Back ||NOAA Home Managing Our Nation’s Fisheries: Past, Present and Future Thursday, November 13, 2003 Omni-Shoreman Hotel and Conference Center, Washington D.C. 2500 CALVERT STREET, NW Keynote Speaker Remarks - Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher Thank you Bill for the kind introduction and thank you for all the hard work you’ve done these past few years to improve fisheries management. And thank you Deputy Secretary Bodman for agreeing to be a keynote speaker. We are saddened to know that you will be moving on to the Department of Treasury as you have been a valued friend to NOAA. We will miss you very much, but our loss is the Treasury Department’s gain. Thank you Senator Stevens for your opening remarks. You’ve really charged the room and set the tone for lively discussion and exchange of ideas for the rest of the conference! It’s always good to hear from you. Good morning. It is a great pleasure and privilege to be with you today and I thank NOAA Fisheries and the regional management councils for inviting me to be a part of today’s keynote address. This conference is the first of its kind to my knowledge. Never before have so many representatives of the regional fisheries management councils, NOAA, recreational and commercial fishing interests, NGOs, academia, congressional members and staff, the public and media been brought together to enter into a serious dialogue about what we are doing to protect and manage our nation’s living marine resources. A New Way of NOAA Doing Business Over my first two years with NOAA, I have been striving to improve the way the agency operates and serves its constituents. In the last two years, NOAA has undergone a number of organizational and operational changes. Matrix management has been implemented to allow for improved communication and management within the agency in areas that require a multidisciplinary view by integrating talent, resources, and capacity across the NOAA line offices. A new planning, programming and budgeting system has been added that establishes a formal systematic structure for making decisions on policy, strategy, capability development, and resource allocation to accomplish NOAA’s mission. We hope that this system will improve the ability of NOAA programs to gain public support. NOAA has also adopted a new strategic plan that lays out NOAA’s focus through FY08, representing the vision of NOAA employees and our constituents. Additionally, NOAA is working to foster new partnerships and to bridge the gap between constituents and traditional “beltway politics”. Members of the NOAA Leadership team recognize the need for more communication with stakeholders and constituents, and as a result have conducted more outreach with fisheries constituents than ever in the past. I have held a number of constituent roundtables and meetings with diverse fisheries constituent groups. The head of NOAA Fisheries, Bill Hogarth, has also been extremely busy, conducting 17 constituent meetings throughout the country since May of this year. This was an unprecedented undertaking on Bill’s part and I don’t think fisheries constituents have ever had such access to the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries. Better communication with constituents, honest dialog and transparency in the fisheries management process are essential pieces to the very complex puzzle of fisheries management. Also essential is understanding the complexity of marine ecosystems and how we impact our coastal and marine resources through various activities. Attempting to understand those things has historical roots back to the creation of the original national fisheries management organization. Seeking solutions to reverse the decline of New England’s fisheries in 1871, Congress created the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The first appointed Commissioner, Spencer Baird, initiated marine ecological studies as one of his first priorities. According to Baird, our understanding of fish “... would not be complete without a thorough knowledge of their associates in the sea, especially of such as prey upon them or constitute their food....” He understood that the presence or absence of fish was related not only to fishing pressures, but also to the dynamics of physical and chemical oceanography. The U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries later became the National Marine Fisheries Service, and fisheries management has been continually evolving into the process we have today. 25 Years Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act It’s been over 25 years since Congress passed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, one of several environmental laws that were passed in the 1970s. During that time the public focused its attention on the health and welfare of our Nation’s oceans. This unprecedented interest ushered in a suite of marine conservation laws that reshaped the way Americans viewed marine resources, our stewardship responsibilities, and the need to invest in marine science and management of ocean resources to redress excesses of the past and ensure a sustainable future. Developed in 1976, the Magnuson-Stevens Act provides for federal management of fisheries in the 200-mile U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. It established authority with the Department of Commerce, through NOAA Fisheries and the eight regional fishery management councils, for management of U.S. fishing operations. The fisheries management process established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act is a dynamic and successful management regime that has evolved to meet new challenges. The public-private partnership of the regional fisheries management process is both democratic and transparent, although not without contention and dissension at times. Evaluating the effectiveness of the nation’s fisheries management process must be viewed as an evolutionary process that continues today. After more than 25 years, the collaborative stewardship between NOAA Fisheries, the regional councils, and our constituents has produced a world-class body of science and management strategies that are leading the way toward ecosystem management, international stewardship, and most importantly, the successful rebuilding and sustainable harvesting of our Nation’s fisheries. 