Contact:  Scott Smullen                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
            or Gordon Helm             4/30/98

Federal officials responsible for managing the nation's marine fish stocks today issued a series of national guidelines with the purpose of rebuilding overfished fish stocks and reducing the amount of fish inadvertently caught and discarded, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.

The new overfishing and bycatch guidelines were developed by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service as the agency interprets new national standards and revises existing standards in response to the 1996 Congressional amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The amendments added provisions to address overfishing and the optimum harvest of marine fisheries, bycatch of unwanted species, effects of fisheries management actions on fish dependent communities, and safety at sea.

The national standards are used as guideposts by eight regional fishery management councils and the fisheries service itself when developing and revising regulations used to manage hundreds of marine fish stocks caught by commercial fishing and recreational anglers around the country.

"The bar has been raised in marine fish management to ensure sustainable harvests for the long term. Congress required change, and these guidelines steer regional fishery councils and the agency toward developing new management plans that will help restore healthy fish habitat and ecosystems vital to the nation's living marine resources," says Rollie Schmitten, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "In this International Year of the Ocean, we are proud to be implementing provisions that will have far-reaching effects on fish and fishermen by setting a new direction of management in the United States that will improve the health and bounty of our ocean fisheries and increase benefits to the nation. We will continue to work hard with the regional fishery management councils, fishermen and the public to develop and incorporate these changes."

After more than four months of comment and input by stakeholders and the public, the fisheries service revised guideline language on the harvest taken from marine fisheries, the collection and use of scientific information, fishery allocations, fishing efficiency, and costs and benefits of marine fisheries to the nation. The fisheries service also added guidelines for the new national standards regarding the effects of fishery management decisions on communities, reducing bycatch, and the safety of life at sea.

The Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 substantially amended the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, requiring a more conservative approach toward management of the nation's fisheries. While the Magnuson-Stevens Act has always required the prevention of overfishing, Congress has now defined the term, directed the agency to identify overfished stocks, and required the councils and the agency to take specific actions to end overfishing and to rebuild overfished stocks within specific periods of time.

The three national standard guidelines which stimulated the greatest interest to stakeholders and the public are:

-- The guidelines for national standard one, which call for ensuring healthy fisheries and rebuilding overfished stocks where necessary, are particularly significant because they reflect the Food and Agriculture Organization's International Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries that has been adopted by the United States and express the precautionary approach contained in the Code. These guidelines were revised after the comment period to provide managers with the latitude to meet the rebuilding objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, while also respecting the socio-economic needs of fishing communities and citizens.

-- The national standard nine guidelines, which address bycatch reduction, were modified after the comment period to emphasize that the first priority for reducing bycatch is to avoid catching bycatch species, where possible. In addition, councils must consider the net benefits to the nation as they evaluate bycatch minimization measures.

-- The guidelines for national standard eight, which require managers to consider the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities, with a goal of providing for the sustained participation of those communities while minimizing adverse economic impacts to the extent practicable.

In the latest annual assessment of U.S. marine fish stocks, the fisheries service found nearly a third (96 of 279 identified species) are overfished or are approaching an overfished condition. Currently, stock levels are evaluated based on recruitment overfishing -- a threshold analysis that assesses the status of juvenile fish populations. Under the new Magnuson-Stevens Act, future assessments will measure stock levels based on a higher threshold -- the level needed to ensure maximum sustainable yield for each species on a continuing basis.

Bycatch is defined as fishery discards and unobserved mortalities resulting from fishing operations. In the last several years, bycatch has become a central concern of resource mangers, scientists, the fishing industry and the public. The National Standard Guidelines now require uniform data collection and reporting of bycatch. Better data will allow fishery managers to implement less restrictive management measures and impose smaller impacts on the industry. Many of the bycatch figures in many fisheries are either incomplete or nonexistent. However, it is estimated that approximately 30 million tons of bycatch are discarded each year in the world's fisheries. Managers must act to reduce bycatch even in the absence of exact information.

A copy of the national standard guidelines can be obtained on the Internet at www.nmfs.gov/sfa.