Adapted from a Press Release of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
 

In response to the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996,⁽¹⁾ the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has issued a series of national guidelines for rebuilding overfished fish stocks and reducing bycatch in fisheries. The National Standards are the principles by which fishery conservation and management programs are developed. The National Standard Guidelines are advisory in nature: they interpret the national standards, provide guidance to the regional fishery management councils in the development of fishery management plans, and act as a guide to NMFS in the review and approval of fishery management plans for both commercial and recreational fisheries around the nation.

After more than four months of comment and input by stakeholders and the public, the fisheries service revised guideline language on the harvest taken from marine fisheries, the collection and use of scientific information, fishery allocations, fishing efficiency, and costs and benefits of marine fisheries to the nation. The fisheries service also added guidelines for the new national standards regarding the effects of fishery management decisions on communities, reducing bycatch, and the safety of life at sea.

The National Standard Guidelines reflect the more conservative approach of the Sustainable Fisheries Act toward management of the nation's fisheries. Relatively minor revisions were made to the guidelines for National Standards 2 (scientific information), 3 (management units), 4 (allocations), 5 (efficiency), and 7 (costs and benefits). No revisions were made to the guidelines for National Standard 6. Significant changes were made to four national standard guidelines addressing overfishing, bycatch, effects on fishing communities, and human safety on the sea. A summary of these follow.
 

National Standard 1 Guidelines

The guidelines for national standard one, which call for ensuring healthy fisheries and rebuilding overfished stocks where necessary, are particularly significant because they reflect the Food and Agriculture Organization's International Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries that has been adopted by the United States and express the precautionary approach contained in the Code. These guidelines should provide managers with the latitude to meet the rebuilding objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, while also respecting the socio-economic needs of fishing communities and citizens and providing more flexibility in managing multi-species fisheries. For example, where numerous species are harvested in a fishery, overfishing of one minor species would be allowed so that the overall fishery could continue to operate (rather than closing the whole fishery), but the minor species could not be fished to the point of being placed on the Endangered Species Act list. In addition, more detail has been added to the rebuilding time frame. The starting point in a rebuilding program is the length of time in which a stock could be rebuilt in the absence of fishing. If that period is less than the 10-year statutory time limit, then consideration of the biology, communities and international recommendations could lengthen the rebuilding period to 10 years. Where the rebuilding in the absence of fishing will take more than 10 years, necessary flexibility was added to effect a rebuilding of the stocks quickly while allowing some additional time so that the fishery would not be completely shut down for a long period. To accomplish this, the rebuilding period for the species will be set at the no-fishing period plus no more than one mean generation time (generally expressed as the average time it takes to reach maximum reproductive capability).
 

National Standard 8 Guidelines

The guidelines for national standard eight, which require managers to consider the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities, provide for actions to encourage the sustained participation of those communities while minimizing adverse economic impacts to the extent practicable. Fishery managers shall consider the importance of the fisheries to communities and provide those communities with continuing access to fishery resources, but not at the expense of compromising conservation goals.
 

National Standard 9 Guidelines

The national standard nine guidelines provide that the first priority for reducing bycatch is to avoid catching bycatch species, where possible. In addition, councils must consider the net benefits to the nation as they evaluate bycatch minimization measures.
 

National Standard 10 Guidelines

In carrying out National Standard 10 which requires that conservation and management measures, to the extent practicable, promote the safety of human life at sea, fishery management councils are to try to reduce risk when developing management measures, as long as those measures can still meet the requirements of the other standards and achieve the goals of the management program.
 

Rollie Schmitten, director of the NMFS, stated that the "guidelines steer regional fishery councils and the agency toward developing new management plans that will help restore healthy fish habitat and ecosystems vital to the nation's living marine resources. We will continue to work hard with the regional fishery management councils,fishermen and the public to develop and incorporate these changes."
 

A copy of the national standard guidelines can be obtained on the Internet at www.nmfs.gov/sfa .

1. The 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act amended the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to include three new National Standards: first, the requirement that fishery management plans take into consideration the effects on fishing communities (National Standard 8); second, that they provide for a reduction in bycatch (National Standard 9); and third, that they promote the safety of life at sea (National Standard 10). __ U.S.C. § ____ (1997).
 

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