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GAO-14-794R 1 (2014-09-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaaihj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 September 19, 2014 Congressional Requesters Fish Stock Assessments: Prioritization and Funding According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Department of Commerce, U.S. marine fisheries contribute over $100 billion annually to the American economy and provide recreational fishing opportunities to millions of Americans.1 To continue enjoying these benefits, NOAA manages marine fish stocks to ensure their sustainable use for current and future generations.2 Specifically, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for fishery conservation and management. As part of its responsibility, NMFS conducts fish stock assessments to estimate the size of the population of a fish stock. NMFS also conducts fish stock assessments to examine whether a stock is overfished and provide support for management measures, such as limits on how many fish can be caught annually, among other things. Eight regional fishery management councils are responsible for fisheries conservation and management in specific geographic regions of the country. In addition, six NMFS regional fisheries science centers are responsible for conducting fish stock assessments for certain fish stocks in their geographic regions. The regional fishery management councils use NMFS' fish stock assessments as a key tool for setting annual catch limits to help manage fish stocks. According to NMFS, fish stock assessments can be expensive and time-consuming, and therefore, NMFS cannot assess every stock each year. Consequently, setting priorities to determine how often fish stocks should be assessed is important to ensure the efficient use of resources. There are two primary levels at which fish stock assessments can be conducted. The most comprehensive level is known as a benchmark assessment, which may involve reviewing multiple data sources and conducting new analyses and require many months to a year or more to complete. A more streamlined, less time-consuming and costly level assessment is an update assessment, which updates established benchmark assessment calculations using additional data. The level of assessment needed for a particular fish stock is determined as part of regional fish stock assessment priority setting processes involving NMFS' regional fisheries science centers, NMFS' regional management offices, and the regional fishery management councils, among others. 1Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Fisheries Economics of the United States, 2011, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/SPO-128 (Silver Spring, MD: December 2012). 2A fish stock refers to either one species or a complex of comparable species managed as an entity in a geographic area. Throughout this report, the term fish stock is used to mean one fish species or a fish stock complex. GAO-1 4-794R Fish Stock Assessments Page 1

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