Protect Our Oceans: U.S. Fisheries Management Needs a 21st Century Update
Many U.S. fish populations have recently rebounded after years and sometimes decades of mismanagement and overfishing. This progress would not have been possible without the conservation provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
The Magnuson-Stevens Act turns 40 this year and needs to build on the success of these conservation provisions with an update for the 21st century.
Our oceans face significant threats, including habitat destruction, changing temperatures, and acidification. Yet the law's species-specific approach does not sufficiently account for these and other challenges.
We need a big-picture approach to management in the act, with provisions that would protect fish habitat, ensure new fisheries are well-planned at the start, and more to confront the 21st century challenges facing oceans.
Unfortunately, a proposal from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) to change how the law is implemented not only fails to adopt this big-picture approach, but erodes current fishery management rules for ending overfishing.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is reviewing this and other proposals to change U.S. fisheries management. With your help, we can convince our Senators to call for a big picture approach and reject proposals that reprise past management mistakes.
Add your name today and tell your senator that the Magnuson-Stevens Act needs an update for the 21st century and should not be weakened.
The Magnuson-Stevens Act turns 40 this year and needs to build on the success of these conservation provisions with an update for the 21st century.
Our oceans face significant threats, including habitat destruction, changing temperatures, and acidification. Yet the law's species-specific approach does not sufficiently account for these and other challenges.
We need a big-picture approach to management in the act, with provisions that would protect fish habitat, ensure new fisheries are well-planned at the start, and more to confront the 21st century challenges facing oceans.
Unfortunately, a proposal from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) to change how the law is implemented not only fails to adopt this big-picture approach, but erodes current fishery management rules for ending overfishing.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is reviewing this and other proposals to change U.S. fisheries management. With your help, we can convince our Senators to call for a big picture approach and reject proposals that reprise past management mistakes.
Add your name today and tell your senator that the Magnuson-Stevens Act needs an update for the 21st century and should not be weakened.
Subject: Support proposals to strengthen, not weaken, the Magnuson-Stevens Act
Dear [Senator]:
I write to respectfully request that you work to promote economically and environmentally sustainable fisheries by strengthening the Magnuson-Stevens Act and advancing a big-picture approach to management.
Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs our nation's commercial and recreational ocean fisheries, science-based management tools are helping to restore many once-depleted fish populations around the country. But there is still more to do.
Unfortunately, our management system currently takes a species specific approach, and does not sufficiently account for significant stressors, such as habitat loss and changing ocean conditions. When the Magnuson-Stevens Act was first enacted almost 40 years ago, managers did not have the level of scientific information they have today. With improved, more sophisticated technology, we know more about where fish live, what they eat, what eats them, and what impacts other than fishing affect them. Using the knowledge developed from this improved technology, we now have the ability to manage fish populations with a more comprehensive approach.
U.S. fisheries management should be updated to improve conservation of forage fish which provide food for larger fish; protect fish habitat; reduce the wasteful catch and discarding of nontarget fish and wildlife; make sure new fisheries are well-planned before they start and spur development of fishery ecosystem plans that integrate these priorities into decisions about setting rules for fishing activities.
Weakening the Magnuson-Stevens Act or how it is applied would return us to the mistakes of the past. I ask for your leadership by rejecting proposals to undermine the law and instead supporting an update to the Act that will advance a big-picture approach to management so we can tackle challenges facing our oceans.
Thank you,
[Your name]
Sign PetitionSign PetitionDear [Senator]:
I write to respectfully request that you work to promote economically and environmentally sustainable fisheries by strengthening the Magnuson-Stevens Act and advancing a big-picture approach to management.
Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs our nation's commercial and recreational ocean fisheries, science-based management tools are helping to restore many once-depleted fish populations around the country. But there is still more to do.
Unfortunately, our management system currently takes a species specific approach, and does not sufficiently account for significant stressors, such as habitat loss and changing ocean conditions. When the Magnuson-Stevens Act was first enacted almost 40 years ago, managers did not have the level of scientific information they have today. With improved, more sophisticated technology, we know more about where fish live, what they eat, what eats them, and what impacts other than fishing affect them. Using the knowledge developed from this improved technology, we now have the ability to manage fish populations with a more comprehensive approach.
U.S. fisheries management should be updated to improve conservation of forage fish which provide food for larger fish; protect fish habitat; reduce the wasteful catch and discarding of nontarget fish and wildlife; make sure new fisheries are well-planned before they start and spur development of fishery ecosystem plans that integrate these priorities into decisions about setting rules for fishing activities.
Weakening the Magnuson-Stevens Act or how it is applied would return us to the mistakes of the past. I ask for your leadership by rejecting proposals to undermine the law and instead supporting an update to the Act that will advance a big-picture approach to management so we can tackle challenges facing our oceans.
Thank you,
[Your name]
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