Is overfishing really over? A Senate panel will examine the question this week as it evaluates the success of the Magnuson-Stevens Act in preventing overfishing and rebuilding depleted fish populations.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act, the nation's fisheries law that Congress reauthorized in 2007, sought to end overfishing by a series of 2011 deadlines.

Last month, one of the nation's top fishery scientists said that for the first time in at least a century, none of the United States' fish species has been overfished.

"As far as we know, we've hit the right levels, which is a milestone," said Steve Murawski, who had just retired the week before as chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service.

Regulators say that last year, 37 of the stocks living exclusively in U.S. waters were being overfished. Ten of those were in New England (Greenwire, Jan. 10).

Overfishing occurs when a species is caught at a rate believed to be too fast to allow for a fishery to rebuild and remain healthy.

In the hearing tomorrow morning, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will focus on the Magnuson-Stevens provisions that were added in 2007, according to a committee aide.

Specifically, the panel will look the effectiveness and impacts of new requirements that all fisheries management plans include a mechanism for specifying annual catch limits that will prevent overfishing from occurring, including measures to ensure accountability, the aide said. The panel will also review requirements that management plans for overfished fisheries specify a rebuilding timeline that is as short as possible, generally a period of a decade or less, according to the aide.

Schedule: The hearing is at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow in 253 Russell.

Witnesses: TBA.