In January 2015, the federal government proposed revising guidelines that fishery managers use to prevent overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks. These guidelines implement National Standard 1 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the primary law governing management of U.S. ocean fish.
On June 30, Pew submitted comments to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outlining concerns about how NOAA’s proposed changes would promote strategies that increase the risk of overfishing, allow managers to keep using deficient plans for rebuilding vulnerable fish populations, and forgo management of fish stocks that need conservation.