1996 Reauthorization - SFA Responding to the increasing challenges facing fisheries management, Congress overhauled the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 1996, through a re-authorization known as the Sustainable Fisheries Act or SFA. Nearly six years have passed since we began implementing the provisions of this act. Under the SFA, Congress provided fisheries managers with rigorous management standards to address human impacts on the environment and to enact more proactive management strategies. The SFA presented many new mandates with the fundamental goals of: preventing overfishing, rebuilding overfished stocks, protecting essential fish habitat (EFH), minimizing bycatch, enhancing research and improving monitoring and compliance. The SFA also called for greater consideration of fishing communities and safety at sea, the formation of constituent advisory panels, and analysis of fishing capacity. Additionally, Congress, through the SFA, charged the National Marine Fisheries Service with assessing the extent to which ecosystem principles are used in fisheries management and research, and to recommend how such principles can be implemented further to improve our Nation’s management of living marine resources. An Ecosystem Principles Advisory Panel forged a consensus on how to expand the use of ecosystem principles in fishery management. They didn’t come up with a magic formula, but did offer a practical combination of principles and actions that they believe will propel management onto ecologically sustainable pathways. However, we expect that ecosystem-based fishery management will contribute to the stability of employment and economic activity in the fishing industry and to the protection of marine biodiversity on which fisheries depend. The SFA provided NOAA Fisheries with a number of necessary tools to meet the challenges of the new millennium as world-class leaders in fishery stewardship. The agency has placed a stronger emphasis on reducing bycatch, protecting marine habitats, halting overfishing, and rebuilding fish stocks to sustainable levels. We already have seen many fish stocks rebound as a direct result of the changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. However, the true magnitude of our achievements has yet to be realized, as these sweeping changes to the Act have been in place for a relatively short period of time. It will likely take many years before the results can be fully realized. In the meantime, NOAA Fisheries has made a number of important strides for which I would like to commend them. Achievement: Status of the Stocks Key to achieving sustainable fisheries is the need to rebuild depleted stocks. Though fish stocks will take many years to recover from overfishing practices of the past, the councils and NOAA Fisheries are well on the way toward meeting this challenge. In the last five years, we have reduced the number of stocks from both the overfished and overfishing categories, for a net gain of 13 stocks taken off the overfished list (20 removed, 7 added) and 14 off the overfishing list (26 removed, 12 added). In addition, 70 rebuilding programs have been developed and implemented for stocks that are overfished. Rebuilding a depleted stock to a point where it can be fished sustainably is the desired outcome best or the environment and the economy. NOAA Fisheries and the regional fisheries management councils strongly believe we should do what we can to preserve fishing as an important part of local economies and the overall national economy. Fishing communities are an important part of the fabric of the American way of life. In the few short years since implementing the SFA, we already have begun to witness the benefits of stewardship and sustainable harvests. For example, in 2002, commercial fishermen brought 908.1 million pounds of fish and shellfish to the port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, Alaska — an increase of 73.6 million pounds over 2001 landings — surpassing the 32-year volume record of 848.2 million pounds held by the port in Los Angeles, California. As the world’s 5th largest fishing nation, our total commercial landings in 2002 totaled 9.4 billion pounds, worth $3.1 billion (exvessel). Additionally, the recreational fishing industry in the United States makes an enormous contribution to the U.S. economy. Over 17 million Americans participated in recreational fishing in 2002, making over 65 million fishing trips and supporting almost 350,000 jobs with an economic impact of more than $30 billion. Healthy fish stocks are critical to maintaining this economic base. Achievement: Habitat Restoration Part of rebuilding stocks is not only to lessen fishing pressures on certain species, but to provide more habitat for fish for every stage in their lifespan. I am thrilled to be able to say that ESA-listed Pacific salmon stocks are more abundant, in some cases up to 800% over recent lows, due in part to