A new study finds rhetoric about ‘under fishing’ in U.S. waters may be misguided

New study finds rhetoric about ‘underfishing’ in U.S. waters may be misguided. As warming waters threaten fish populations and disrupt fisheries around the world, it is critical to find ways to sustain fisheries while at the same time allowing those fisheries to remain economically viable to those who depend on them for their livelihoods. In the United States, commercial fishing employs 1.2 million Americans and generates more than $165 billion annually. The primary way that the United States has protected its fisheries is through the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was modernised in 1996 to foster the long-term biological and economic sustainability of marine fisheries. However, the reauthorisation of this act has been stalled in Congress for a decade, as some politicians blame the law for being too stringent, leading to what they call ‘underfishing.’ The University of Delaware’s Kimberly Oremus recently served as a lead author on a paper published in Science that examined U.S. ...