Down to Earth: Reduced Over-Fishing on the West Coast - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

Our oceans are vulnerable to human activities, including over-fishing and bad farming practices.

Conservationists, scientists, and lawmakers are working together to create viable solutions.

The Environmental Defense Fund says the answer is "fishing smarter, not harder."

"In the past, regulations have actually worked against fishermen because their incentive was to go out and fish as much as they could, as fast as they could," said Kate Bonzon, EDF Catch Shares Design Center Director.

An outdated management plan of West Coast fisheries gave fishermen and women a two-month quota on just how many fish they were allowed to keep.

"For instance, if they were given 10,000 pounds to catch, it was easy for them to go over that amount and have to discard the balance," said Pacific Coast Fishery Management Council Member David Crabbe.

Just ask local commercial fishermen. Many of them can recall times when they've had to throw away tons of fish caught in their nets. If they went over their monthly quota, they'd get slapped with a big fine.

"In 2000, I had to throw away 64 tons of Rock Fish in an hour and a half. It was sickening," said Monterey commercial fisherman Giuseppe Pennisi.

In 2011, the Pacific Fishery Management Council enacted a new plan called "catch shares."

They goal is to reduce competition and increase voluntary trading.

"The benefit to the fishermen is not having to shovel over perfectly good fish," said Crabbe. "I think they feel better about it, as well the flexibility it gives them. They're able to harvest the fish when they're the most valuable."

According to the EDF, in the past few years, the recorded number of discarded fish has dropped dramatically.

For more information, visit the following links:

http://www.pcouncil.org/groundfish/fishery-management-plan/fmp-amendment-20/ http://www.edf.org/oceans/catch-shares