The U.S. Department of Commerce - in conjunction with the National Marine Fisheries Service; the Regional Fisheries Management Councils; and other relevant federal agencies, state fisheries management agencies, and tribes - should develop fishery management plans that remove the human causes of fish population decline, including the elimination or mitigation of habitat degradation activities and incentives that encourage such activity. These plans should adopt the precautionary principle in decision-making that in the face of scientific uncertainty, err on the side of resource conservation. These plans should address reduction in capitalization; improvement in the precision of science used for decision-making; quantitative assessments of social and economic effects associated with specific fisheries; public and private mitigating actions; reductions of bycatch, or sea life incidental to the catch of targeted species; improved cooperation and coordination among fisheries and land management agencies, private industry, hydropower agencies, and other stakeholders; and better programs to prevent accidental introduction of exotic species.

The federal government, working with regional councils, states, and other stakeholders, should establish an allocation system for threatened U.S. fisheries as a possible fishing management tool. The system would set a limit on the number of fishermen eligible to work in threatened fisheries. In these cases, the stakeholders could explore a trading program that would enable fishermen to buy and sell the limited fishing rights. This action would create a cost-effective program for limiting fishing and thereby reduce pressure on endangered fish stocks. In determining whether to adopt a system of trading fishing rights, the economic impact on the industry must be considered.