investment in habitat restoration and conservation partnerships. In 2003, NOAA also initiated 200 new grass-roots fishery restoration projects that will restore 3000 acres of habitat through dedicated funding to national and regional partners. The science of restoration is still young, but something that deserves more of our resources. Achievement: Better Data Collection and Research Another critical area of study for NOAA Fisheries is to continue improving the quality and quantity of fisheries research data in order to better manage our living marine resources. I am pleased to be able to say that NOAA is doing something about that in a big way. On October 17, we launched the first of four planned NOAA fisheries survey vessels to either augment or replace aging ships in the NOAA fleet. Christened the NOAA Ship OSCAR DYSON by Mrs. Peggy Dyson-Malson, wife of the late Alaska fisheries industry leader for whom it is named, the ship will be one of the most technologically advanced fisheries survey vessels in the world. The same day we “cut steel” on the second fisheries survey vessel which will replace the NOAA Ship ALBATROSS IV in New England, which is more than 40 years old. These ships will provide higher quality data to fisheries managers about targeted fish populations and the environment that sustains them. Achievement: NEPA Compliance In addition to collecting high quality data, NOAA is working very hard to make sure it has all its “i’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed when it comes to environmental regulations. We have been meeting with Fisheries Management Councils and NOAA NEPA coordinators to front-load the NEPA process into management plans and to reduce NEPA process-based litigation. Overall our compliance with NEPA has improved over the last few years. According to our new Fisheries Litigation Database, the number of new cases filed against NOAA Fisheries has fallen each year since 1999. Overall we are doing better in defending ourselves and we are winning more cases. Achievement: Bycatch reduction Another central issue of concern for fisheries management is bycatch. It actually generates numerous lawsuits when the bycatch in question is an endangered or protected species! Over the past 27 years NOAA Fisheries and the management councils have responded to this concern by placing more effort into R&D on better models for monitoring and reducing bycatch, new gear technologies, and various management and regulatory measures to both monitor and reduce bycatch. In March 2003, NOAA Fisheries unveiled its strategy to further reduce bycatch and achieve the national goal of minimizing bycatch and the mortality of bycatch to the extent practicable through regional approaches and implementation plans. The strategy also includes an initiative to develop new international approaches to reducing bycatch on a global scale. Achievement: Capacity Reduction Reducing bycatch is a successful fisheries management effort NOAA has employed. Another successful management tool is to reduce overcapacity, that is to reduce the level of fishing effort within a fishery. At the end of October, 86% of participants in the West Coast groundfishery voted for a buyback within the industry. 92 boats or 35% of the boats in the fishery will be taken out of service. The buyback program was created by fishermen and approved by Congress, which appropriated $10 million and $36 million in loans to buy the boats and permits of West Coast fishermen. The loans will be paid back based on landings by the reduced fleet. In New England we went through a similar exercise in 2002 where we purchased groundfish 245 limited access permits (21,500 groundfish days at sea are permanently removed) with $10 million appropriated. Achievement: Cooperative research programs with the fishing industry Just as we have worked cooperatively with the fishing industry to reduce bycatch and remove overcapacity from certain fisheries, NOAA Fisheries and the regional management councils are working cooperatively with advisory groups comprised of fishermen, academia, scientists and members of the environmental community to improve integration of management efforts and research initiatives and to increase information available for decision making. In several regions funds have been made available to support research projects that address gear issues, bycatch reduction strategies, habitat characterization, and electronic data collection methods. Challenges for the Future I am extremely pleased with the gains that NOAA has made in the area of fisheries management over the past few years. However, despite all these gains, there are also a number of challenges that we are looking towards as an agency. Challenge: U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy The U.S. Commission for Ocean Policy will be releasing a report later this year that is expected to make a number of far reaching recommendations on how to improve management of our oceans and marine resources. Those recommendations will be carefully evaluated by NOAA when the report issued. Our NOAA Ocean Council, chaired by Rick Spinrad, is poised to respond to the recommendations from the report. Challenge: The Need for Better International Fisheries Management Despite the fact that domestic fisheries and their management seem to have turned a corner in the past several years, I do not believe that the same could be said for international fisheries, many of which appear to be in fairly serious conditions. The United States has always been a world leader in the fisheries management, and we plan to continue this trend. We are working hard with our constituents