Wednesday April 22, 2026
National Fisherman —
As the U.S. marks 50 years of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, a new report from the Ocean Conservancy is raising concerns about the direction of federally managed fisheries.
The report being released on April 22 coincides with Earth Day and is called “Drifting Off Course: Challenges in U.S. Fisheries Management and Charting the Path Forward,” pointing out the mounting pressure from climate change, bycatch, and growing recreational demand.
According to the report, while the Magnuson-Stevens Act has helped rebuild 52 federal fisheries, 42 stocks remain overfished. Of those currently in rebuilding plans, 65 percent have shown flat or declining population trends. At the same time, fishery disasters are becoming more frequent and costly. A 2021 peer-reviewed study cited in the report found that extreme environmental events accounted for 95.3 percent of revenue loss from fishery disasters between 2014 and 2019, up sharply from 38.5% in the late 1990s.