Four fisheries stock now rebuilt

Four fisheries stocks, including Atlantic swordfish, have now been rebuilt to healthy levels, according to a report issued Monday to Congress from NOAA’s Fisheries Service. For the first time since the report was issued in 1997, no stocks were added to the overfishing list. In Status of U.S. Fisheries, NOAA scientists reported that 85 percent of the stocks examined, 212 of 250, were free from overfishing. "By working with our regional fishery councils and commercial and recreational fishermen, we are getting closer every year to ending overfishing in our waters," said Eric Schwaab, NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "With annual catch limits coming into effect this year, we expect our progress to accelerate." (Source: NOAA, 05/10/10)