PORTLAND, Maine — The number of fish on the government’s overfishing list sank to a new low last year, a sign of healthy U.S. fisheries, federal officials said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an updated analysis of U.S. fisheries late last week through its annual “Status of the Stocks” report, which assesses the populations of the fish species that fishermen catch and that customers purchase. The report states that 94% of fish stocks are not subject to overfishing, which is slightly better than a year ago.
The US has successfully removed several important fish stocks from the overfishing list, NOAA said in a statement. This includes the Atlantic mackerel stock in the Gulf of Maine and Cape Hatteras and the cubera snapper stock in the Gulf of Mexico.
The NOAA report comes as international governments and non-governmental organizations have sought to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing around the global ocean. In Europe, the European Commission has made efforts to prioritize deterring unsustainable fishing practices.
Removing species from the overfishing list shows the U.S. is making progress, said Rick Spinrad, NOAA administrator.
“By ending overfishing and rebuilding fish stocks, we are strengthening the value of America’s fisheries to the economy, our communities and marine ecosystems,” said Spinrad.
The US has also made progress in recent years in removing fish species from the overfishing list. The overfishing list reflects species with unsustainably high harvest rates.
NOAA also maintains a list of overfished stocks. These are species whose total population size is too small. According to the agency, that number also fell slightly last year. More than 80% of fish stocks are not overfished, the agency said in its report.
NOAA said it was able to remove bluefish on the Atlantic coast and a coho salmon stock on the Washington coast from the overfished list. The agency said it has also added a few species, including Mid-Atlantic summer flounder, to the lists.
Commercial fishermen harvested more than 8 billion pounds of fish worth nearly $6 billion in 2022, the agency said.