The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has issued the 2015 Fisheries of the United States and once again they have under reported the value of good fisheries management to the United States economy. While groups such as Coastal Conservation Association and their partners have advocated for the inclusion of the economic footprint of the recreational fishery alongside the economic footprint of the commercial industry, NMFS has responded to this request by ignoring it.

NMFS leads the 2015 report with the dockside value of commercial fishing at $5.2 billion dollars, which is down 4.5 percent from 2014.  They use that to show that this economic footprint "underscores the collective progress of the US Fisheries management system."

What NMFS flatly refuses to state is that in 2015, recreational fishing generated $31.2 billion in trip and durable expenditures. That is nearly five times the expenditures generated by the management of commercial fishing. Once again, the agency needs to be reminded that this level of expenditure is generated on less than 2 percent of the mortality generated by commercial fishing. What could be more sustainable than that? Why wouldn't an agency responsible for managing both sectors not be proud of a total economic footprint for both sectors that is $36.4 billion, instead of a paltry $5.2 billion? Click here to read CCA's full response to the 2015 NMFS report.