James Ianelli, a stock assessment scientist with the Resource Ecology and Fisheries Management Division of NOAA, announced that the stocks have been come down from record high levels through the mid-2000s, but this is not to worry. In a release Greenpeace argues that pollock stock is being mismanaged and consequently overfished. Dr. Jeremy Jackson, director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told that economic pressures to keep on fishing at such high levels have overwhelmed common sense.
According to Jackson with the huge uncertainties inherent in fisheries models, a far more precautionary, ecosystem-based approach is required. Otherwise, fisheries managers are gambling with the health of our oceans and coastal communities. Ianelli informed that a precautionary approach is already employed in Alaska fisheries management. He added that NOAA has buffer downward to account for uncertainty when determining total allowable catch (TAC) numbers.
Ianelli explained that NOAA had projected the 50 percent decline in midwater pollock biomass as the result of poor recruitment from 2000 to 2005. He informed that there are good signs that the pollock stocks are not collapsing. Ianelli pointed out that Greenpeace is not interested in conservation, they’re interested in headlines.
