Responding to an announcement from the National Marine Fisheries Service reporting the results of this year’s pollock stock survey, John Hocevar, Greenpeace oceans campaigner director in the US, gave the following statement:
"Contrary to projections, pollock stocks have not recovered, remaining at near record low levels. While the fishing industry and others continue to cite the pollock fishery as a model of fisheries management, the pollock population has declined sharply in recent years. In spite of concerns raised by Greenpeace and many scientists, unsustainable fishing rates have been allowed to continue, as has heavy trawling on spawning aggregations.
“The fate of pollock has dire implications for the ecosystem, due to the importance of these fish as a food source for everything from whales and fur seals to endangered Steller sea lions. Pribilof fur seal populations have been dropping steadily, with females spending longer and longer at sea looking for fish. When even the 'best managed fishery in the world' is in this kind of trouble, it is clearly time for policymakers to rethink the way we take care of our oceans. We need a network of marine reserves not only in the Bering Sea, but as part of a global network of protected areas to stop the devastation of our oceans.
“What we are witnessing with pollock is yet another example of a global overfishing problem that stretches from bluefin tuna in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean to the hoki off New Zealand. Clearly, the collapse was not enough to convince governments that they are fishing out our oceans.
“When the pollock, tuna and hoki are gone, what will the boats take next? Will governments take a precautionary approach so we still have a fishing industry for the next generation, or will they just keep going until the nets come up empty?”
