What’s the Big Deal?
For the third time in the last seven years, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released a draft of its massive Programmatic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and has completed a 70-day public comment period. This immense document represents the first time in over 20 years that NMFS has offered the public a review of the effects of industrial fishing, begun over 40 years ago by foreign factory fleets and now managed by the Department of Commerce, on the North Pacific ecosystem as a whole. The Record of Decision is scheduled for release in September. NMFS is accepting comments on the Final PSEIS until July 3, but they are not required to respond to comments.
The last two drafts of the EIS have failed to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because NMFS did not actually consider either the impacts of the fisheries as a whole program and did not consider alternatives to the present fishing regime, which places short term industry profits over the long term health of the ecosystem and resources. These failures, and the resulting crashes in some marine mammal, seabird, and fish populations have led to lengthy and expensive litigation to force the federal government to live up the mandates of U.S. law.
Why Should I Care?
This EIS offers the citizens of the United States with their best chance of securing sustainable well managed fisheries that take into account the needs of the North Pacific ecosystem as a whole. While the EIS is massive in size, it is also massive in scope; instead of focusing only on one specific area, fishery, or species, this extremely important document will forge public policy concerning half of the country’s fisheries as well as some of the most dramatic marine biodiversity on the planet.
Traditional fisheries management, based on the same general principles that have brought us strip-mining and clear-cutting, has largely ignored the needs of any ecosystem component beyond humans. NMFS has based their marine policies on the extraction of billions of pounds of fish per year without considering the resulting destruction of the food web that depends upon these fish. In Alaska, we have some of the healthier fisheries in the U.S., and now we have an opportunity to ensure the future of this magnificent ecosystem.
If Alaska’s Oceans are Healthy, What’s the Problem?
While Alaska’s oceans and fisheries are certainly some of the healthiest in the U.S., they are also facing severe declines that have marked the collapses of other U.S. and international fisheries. Substantial news coverage has recently been devoted to the international ocean depletion of fishes and Alaskan waters are not that different. Many species in Alaskan waters, such as marine mammals, fish, and seabirds, face serious declines.
These events are frightening in light of the complete collapse of many fisheries under the economic exploitation model of management put forward by the Department of Commerce. New England fisheries have crashed; much of the Gulf of Mexico is now a dead zone, and the fisheries in California, Oregon, and Washington are becoming increasingly restricted as at-risk populations collapse due to over-exploitation.
Our oceans are vital to the survival of our species and our planet, and they are now in crisis. This is our last, best opportunity to ensure that they remain healthy and recover from our shortsighted management regime now in effect.
What is the Solution?
Fisheries management desperately needs basic reforms that address fishing impacts to ocean habitat and ecosystem integrity. It is essential that NMFS adopt the Oceans Alternative, which incorporates ecosystem based management policies into fishery ecosystem plans and sustains fisheries for the long term.
The Oceans Alternative requires resource managers to:
- Proactively avoid harm rather than assuming that fisheries cause no harm.
- Maintain large margins of safety to avoid unforeseen adverse impacts.
- Protect all types of marine habitat, reduce overall catch levels, conserve biological diversity, ensure the integrity of the marine food web, protect marine fish, birds, mammals and invertebrates (such as crab and corals), and provide for ecologically sustainable fishing opportunities across generations.
Management of our public oceans resources is fundamentally flawed, and the time for reform is now.
the Fisheries Service Received their Second Highest Response of Public Comments for the Second Draft of the PSEIS in History! (*The first draft generated the highest)
Thanks to your help and the assistance of the National Environmental Trust, World Wildlife Fund, The Ocean Conservancy, Oceana, Earthjustice, Alaska Oceans Program, Alaska Center for the Environment and many others for supporting recommending the adoption of the Oceans Alternative!
Thank You for making your voice heard in support of the Oceans Alternative to ensure the health of our public resources. Please check our web site in the future for updates on the Alaska Groundfish fisheries EIS progress.
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In mid-January there will be another public comment opportunity regarding marine habitat protection. Please check the Essential Fish Habitat link on our website for additional ways you can get involved in the public process and help save our ocean's critical habitat!
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