SAVING ATLANTIC BLUEFIN TUNA
There has been much attention recently to chronic overfishing of bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, in particular because there is mixing between the eastern and western stocks in heavily fished areas. NCMC supports the U.S. seeking tougher conservation measures through the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Nevertheless, the answer to our problems here in the west does not lie in the east. The recent collapse of our New England fishery for giant tunas, if it has anything to do with overfishing in the east, underscores the fact that our fishery has been relying more and more on eastern migrants and that, without them, the western population is too small to support a viable fishery on its own. The western Atlantic stock is separate and distinct from the eastern stock. It spawns in the Gulf of Mexico and only in the Gulf and all adult bluefin present in the Gulf during spawning season (March-June) are western breeders. Because of the warm water temperatures in the Gulf, breeding bluefin suffer an extremely high mortality when caught on longlines, and there is a significant bycatch in the Gulf’s yellowfin tuna longline fishery. Closing the Gulf to longlining, where and when the bluefin spawn, would do more than anything else to protect what’s left of the western bluefin spawning stock and preserve a U.S. fishery for the future.
          Request more information about this issue.

REBUILDING THE US SWORDFISH FISHERY
North Atlantic swordfish are staging a comeback after being fished down to nearly half of a healthy population size in the mid-1990s. The swordfish stock has nearly recovered to the established target level, yet it is currently comprised of very young fish. While the swordfish population is rebuilding, both to a healthy number of fish and a stable age structure (i.e., more breeding age fish), the US must enhance our ability to catch swordfish in a selective and sustainable manner. We must make a transition to the use of more selective fishing gear (like rod-and-reel and harpoon) while shifting away from the use of pelagic longlines, which indiscriminately kill juvenile swordfish and other marine life, including sharks and billfish. NOAA Fisheries should make the handgear sectors open access and promote their expansion. Meanwhile, we must continue to examine methods of reducing longline bycatch.
           Request more information about this issue.

ATLANTIC-WIDE BILLFISH RECOVERY
A priority for ICCAT (the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) must be to continue its billfish rebuilding program until the Atlantic’s marlins, especially white marlin - among the most depleted fish under ICCAT's jurisdiction - are restored to healthy levels. ICCAT should evaluate time-area closures on the high seas to give additional protection to billfish from indiscriminate longlines and nets targeting other species, establish an overall bycatch reduction goal, and implement closures that, in conjunction with landings restrictions, achieve this goal. Current measures limiting billfish landings, plus measures encouraging the use of circle hooks and live-release of incidentally caught fish, should remain in place until full recovery is achieved.
          Find out what happened at ICCAT's November 2006 meeting.
          Request more information about this issue.

ATLANTIC LONGLINE FISHERIES
The longlining closures off the southeast coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico were a crucial step toward the swordfish recovery, particularly in Florida, and as a bonus reduced bykill of marlins, sailfish dolphin and large coastal sharks by up to 75 percent for some species. NCMC has continually opposed attempts by the U.S. longline industry to return to fishing in these waters under the guise of “research” in order to re-open large areas to longlining. The importance of protecting these closures – defined as allowing no loss in their conservation benefit – cannot be understated. NCMC will continue to be a leading voice in this effort.  
          Learn more about the effectiveness of the longline area closures, including NCMC's specific recommendations for additional areas to consider for closure.

CONSERVING LARGE COASTAL SHARKS
The commercial shark fishery is unmanageable and unsustainable. The sandbar shark, which is the primary target of many commercial shark fishermen, is projected to take 70 years to rebuild while allowing limited catches. Recovery for porbeagle sharks is estimated at 100 years with zero catch. And the dusky shark could take from 100-400 years to get off the overfished list. Regulation of the commercial fishery is becoming increasingly restrictive, complex, time-consuming, and expensive, all to keep a relatively few fishermen in business. Sharks can handle only the most limited fishing. Commercial shark fisheries are simply not sustainable, and that fact isn’t going to change during the next century. The federal government and industry have discussed buying out latent or unused capacity. That’s just more expense with little benefit to the rest of us – or the sharks. What we propose is calling the whole thing off.
           Request more information about this issue.

