Overfishing

No reason to resent Lewis' fund-raising Misguided and confused disability activists recently protested the Labor Day telethon held on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and hosted by Jerry Lewis ("Telethon raises criticism," Sept. 3). They argued against the telethon's "charity mentality," insisting that it actively promote access, better housing and employment opportunities for the disabled. Reaching such goals is necessary if disabled people are to live productive lives in the complex, competitive world of the 21st century.

Lately, most of the news from Washington has been dominated by partisan fights and acrimony. However, there is one issue receiving bipartisan support - the fate of America's oceans. The Senate recently approved the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act by unanimous consent. This development comes not a moment too soon. Destructive practices by the commercial fishing industry are depleting fish populations and devastating key ocean habitat. Equipped with high-tech fleets, fishing industry conglomerates have become so voracious that some fish populations have disappeared within just a few years.

THE INDIVIDUAL waterman seems headed in the same direction as the family farmer and may well reach extinction first. Both are being done in by huge industrial-style competitors that benefit from economies of scale. In the case of the watermen, though, the damage is even greater because giant fishing concerns are also wiping out the product. In fact, the Bush administration has conceded the collapse of wild fish populations in U.S. coastal waters, with a proposal that fish farming be permitted in the zone from three miles to 200 miles offshore where most commercial fishermen have traditionally plied their trade.

The Blenheim apricot, a fruity beauty from California that once flourished in orchards along the coast and found its way to Midwest markets, now rarely makes a fresh appearance outside the San Joaquin Valley. And Iroquois white corn, a native strain that makes superior hominy, ground meal and flour, struggles for recognition even in the Northeast, where it once was widely known. The American food chain, known as the most bountiful in the world, also is one of the most precarious when it comes to such heritage products, with the great variety of food once common here steadily dwindling.

WE PICKED UP two out-of-town newspapers one day recently and both had front-page stories about fish. One said eating certain kinds of fish can be about the best thing imaginable for your health. The other pointed out that soon there won't be any more fish, because we're wiping them out. Talk about genius and folly! In two painstaking and ambitious studies that tracked tens of thousands of doctors and nurses over decades, researchers found that those who had higher amounts of n-3 fatty acids in their bloodstreams -- substances that come primarily from oily fish -- were considerably less likely to suffer sudden death from cardiac arrhythmia.

PHILADELPHIA - The operating assumption for decades among marine biologists, fishery managers and policymakers has been that the world's catch of ocean fish has been rising and that fisheries were keeping pace with increased demand from a growing global population. The assumption was based entirely on statistics gathered by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It now appears this assumption is wrong. In fact, as was recently reported in the science publication Nature, the opposite has been true.

DESPITE a quarter-century of U.S. law requiring management of ocean fisheries, a growing number of American marine fish species are in serious trouble. Over-fishing and destruction of essential habitat are threatening the future of numerous species. Government figures show more than 100 federally managed species are in jeopardy. Thirty-one species are at risk of extinction. Further, the status of more than three-quarters of the nation's fisheries hasn't even been evaluated. This mismanagement of valuable resources costs taxpayers about $78 million a year in emergency spending and aid to fishermen, according to the Marine Fish Conservation Network, a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen and scientists.

ONCE PUSHED to dangerously low levels, the Chesapeake Bay rockfish is more abundant now than anytime in the past three decades. This summer's survey by state scientists indicates a superior hatching season, the 10th straight year of healthy reproduction. It reflects the successful recovery of this important sport and commercial species, Maryland's state fish. The annual netting surveys, conducted for nearly 40 years, help Maryland and other states to manage the species. This year's high numbers of young could lead to calls for relaxing limits on the size and number of rockfish, or striped bass, that can be caught.

DIGBY, Nova Scotia - Broiled scallops with a spritz of lemon juice. Flounder stuffed with crab meat. Grouper sandwiches with lettuce and tomato. Lobster dipped in melted butter. With apologies to Julie Andrews, these are a few of our favorite things. But they might not be if we don't mend our ways. A two-week tour of Canada's Maritime Provinces and northern New England really opens a fish lover's eyes to the problems of overfishing. Everywhere, people are talking about the bountiful ocean that isn't anymore.

WHILE HAND-lining with fatty bacon from a Patapsco River pier two decades ago, my grandfather grunted the same three-word command each time we netted a shimmering female crab. "Toss her back." My grandfather and the other old men on the pier intuitively knew that removing females from the Chesapeake Bay was especially damaging to the health of the overall blue crab population. In recent years, the Chesapeake crab population has plummeted, owing largely to pressure from overfishing. Recognizing the downward population trend, Gov. Parris N. Glendening implemented a comprehensive set of limits last month on this year's crab harvest.