Number: 2014-12
WHEREAS, the National Wildlife Federation is fully committed to protecting fish and wildlife and their habitats; and
WHEREAS, the National Wildlife Federation has consistently promoted a vision that the Nation should protect existing ecological treasures including apex predators, restore damaged ecosystems, and re-establish and maintain populations of key species; and
WHEREAS, overexploitation of forage fishes has been associated with population crashes not only of the specific forage species but to have caused adverse impacts on marine ecosystems including nutritional stress in mammals and birds, as well as drastic declines and closures of commercial and recreational fisheries throughout the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; and
WHEREAS, forage fish are a critical link between the bottom of the marine food chain (phytoplankton and zooplankton) and top predator species such as sea birds, seals, and marine mammals as well as important predator fish such as salmon, tuna, cod, billfish, and sharks; and
WHEREAS, science has shown that health and abundance of prey species are key indicators for successfully predicting the size of salmon and steelhead runs; and
WHEREAS, in the Pacific Northwest tax payers are spending an estimated $1 billion a year to restore rivers for wild salmon and steelhead runs ,with similar efforts taking place for Atlantic salmon along the northeast coast; and
WHEREAS, salmon and steelhead spend on average 2/3rds of their life, feeding and growing in the ocean rather than the stream, and
WHEREAS, in the Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Region diverse predator species such as snapper, grouper, cobia, tarpon, snook, and drum feed on a variety of forage species including mullet, menhaden, sardines, and herring; and
WHEREAS, in Florida alone, recreational fishing for these top predators includes 2 million anglers, 46.3 million fishing days, 65 thousand jobs, and $6.9 billion in revenues and commercial fisheries also are a significant source of jobs and revenue in Florida and nationally; and
WHEREAS, these fish predators along with coastal water birds, dolphins, and forage fishes themselves, all require healthy estuarine, saltmarsh, seagrass, and coastal habitats to breed and grow; and
WHEREAS, coastal development, habitat degradation, and water pollution have already lead to steep declines in many of their populations, and
WHEREAS, forage fish’s supportive value as prey for other economically important commercial fisheries including tuna, salmon, cod, and mackerel, is more than double the value of their direct harvest; and
WHEREAS, commercial fisheries for forage species make up over one-third of all wild marine fisheries globally, and 90 percent of which is processed into animal feeds and nutritional supplements; and
WHEREAS, worldwide demand is increasing fishing pressure on forage fish putting them and the predator species dependent on them at greater risk; and
WHEREAS, There is increasing market pressure to expand fishing on forage species to supply fishmeal and oil for a booming global fish-farming industry, and that demand for these fisheries appears likely to continue to grow; and
WHEREAS, many species of forage fish do not have catch limits within the ocean regions they reside, allowing fishing to take place without knowing the impacts; and
WHEREAS, most forage fish species that are commercially fished are managed without regard to the impacts on dependent predator species, and
WHEREAS, forage fish abundance is sensitive to environmental conditions and as such can fluctuate drastically and unpredictably, making their populations susceptible to collapse; and
WHEREAS, climate change, ocean acidification and pollution create additional stresses on marine ecosystems requiring more conservative and precautionary management of forage fish species; and
WHEREAS, precautionary approaches and ecosystem-based fisheries management strategies are called for in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to end overfishing and provide for sustainable fisheries;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, at its annual meeting assembled May 1-3, 2014 in Baltimore, Maryland, supports efforts to manage our ocean resources using an ecosystem based approach; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls upon the President, Congress, Federal and State Agencies as well as Regional Fishery Management Councils to implement policies, management plans, and safeguards that: recognize the importance of forage fish to rebuild and maintain healthy, sustainable marine ecosystems; prevent the development of new commercial catch of forage fish populations without adequate science and stock assessments; and account for the prey biomass requirements of predators in fisheries management plans.