NCMC was one of the first groups to recognize and act on the need to bring fish conservation into the mainstream of the environmental movement.  Today, conserving ocean fish is a national environmental priority, because of these and other accomplishments:

• In 2009, our proposal to declare the bluefin tuna's breeding grounds in the Gulf of Mexico a critical habitat became federal law.
  
  
• In 2008, along with the IGFA we launched the Take Marlin Off the Menu campaign, to prohibit the importation and sale of Pacific marlin and sailfish within the United States.
  
  
• In 2007, we backed new rules to drastically curtail fishing effort on severely overfished Atlantic sharks, including sandbars, duskies and porbeagles.
  
  
• In 2006, we published a groundbreaking report, "Taking the Bait," which analyzes federal fishery management plans for prey species, such as herring, sardine and squid, and makes specific recommendations for changes that will secure adequate prey for predators.
  
  
• In 2005, we successfully obtained a resolution to protect habitat of big fish in the Atlantic, the first step toward an ecosystem-based approach at the international level.
  
  
• In 2004, we formed an alliance of fishing and conservation groups, Menhaden Matter, that a year later successfully limited the industrial harvest of menhaden, a critically important prey fish.
  
  
• Also in 2004, the first federal conservation plan for Pacific big fish was approved, banning longlining off the U.S. west coast out to 200 miles.
  
  
• In 2003, years of hard work leading the push for pro-active measures to protect dolphin was rewarded with a landmark conservation plan.
  
  
• In 2001, an NCMC lawsuit closed 133,000 square miles of the Atlantic to longlining to reduce bycatch of threatened species.
  

Besides creating a new paradigm, these and other NCMC accomplishments are bringing real changes that will mean more fish in the sea.

To find out how you can help, please see our Membership page, or our Action Items page.