For the first time in at least a century, none of the United States' fish species has been overfished, according to one of the country's top fishery scientists.

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

Overfishing occurs when a species is caught at a rate scientists believe is too fast to allow the stock to rebuild and remain healthy. An overfished species, by contrast, is a species whose population scientists believe is too low.

Regulators say 37 of the stocks living exclusively in U.S. waters last year were being overfished. Ten of those were in New England.

This year's results come after New England implemented a new management system that separates fishermen into groups called sectors, which divide an annual quota of groundfish, including cod, haddock and flounder. If they exceed their limits on one species, they must stop fishing of all species.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act, the nations's fisheries law, requires that overfishing end by the 2010 fishing year, which concludes at different times in 2011 (Jay Lindsay, AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 8). -- AS