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NOAA Fisheries Strategic Plan
Sustainable Fisheries - Objective 3
OBJECTIVE 3: Increase long-term economic and social benefits to the nation from living marine resources
NOAA Fisheries is charged with managing fisheries to provide the greatest overall benefit to the Nation, particularly with respect to food production and recreational opportunities, while taking into account the protection of marine species and ecosystems. We accomplish this through management, to achieve, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery. Optimum yield is defined as the amount of fish which will achieve the maximum sustainable yield, as reduced by any relevant economic, social, or ecological factor. In the case of an overfished fishery, optimum yield has been defined as that amount of fish which will provide for rebuilding of the stock to a level which will support the maximum sustainable yield.
Our management decisions must reflect the needs of many different groups, including commercial and recreational fishermen, fishing communities, non-consumptive users, Pacific Islanders, and Native American tribes which have treaties with the United States guaranteeing certain fishing rights which we are obligated to uphold. We must also consider efficiency, minimize costs, avoid unnecessary waste and duplication, and allocate harvest restrictions and recovery benefits fairly among all users, while minimizing adverse economic impacts on fishing communities, consistent with our conservation objectives. To achieve this, we will focus on reducing sources of waste such as overcapitalization and bycatch (all fish harvested but not sold or kept for personal use, including economic and regulatory discards), mitigating the effects of fishery management on fishing communities, and increasing recreational fishing opportunities.
Performance Measures
In the next 5 years, NOAA Fisheries will:
- Increase the economic value derived by the Nation from commercial and recreational fisheries.
- Manage healthy fish stocks to achieve optimum yield.
- Reduce the number of overcapitalized fisheries and mitigate the impacts of these reductions on fishing communities.
- Minimize bycatch to the extent practicable, and minimize the mortality of unavoidable bycatch.
- Implement the NOAA Fisheries plan to achieve the goals of the interagency Recreational Fishery Resources Conservation Plan.
Strategies
- We will develop social and economic models and collect the data needed to measure net economic and social benefits to the Nation from living marine resources.
- We will expand international markets for U.S. seafood products by pursuing reductions in tariffs imposed on such products by member nations of the World Trade Organization and by investigating opportunities for trade expansion into emerging markets.
- We will assist the Councils in reviewing optimum yield levels for consistency with the revised definition in the Sustainable Fisheries Act.
- We will explore the use of all available tools, including vessel and permit reduction programs where needed, to reduce fishing capacity in overcapitalized fisheries.
- We will develop recommendations for implementation of a standardized fishing vessel registration and information management system which will include all commercial and charter fishing vessels within the geographic authority of the Councils, and we will make recommendations regarding the inclusion or exclusion of recreational fishing vessels.
- We will work with the National Academy of Sciences to develop a comprehensive report on individual fishing quota programs, including recommendations to implement a national policy with respect to such programs.
- To the extent practicable and consistent with the prevention of overfishing, we will take into account the importance of fishery resources to coastal communities when developing conservation and management measures.
- We will establish a standardized reporting methodology to assess the amount and type of bycatch occurring in each fishery covered by an FMP, and include in each FMP conservation and management measures which will minimize bycatch where possible, and minimize the mortality of bycatch where it is unavoidable.
- We will work in cooperation with the fishing industry and gear manufacturers to improving gear selectivity, design and field test new gear designs and modifications, and evaluate gear regulations.
- We will provide for increased recreational fishing opportunities through the conservation, restoration, and enhancement of aquatic systems and fish populations, and by increasing fishing access, education and outreach, and partnership opportunities. This will include promotion of catch and release programs and measures to ensure the survival of fish caught and released under such programs.
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