Archived Project

North Pacific Ocean Conservation

Ocean Health Along the U.S. West Coast

The icy seas of the North Pacific are among the most productive waters on the planet, supporting sustainable commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries as well as the communities that depend on them..

Since 2014, Pew has worked with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, a recognized leader in sustainable management, to develop a fishery ecosystem plan for the Bering Sea. Fishery ecosystem plans facilitate incorporation of ecosystem science into decision-making, helping to ensure that managers consider the broader marine environment rather than individual fish stocks in isolation.

The Bering Sea plan also incorporates the Traditional Knowledge of the region’s Indigenous communities. Their holistic understanding of the marine ecosystem, including salmon runs, ocean currents, marine mammal behavior and other dynamics, has been gathered over millennia and passed down across generations. 

With an increasing awareness of how fisheries impact—and are impacted by—the broader ecosystem in which they operate, decision-makers in the North Pacific can help ensure a healthy ocean and sustainable fisheries for generations to come.

Our Work

Conserving Marine Life in the U.S. – West Coast

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Conserving Marine Life in the U.S. – West Coast

Ecosystem-based Fishery Management in the Bering Sea
Ecosystem-based Fishery Management in the Bering Sea
Issue Brief

Ecosystem-based Fishery Management in the Bering Sea

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Issue Brief

In the Bering Sea, science-based management of major fisheries is designed to control fishing at levels that maintain stable populations of valuable fish. But a single-species approach to managing fisheries does not always consider the interconnections among marine organisms.

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Article

The Magnuson-Stevens Act at 40

Reasons major U.S. fishing law should shift to big picture management

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Article

On April 13, 2016, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary law that governs fishing in U.S. ocean waters, turns 40.

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