PRESERVING THE ECOLOGICAL ROLE OF MENHADEN IN CHESAPEAKE BAY AND THROUGHOUT ITS RANGE
After successfully capping the industrial harvest of Atlantic menhaden in Chesapeake Bay in 2006, NCMC has been actively working on the research mandated under the cap to assess the health of the Chesapeake Bay population of menhaden and whether or not it is meeting predator demands. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission must establish long-term, ecologically sound catch limits for menhaden, in the Bay and coastwide, including new, more conservative standards for such an important forage fish that will leave a maximum amount of menhaden in the water as a critical food base for striped bass and many other predators and as filter-feeders that cleanse coastal waters of excess nutrients.
          Read more on NCMC's Save the Stripers program, an effort to conserve the stripers' primary food supply, menhaden.

PRESERVING A HEALTHY DOLPHIN FISHERY
The NCMC worked hard for years to gain adoption of proactive measures to preserve the presently abundant southeast dolphin fisheries. A dolphin plan approved in 2003 is successfully maintaining catches among historic recreational and commercial participants at sustainable levels while preventing the expansion of new fisheries with the potential to significantly increase fishing mortality, in particular the pelagic longline fisheries.
          Request more information about this issue.

SUMMER FLOUNDER REBUILDING
The NCMC does not have a position per se on what the summer flounder catch should be. We simply don’t have the resources to cover every fishery in the country and get involved at that level. On the other hand, we do support the Magnuson Act rebuilding requirements. The Act requires that overfished stocks of fish be rebuilt in 10 years or less, unless the science indicates that is not possible (e.g., the biology of the fish or changes in the environment). In the case of summer flounder, Congress amended the Act in 2006, in deference to the economic concerns of recreational fishermen, and extended the timeframe another 3 years (from 2010 to 2013). The 2008 allowable catch level jointly recommended by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, expected to keep the fishery on a trajectory to meet the rebuilding goal within the time period set out in the reauthorized Magnuson Act.
           Request more information about this issue.

MORATORIUM ON PACIFIC LONGLINING
In February 2004 NOAA Fisheries approved the Pacific Fishery Management Council's management plan for west coast highly migratory species. The centerpiece of this plan is a complete ban on longline fishing out to 200-miles off California, Oregon and Washington. NCMC worked for three years with other conservation and recreational fishing groups urging the Council to reject a proposal by the commercial fishing industry to permit a new pelagic longline fishery off the west coast. The plan contains other precautionary measures to prevent overfishing of tunas, swordfish, marlin, sharks, and dolphin as well as a data collection framework that will assist in improving stock assessments and working towards cooperative conservation of these fish throughout their range.
          Read the latest update.

NCMC has also joined dozens of other organizations and individuals in calling for a moratorium on the use of longline gear on the high seas. Widespread use of this indiscriminate fishing gear is further depleting populations of endangered sea turtles – like the Pacific leatherback, which is bordering on extinction – not to mention unintentionally killing marlin, sharks and other non-targeted fish. The US west coast-based longline fleet is currently prohibited from fishing for swordfish on the high seas because of turtle interactions. The Pacific Council, however, is looking at options for regulating that fishery that would satisfy the Endangered Species Act. NCMC is monitoring the development of these options.
          Read the latest update.

Learn more about our efforts to ban the sale of Pacific billfish.

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS
NCMC believes marine protected areas (MPAs) – defined as areas with specific restrictions on human activities to achieve a specific conservation purpose – can be an important ocean management tool. But we are opposed to the blanket use of no-take marine reserves. Selective and sustainable fishing activities, such as angling, in most cases should not be restricted arbitrarily in the zeal to create refuges. MPAs will be most effective, and provide the biggest overall benefit, if they are used to reward sustainable methods of fishing.
          Read NCMC's full position statement on protected areas.

ECOSYSTEM-BASED FISHERY MANAGEMENT – FORAGE FIRST!
NCMC believes managing fisheries on a "single-species" approach (catch limits and other regulations set by addressing each species in isolation from other species) is inadequate. It fails to consider predator-prey interactions and other ecosystem functions. NCMC is spearheading the advancement of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, and we advocate protecting the ocean’s forage base as a first step. Fishery management plans for all key forage fish – schooling finfish such as herring, menhaden, and sardines, but also including squid and krill – should allocate the fish to meet predator needs first, before allocating fish to fisheries.
          Request more information about this issue.
          Read more on our Forage First campaign.

OFFSHORE AQUACULTURE
NCMC believes that without strict and comprehensive protection measures built into legislation and regulations, offshore aquaculture poses serious risks to wild fish stocks and marine ecosystems. Studies of the impacts of aquaculture in an open ocean environment are limited, and so a precautionary approach must be adopted that prioritizes the health of marine resources and places the burden of proof on the aquaculture industry.
          Read the full details.

To request more information on any of these issues, send an email to NCMC.