Saving Fish Stocks

Research from an international team of scientists, including Pamela Mace of the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries who helped write the study, shows that a handful of major fisheries across the world have managed to reduce the rate at which fish are exploited. “Fisheries managers currently presiding over depleted fish stocks need to become fast followers of the successes revealed in this paper,” Mace said. “We need to move much more rapidly towards rebuilding individual fish populations, and restoring the ecosystems of which they are a part, if there is to be any hope for the long-term viability of fisheries and fishing communities.” Agencies in New Zealand and Alaska have led the world in the fight against overfishing by acting before the situation became critical, says the study, which is published in the journal Science.