overfishing has ended according to "Top" scientist

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

The commercial interest have zero influence over the standards for overfishing, the standards are set by the Science and Statistics committee (SSC), which is composed entirely of NOAA scientists. As far as populations estimates go, all I will say is that they are also done by the scientists and every time one has been reviewed it turns out that they have grossly underestimated the population. Look at pollack and monkfish for an examples.

National Standard 1 strives for maximum sustainable yield. Much of the data comes from catch and effort data provided by commercial fisheries. To say commercial interests do not influence the standards is untrue. The recent revisions in the MSA will certainly help, as not allowing overfishing to continue at any standard is critical. That said, I think there is plenty of evidence that a higher standard for overfishing would be beneficial for ocean health.