Swordfish surge back - Updates: all-good-news edition! - Brief Article

Sierra, Jan-Feb, 2003

Thanks to the gustatory restraint of chefs and gourmets alike, the once-vanishing North Atlantic swordfish has made a dramatic comeback. An October report shows that the population has recovered to 94 percent of healthy levels, two years after the conclusion of a successful campaign led by SeaWeb and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

After stocks dipped below 60 percent, restaurants across the country agreed in 1998 to take swordfish off their menus until international quotas were reduced and fishing was limited in U.S. nursery areas. Both goals were achieved by August 2000, and as long as these safeguards remain, eating swordfish need not be a guilty pleasure. (See "Lay of the Land," January/February 2001, page 19, and "Food for Thought," July/August 1998.)