Mother Earth Monday: Sealife Making A Comeback

Good News reports that some fish species are making “a dramatic turnaround … after just 14 years of federal fishery management to restore these economically important fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington.”

“This is one of the great success stories about ecological and economic recovery of a commercially important fishery,” said Margaret Spring at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “A huge part of the turnaround is reliance on science-based conservation and management practices that Congress endorsed in its 2006 update of U.S. fishery law.”

In June, the global Marine Stewardship Council certified 13 of the trawl-caught groundfish species as coming from a sustainable and well-managed fishery.

“Not long ago many of these species were in collapse,” said Tim Fitzgerald, who manages the sustainable seafood program for the Environmental Defense Fund – one of the organizations that worked with fishermen and fisheries managers on the turnaround. “Thanks to smarter fishing regulations and fishermen’s commitment to conservation, consumers and seafood businesses can now add West Coast groundfish to their list of sustainable choices.”