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By JOHN HEILPRINAssociated Press Writer
Washington, DC, July 19, 2001 -- The dusky shark, barndoor skate, bocaccio, shortspine thornyhead and Warsaw grouper may not be well known but they are at risk of vanishing altogether. These species of fish are among 31 at risk of becoming extinct in United States coastal waters, an environmental organization said Thursday. The findings from the Marine Fish Conservation Network, a coalition of 110 environmental and scientific groups, aquariums and commercial and recreational fishing associations, are based on an analysis of government figures. The main reasons cited for the dwindling populations are overfishing, low population growth and habitat destruction from industrial pollution and sewage. Lee Crockett, the group's executive director, said it shows conservation must come before harvesting. "For too long, we have 'managed' our ocean resources from crisis to crisis," he said. "Fish managers must consider the needs of the ocean food web when developing new regulations." Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., introduced a fisheries management bill Thursday supported by the environmental coalition that he said would eliminate overfishing, protect fish habitat and provide money for more research and for less damaging fishing gear. His proposal is among several that would reauthorize and update the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, a five-year package that governs federal management of marine fisheries. Linda Candler, a spokeswoman for the fisheries industry, said any changes in the management law should be based on sound science rather than an environmental organization's report. "It's unlikely that a species gets fished to biological extinction," she said. "Long before a species becomes biologically extinct, it becomes economically unfeasible to harvest that fish." However, Jack Musick, head of the Vertebrate Ecology and Systematics programs at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, said most scientists no longer believe marine fish stocks can be "pushed to the brink of extinction" without risk of them disappearing altogether. "We know that's wrong now," he said. The Conservation Network's list of 31 near-extinct U.S. species is culled from the American Fisheries Society's list of 82 species or populations of marine fish stocks and species that it considers vulnerable, threatened, or endangered in North American waters. Six of the 31 - five varieties of salmon plus the steelhead trout - already are listed as endangered and received federal protection by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Seven others, such as the bocaccio, are being reviewed by the agency as potentially endangered or threatened. In all, the agency has listed 55 species as endangered or threatened - including marine mammals, sea turtles, plants, salmon and other fish. Only one of those, the California gray whale, recovered to the point where it was removed, in 1994, from the endangered species list. As of last year, there were 92 stocks overfished, the agency said. For 75 of those, the agency already has "rebuilding plans" in place to restore the species, spokesman Gordon Helm said. On the Net:
Marine Fish Conservation Network:http://www.conservefish.org |