to not only export our policies and management tools, but also fishing technologies with reduced impacts on targeted and non-targeted resources. Later this afternoon, Bill Hogarth is leaving for Ireland where he will head up the U.S. delegation at ICCAT - the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. We have a long way to go to achieve sustainable management of international resources, but working with partners like you, I am hopeful we can develop prudent policies and practices to manage those resources for people today and for future generations. Challenge: Earth Observation System Throughout my talk, you’ve heard me make a number of references to ecosystem management. NOAA takes our mission to, “Protect, restore, and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management,” very seriously. Within this context, NOAA is working with its partners to move toward a better scientific understanding of ocean ecosystems, as well as ways to manage living marine resources on an ecosystem basis. The degree to which we will be successful in rebuilding fisheries and recovering protected species through this type of management will depend not only on how well NOAA does its job, but on how well we work with our partners — everyone in the audience today — to achieve those goals. I mentioned before that we are changing the way we are doing business and we are trying to be more responsive to our constituent-base. NOAA has also embarked upon an exciting new initiative aimed at understanding the Earth and its complex systems. I strongly believe we have reached a time for an “Earth Science Renaissance” - a new era where human ingenuity must be applied to develop a deeper understanding of the complex systems of Planet Earth. To that end, NOAA is committed to the development of a comprehensive, integrated and sustained Earth observing system that will link thousands of individual technological assets, including space-borne, airborne and in situ observation systems around the world. The information obtained from an Earth observing system, particularly the ocean observing portion of it, will be of great value to fisheries managers. By better understanding the physical, chemical, and biological components of our oceans, and how those factors interact, I expect that we will greatly improve our understanding of ocean and coastal ecosystems, as well as the impact of humans on those systems. Given the difficult social and economic issues facing the world, the time has come to move beyond considering the separate disciplines of science as "stand alone" components of the big picture of life on Earth toward a broader ecosystem-level approach. We need to ask how the parts fit together and function as a whole. By aligning the organization, mission and research agenda of NOAA in a way that looks at the whole Earth system, we are poised to fully understand and implement ecosystem-based management of our marine and coastal resources such that we can manage our coastal and marine resources in a responsible, sustainable manner for generations to come. Sustainable management of our fisheries resources is also the goal NOAA Fisheries as well as the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Challenge: Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization As you all know, the Magnuson-Stevens Act is currently up for reauthorization. As a result, the act is once again under public review to examine its effectiveness, revisit its goals, and determine what changes are necessary to build on current achievements and meet future challenges. In response, NOAA transmitted an Administration Magnuson-Steven reauthorization bill to Congress in June 2003. The NOAA recommendations for reauthorization are the result of six years of council and agency regulatory experience under the Sustainable Fisheries Act amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Act. These recommendations include: making the fisheries management more efficient by streamlining the comment, review and approval process for fishery management plans developing standards for Individual Fishing Quotas improving the effectiveness of fishing capacity reduction programs imposing tougher fines and penalties for fishery violations funding alternatives for fishery observer programs removing restrictions on access to essential economic data providing a statutory distinction between the terms “overfishing” and “overfished” The fisheries management process has undergone dramatic change since the 1970s, when eliminating foreign fishing and developing domestic fisheries were the primary objectives. Today, the regional management framework has become a leading forum for advancing science-based management of living marine resources. Together, the regional fishery management councils and NOAA Fisheries continue managing our ocean resources for the maximum benefit to the nation, ensuring long-term recreational fishing opportunities for the American public, supporting coastal communities and fishing families, and maintaining a sustainable seafood supply. I wholeheartedly agree with a statement Bill Hogarth made recently, “Our fisheries management system is one of the most successful in the world, and with refinement, we can look forward to an even better system.” Hopefully the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act will provide that needed refinement. With that I will close my remarks and invite you to enjoy the rest of your time here. I’ve looked at the agenda and it is ambitious, but should provide a great venue for meaningful dialogue and hopefully the generation of new ideas on how to solve these complicated problems.