| Help our Oceans and Fish Recover |
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Environmental Defense Our ocean fisheries are in trouble. Worldwide, it is estimated that 90 percent of large predatory fish species, including tuna and sharks, are already gone. But, our Oceans Program Director David Festa is hopeful. He says there are smart policy options we can use to protect our oceans and rescue our fisheries from collapse. "The key ingredient to successful sustainable fisheries is a program called "Limited Access Privilege Programs" – more commonly called catch shares. Catch shares combine economic incentives with environmental goals for fishermen by allotting a certain amount of the total catch to each fishermen. This cuts costs and prevents millions of fish from being discarded each year. "In December 2006, we had a big win for fisheries when Congress passed landmark legislation that President Bush signed into law in January of this year. The Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act requires catch limits, or fish caps, be set for all fisheries and authorizes catch shares as a management approach to ensure the limits are obeyed. "On the heels of these new fishery protections, we celebrated another success in January when the catch share program we developed to revive the red snapper population in the Gulf of Mexico got underway. Not a moment too soon, either. Red snapper populations are at roughly 3 percent of historic levels. As one fisherman put it, 'Frankly, this is our only hope for survival.' "While current trends are bleak for our oceans and fisheries, there is no reason we can't turn this around—as we outlined in our groundbreaking report released in March, Sustaining America's Fisheries and Fishing Communities. This report explains the dire state of our fisheries and details solutions to protect and restore them. "By implementing catch share programs, we can multiply the benefits of these practices and create powerful incentives for improvements in fisheries throughout the country.”
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