Now For Some Insurance

Two environmental groups have come up with a proposal based on sound science that's elegant in its simplicity and brimming with promise for restoring New England's commercial fish species.

Last month, the Conservation Law Foundation and World Wildlife Fund-Canada proposed creating a patchwork of 30 marine preserves along the coastline. The areas, which range from 10 to 200 miles offshore and extend from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, would total a combined 24,000 square miles. Although restrictions could vary from reserve to reserve, the strategy is to limit human disturbance; bans could extend to specific types of fishing, mining, and oil and gas drilling.

The goal is to protect biodiversity, the vast and intricate web of life -- including commercial fish species -- that lies at the core of a healthy marine ecosystem. In deciding the location of the preserves, scientists used government data to target the areas richest in species and habitats. One is a 100-square mile section of the eastern edge of Georges Bank; another is a 4,741-square-mile swath from the northeastern tip of Georges Bank to the southern tip of the Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia.

A marine preserve on the scale of this proposal may be new to New England, but many nations have long been using them as a conservation strategy. In June, President Bush designated 140,000 square miles off of Hawaii as a national monument. The waters off Florida's Dry Tortugas islands are also protected.

Moreover, this proposal comes on the heels of a report published in November in the journal Science warning of the potential collapse of 90 percent of the world's commercial fisheries by mid-century. That study's lead author, Boris Worm, a professor of marine conservation biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, called for an array of measures -- chief among them the creation of marine preserves.

New England's commercial fishing grounds, once the richest in the world, are today the nation's most depleted. For decades, the regional body charged with regulating commercial fish stocks, the New England Fishery Management Council, has proven itself incapable of meeting that central mission.

The reauthorized and strengthened Magnuson-Stevens Act should force the council to change its ways. In any event, the creation of offshore preserves is insurance that the region's fisheries will remain healthy for future generations.