The Council immediately exempted lingcod and bocaccio from the default formula. The Council is just accepting the status quo of waste and continued decline. Instead, the Council is considering options for allowing landings and continued discarding of these fish, to be voted on at their November meeting in Portland, Oregon. The Council adopted a good description of groundfish habitat and measures for preventing and mitigating non-fishing impacts on habitat, such as pollution. However, the Council did not comply with a requirement to reduce the impacts of fishing on habitat.
Fishing can scour the bottom, destroy rocky reefs, and disrupt complex ecological relationships.
No-take marine reserves are needed to help address all of these problems. They can prevent overfishing by providing a hedge against uncertain stock assessments, rebuild depleted stocks by allowing older and more productive individuals to survive, alleviate the impacts of fishing on habitat, provide critical information on those impacts, and provide a refuge for bycaught species. Although the eight US regional fishery management councils made progress toward implementing the tough new conservation requirements of the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act, some councils missed the Act's October 13 deadline and some councils have submitted or are poised to submit new fishery management plans or plan amendments that fall short of the conservation requirements. The Federal law set a 24 month deadline for the councils to submit new management plans or plan amendments to prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, identify and protect essential fish habitat, and minimize bycatch. The Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national, NY-based nonprofit organization, represents 300,000 members.