How many fish in the sea?
No one really knows, but which ones are counted and how often they’re examined depends on where you live, a new study by Congress’ watchdog concludes.
An analysis by the Government Accountability Office released Friday found wide variations in how frequently fish stock assessments are conducted, chiefly based on geography. Counts in Alaska, for example, far outnumber those in the Gulf of Mexico or in the Atlantic.
Fish counts are critical because they’re used by regional councils to set recreational and commercial fishing rules in coastal waters. How they’re conducted and what they report are at the center of an ongoing debate between a $100 billion maritime industry that wants to relax catch limits and environmental advocates who want to prevent overfishing.
A bipartisan group of senators, led by Florida Republican Marco Rubio, asked the GAO last year to examine how fish are counted. They want to know how the federal National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, determines which stocks are healthy and which ones need protection.
Alabama Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, both Republicans, were among the senators that asked for the GAO report.
Critics of the agency say some limits are based on “flawed science” provided by the fisheries service.
The GAO report doesn’t settle that argument. The watchdog agency is beginning a second phase to examine “collection of fisheries data” which might more directly address the science behind the counts.
What researchers found was a geographic disparity. Almost half 467 of the 1,001 stock assessments conducted from 2005 through 2013 were in Alaskan waters. Following behind were the Northeast (167), the Southeast (158), and the Northwest (139).
Federal officials say the disparity is due to several factors, such as regional differences in how counts are conducted, the complexity of the data, workload, staff capacity, and fish stock biology and status. Many of the Alaskan counts were simply updates of earlier surveys and didn’t require as much work, according to GAO.
“The need for frequent fish stock assessments may vary depending on biological characteristics of the fish stock or the level of fishing pressure,” the report found. “For example, some stocks with low natural mortality rates change slowly, so they require less frequent assessments, and some stocks that have been overfished may need more frequent assessments.”
GAO found regional fisheries science centers do not use a standard approach when determining how comprehensive the counts should be and how often they should be conducted.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration issued a draft proposal designed to make those standards uniform across all regions and to develop a national reporting system to track how local fisheries are counting fish.
Rubio spokeswoman Brooke Sammon said it’s a first step that may require more action.
“Stock assessments and data collection are vital components of fisheries management, and Congress must ensure that NOAA does not fail the communities that depend on fisheries in this area,” she said. “While Senator Rubio recognizes that NOAA is taking steps to address their shortcomings, he still has concerns and will continue to monitor the agency.”
Ted Morton, director of U.S. Oceans, federal fisheries project, with the Pew National Trust, said he wasn’t surprised at the geographic disparity.
It’s easier to conduct a study when it’s largely commercial boats operating in Alaska, that can collect data quickly and uniformly, he said. It’s more complex in the Gulf where there are several states and thousands of recreational fishing operations that may use different standards.
The Fisheries Service spent $64 million counting fish in 2013. But Morton said the GAO report suggests a need for more funding to make sure some species are not overlooked in favor of more popular ones at the center of catch limit debates.
“Are we just concentrating on relieving pressure to take a look at one particular stock versus having a more objective view,” he said. “How do we do these on a regular basis so that we’re gathering all the information that we need?”