US Fisheries are looking pretty healthy – but there has been an increase in the number of species that are considered overfished

 US Fisheries are looking pretty healthy – but there has been an increase in the number of species that are considered overfished.

NOAA Fisheries released its annual status of US Fisheries this week which reports the fishing activity and population level for 461 federally-managed fish stocks.

The report has been issued annually since 1997.

The report found a record-low number of stocks in the U.S. are subject to overfishing.

Of the 321 species for which NOAA Fisheries can make a determination, 299 – or 93 percent – are not subject to overfishing.

Fish are considered subject to overfishing when fishermen take more fish than the species can replace.

On the downside, the number of overfished species increased slightly.

One species was removed from the overfished list but four stocks were added.

A species is considered overfished when the population size of a stock is too low

Healthy fisheries are good not just for the marine environment that relies on healthy fish stocks, but also the US economy.

The combined sales of commercial and recreational fishing generated 244 billion dollars in annual sales and supported over 1.7 million jobs.  

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/2019-report-congress-status-us-fisheries

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