Needless to say, the report focuses solely on the fish, paying no attention at all to the fishermen or the fishing communities that are dependent on those fish for their well-being.

Fortunately, the regional fisheries management councils that are being rated aren’t constrained by such a myopic view of the fisheries in our Exclusive Economic Zone or of our government’s role in managing them. As a matter of fact, the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, the federal legislation that controls the regional councils, rightfully recognizes the importance of the  human dimension of our various fisheries. There are ten “National Standards” that any fishery management plan prepared, and any regulation promulgated to implement any such plan through the Act, must be consistent with. Six of these ten standards (numbers 1,4,5,7,8 and 10) deal directly with the human dimensions of the fisheries.

In these days of rampant coastal overdevelopment, at a point when any waterfront property in most regions of the country has doubled, trebled, quadrupled or more in value in the last few years, our fisheries managers are becoming increasingly aware of the necessity of preserving onshore infrastructure. And to their credit, they are starting to realize that there is a threshold level of fishing activity, both recreational and commercial, necessary to maintain this infrastructure. Anyone with an actual interest in the future of fishing in the U.S. knows this, and knows that it’s far more involved than the moronically simple-minded idea that healthy fish stocks will equate to healthy fisheries. Oceans full of fish aren’t going to do any of us any practical good without the wherewithal to catch them – for sport, for profit or for sustenance.

Were the Ocean Conservancy to grade the various councils not just on their ability to “save” the fish stocks, but also on their ability to save the many businesses that depend on them, the scorecard would probably look quite different. For example, along with increasing fish stocks we still have a commercial fishing industry and a recreational fishing industry in New England. What’s threatening the future of those industries today isn’t going to be the future health of the stocks, it’s going to be whether harvest levels continue to be such that the businesses that depend on them can survive. If not, they’ll be replaced in fairly short order by tee shirt shops, restaurants and condominiums, and that’s something that’s irreversible.