Opportunity for Bush Administration to Enhance its Ocean Legacy Threatened by Shortsighted...

Opportunity for Bush Administration to Enhance its Ocean Legacy Threatened by
Shortsighted Interests

New proposals could set historic rules for managing wild fish populations

WASHINGTON, April 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ocean luminaries and fisheries
experts today recognized the Bush administration for its efforts to end
overfishing and preserve ecologically significant areas of the ocean. They
also urged the administration to stand up to powerful fishing interests that
could jeopardize recent successes in ocean policy.

"During his final months in office, President Bush has the opportunity to
enhance his ocean legacy," said Dr. Joshua Reichert, managing director of the
Pew Environment Group. "The administration must stand firm against attempts by
those in the fishing industry and on some of the nation's fishery management
councils to undermine its significant achievements for marine conservation."

In 2006 President Bush created the Northwest Hawaiian Islands National
Monument, the largest single area dedicated to conservation in U.S. history,
and in 2007 signed legislation strengthening the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act (MSA), our nation's primary ocean fish
conservation law.

To implement the new MSA law, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is
expected to publish two proposals in the coming months. These rulemakings -
one on compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the other
aimed at ending overfishing - could either protect fish populations from
overfishing or bring them one step closer to the brink of collapse.

"Healthy, diverse ocean ecosystems can better withstand changes in climate or
water temperature. We need to develop policies with an eye toward the entire
ecosystem, not just the few fish species we'd like to catch," said Dr. Sylvia
Earle, explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society.

"We are taking more fish out of the oceans than the oceans can sustainably
replenish," said Philippe Cousteau, founder and CEO of EarthEcho
International. "We should use sound science to set sustainable limits on the
amount of fish we catch."

For NMFS' regulations to fully comply with NEPA, the rulemaking - which is
more than eight months overdue - must compare a range of alternatives and
possible consequences to proposed fishery management actions, allow adequate
public participation in fishery management decisions and include procedures to
evaluate the wider ecosystem impacts of fishing decisions on ocean ecosystems.

To end overfishing by 2011, the proposed rule needs to be published soon and
must require that annual catch limits (ACLs) end overfishing, are based on the
best available science, hold fishery managers accountable for allowing ACLs to
be exceeded to prevent chronic overfishing and facilitate ecosystem-based
fishery management.

"My experience in Hawaii has shown me that the fishery management councils
usually focus on solving short-term economic problems, but end up creating
long-term conservation crises," said William Aila, Hawaiian fisherman. "The
councils need strict guidance from the National Marine Fisheries Service to
make sure they do what's right in the long term."

"Consumers and chefs have an important role to play in promoting sustainably
caught seafood," said Barton Seaver, executive chef and partner of Hook
restaurant in Washington, D.C. "But we need government to step in and create
policies that protect our oceans and the fishing communities which rely upon
its resources so that we can have seafood on our plates and enough fish left
in the oceans."

For more information, including fact sheets on overfishing and the National
Environmental Policy Act, visit
http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work.aspx?category=146

To listen to an MP3 of a fisheries press briefing, go to
http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_ektid37348.aspx

SOURCE Pew Environment Group

Jo Knight of Pew Environment Group, +1-202-664-4504