Environmental concerns prompt U.S. to add 8 populations to overfished list

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/08/02/environmental-concerns-add-new-species-to-u-s-overfished-list/

Changes in the environment, including warming waters, are prompting the U.S. government to add eight populations of fish to its federal overfished list, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

The annual Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries said two populations of Chinook salmon and three populations of coho salmon will be added to the list. The agency is also adding Atlantic big eye tuna, Atlantic mackerel of the Gulf of Maine and Cape Hatteras and blue king crab of Saint Matthew Island, Alaska, to the list.

NOAA adds fish stocks to the overfished list when their populations become too low. That prompts rebuilding efforts by management councils and can result in restrictions to commercial fishing.

Environmental changes, habitat degradation and international fishing pressure contributed to the fall in the eight stocks, NOAA said in a statement. The coho salmon stocks, for example, are located in Washington state, where warmer water, drought or degraded habitat made it more difficult to spawn.

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