mid-Atlantic Scoping Comments (PDF)

H.R. 1584

• H.R. 1584: More Costly Delay for America’s Fisheries and Fishermen (PDF)
  January 15, 2009

  A new bill, H.R. 1584, threatens the ecological and economic sustainability of fish populations by giving managers new “flexibility” to delay critical rebuilding actions.

H.R. 1584 Letters

• Letter from 44 Groups

Annual Catch Limits

• A Rule to End Overfishing in the United States (PDF)
  January 15, 2009
  

  The final rule creates a framework for fishery managers to establish annual catch limits, based on the best available science, in order to end overfishing in U.S. ocean waters by 2011. This new rule represents an important step forward in fisheries management.

  Regional fact sheets (all PDF):

  • Gulf Region
  • Mid Atlantic
  • New England
  • Pacific
  • South Atlantic


• A New Rule to End Overfishing in the United States (PDF)

  Federal Guidelines Must (Not "Should") Protect Fisheries.

ACL Letters

• Letter from 86 Groups
• Center for Biological Diversity
• Marine Fish Conservation Network
• National Coalition for Marine Conservation
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• Oceana
• Pew Environment Group

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

• Goals for a New National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Rule

  Our oceans are under assault from global warming, pollution and industrial scale fishing. The Obama Administration must pass a new NEPA rule to protect entire marine ecosystems.

• NEPA - An Ocean Conservation Success Story (PDF)

  NEPA has made it possible to protect thousands of square miles of coral formations, reduce mortality of endangered sea turtles and begin the rebuilding of depleted populations of commercially valuable fish.

NEPA Letters

• Group letters asking the fisheries service to withdraw proposal to weaken environmental review:

  • 8 House Republicans
  • 72 House Democrats
  • 160 National Groups
  • 79 Scientists
  • 15 Partnership Project
  
  
  

• Organizational letters asking the fisheries service to withdraw proposal to weaken environmental review:

  • Association of Zoos and Aquariums
  • Center for Biological Diversity & Turtle Island Restoration Network
  • Defenders of Wildlife
  • Environment America
  • Environmental Defense Fund
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Joint Ocean Commission
  • Marine Fish Conservation Network
  • Marine Mammal Commission
  • The Ocean Conservancy & Oceana
  • Pew Environment Group

Other Resources

• Ocean Conservation and the End of Overfishing (PDF)

  A new booklet providing background information about the state of U.S. and global fisheries, and the upcoming NMFS rulemakings on overfishing and environmental review.
  
  

• Conflicted Councils: How the Nation's Regional Fishery Management Councils Threaten President Bush’s Commitment to Strengthen Fisheries Management (PDF)

  The president, Congress and the public have all done their parts to protect ocean fish. Now, it is time for the regional fishery management councils, often led by individuals with financial conflicts of interest, to end decades of mismanagement and do their part to create a legacy of ending overfishing and safeguarding our oceans for long-term health.

• Setting Annual Catch Limits for U.S. Fisheries: An Expert Working Group Report, 2007 (PDF)
  Lenfest Ocean Program

  The Expert Working Group developed a straightforward process for establishing catch limits and accountability measures, which included setting a sufficiently precautionary measure to ensure that overfishing does not occur.