Law of the sea

A BILL TO REAUTHORIZE the nation's most significant fishery conservation law could offer a real opportunity to revive cod and other depleted stocks on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. But a last-minute provision by Senator John Kerry and other senators from New England would give too much wiggle room to fishermen and fishery managers who have shown little stewardship of the ocean's resources.

Environmental groups, including the Conservation Law Foundation, had been girding for a fight over reauthorization of the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, which regulates fisheries in coastal zones stretching from three to 200 miles offshore. But the bill that emerged last month from the commerce and science committee chaired by Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, focused smartly on rebuilding depleted fish stocks in as short a time as possible. The centerpiece of the bill, scheduled for a committee session tomorrow, is a mandate requiring regional fishery councils to set quotas at or below sustainable harvest limits based on the best available science. Any excess in the annual allowable catch would be deducted from next year's limit.

New England's groundfish industry shuns quotas in favor of looser targets. The results can be disastrous. The cod populations on Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine fell by 25 and 21 percent, respectively, from 2001 to 2004, according to government scientists. Fishermen employ a series of so-called input controls, such as limited days at sea and larger mesh sizes for their nets, as a means to prevent overfishing. Regulators are reduced to wagging their fingers when limits are exceeded. Yet Kerry and others now offer a murky alternative that utilizes an expansion of input controls as an alternative to deducting overages from next year's catch limit.

Carefully targeted quotas are common in fishing regions outside of New England. To avoid frantic runs on fish, officials at other regional fishery councils establish quotas for boats, fishery associations, and even fishing communities. The system works well in Alaska and other places with fishing traditions as strong as New England's.

The Magnuson reauthorization wisely establishes national guidelines for such quotas. Further resistance to such measures on the part of local fishermen and elected officials endangers not only stocks but the long-term economic health of fishing families themselves.

The reauthorization bill seeks to strengthen the scientific and statistical committees that advise regional fishery councils on everything from catch limits to socio-economic impacts on fishermen. It needs to steam ahead minus any attempt to indulge overfishing.