ENVIRONMENT : America’s Imperiled Fisheries

The depletion of fish in the North Atlantic has reached such proportions that Canadian patrols have intercepted a Spanish trawler off Newfoundland, and Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld has asked that coastal regions of his state be declared a disaster area. The NationalMarine Fisheries Service reports that 40% of U.S. stocks are commercially depleted or becoming so, and another 43% are being taken at the maximum sustainable rate.

TOTAL U. S. CATCH

Commercial take in metric tons (1 metric ton equals 2,204.6 pounds)

1960: 2.2

1965: 2.2

1970: 2.2

1975: 2.2

1980: 2.9

1985: 2.8

1990: 4.3

1993: 4.7

The Money Fish

Total value of top U.S. money-makers, 1993

1. Crab: $510.5 million. Mainly snow crab from the Pacific and hard blue crab from the Atlantic.

2. Pacific Salmon: $423.5 million

3. Shrimp: $412.9 million. Mostly from Gulf region.

4. Pollock: $358.4 million. A long-ignored bottom dweller from the North Pacific, now caught in massive trawler nets and processed into other food products. By volume, the largest fishery in the nation--about 31% of the entire commercial catch.

5. Lobster: $172.7 million. Mostly American lobster from Maine and Massachusetts.

Source: National Marine Fisheries Service

Pressure Points

Areas of immediate concern to managers and fishermen

Pacific Coast

Salmon are born in inland streams, migrate to the open ocean and return several years later to spawn and die at their birthplace. Now this gantlet is rife with hazards for the hundreds of salmon runs that once teemed in California, Oregon and Washington. Dams, degradation alongstreams and climatic changes all have been blamed. Three salmon stocks have been declared endangered, and the once-productive coastal coho fishery was drastically restricted last year.

New England

In ominous decline for years, populations of cod, haddock and flounder were placed off-limits by fisheries last fall. Once the richest fishing area in the nation, much of the historic Georges Bank and water off Cape Cod are closed in hopes of rebuilding the stocks.

Atlantic

Bluefin tuna ranges widely throughout the western Atlantic, but now in numbers close to one-tenth those in its heyday 20 years ago. Conservationists urge a total ban on bluefin harvest.

Gulf of Mexico

The small mesh nets used by shrimpers also unintentionally catch enormous numbers of other species. By some estimates, 10 times as much as the targeted shrimp itself. This accidental take is threatening several stocks.

CATCH BY REGION

1950 TO 1993, in millions of pounds

*--*

1950 1970 1990 New England 1,001 531 663 605 Mid-Atlantic 492 140 205 258 Chesapeake 381 630 872 813 S. Atlantic 261 280 260 250 Gulf 571 1,698 1,624 1,715 Pacific 1,531 946 709 889 Alaska 482 545 5,099 5,906

*--*

WORLD’S FISHING LEADERS

Percentage of total world catch, 1992

China: 15%

Japan: 9%

Peru: 7%

Chile: 6.6%

Russia: 5.7%

United States: 5.7%

U. S. FISH CONSUMPTION

(In pounds per capita)

1950: 11.8

1970: 11.8

1980: 12.5

1987 (record): 16.2

1990: 15.0

1993: 15.0

Mileposts

1637: Visiting Englishman Thomas Morton notes the Atlantic striped bass “in such multitudes ... that it seemed to me that one might go over their backs dry-shod.’

Mid-1700s: Atlantic striped bass becomes so scarce that a report railed about “very great numbers having been imprudently or even wantonly taken in one season.’

1791: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson tells Congress that the nation’s fish resources had been “annihilated” during the Revolutionary War. He urges federal cash subsidies for fishermen.

1871: Commission of Fish and Fisheries is formed to probe decline of New England fish stocks.

1975: Congress passes the Magnuson Act, which sets up a 200-mile limit for foreign vessels and regional councils to manage the stocks. Critics say the councils--often dominated by commercial interests--don’t do enough to restrain overfishing.