The Winding Glass: Destruction of NMFS Cancels Trump’s Order Supporting American Fisheries
[The Winding Glass is the opinion and commentary column by John Sackton, Founder, SeafoodNews]
Staff firings and budget cuts are dismantling the fishery management regime established through the Magnuson Stevens Act. In 2005 when NOAA implanted a system for monitoring the sustainability of fish stocks, only 38% of US commercial stocks were not overfished or within 80% of their biomass targets. By 2023, this had increased to 78% of the monitored commercial stocks.
This record was achieved despite climate factors decimating some important commercial fish species, such as pacific salmon, crab, and American lobster. That means that while total commercial landings have...
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