Our oceans are one of America's greatest resources. But the Bush administration is proposing to gut current protections against overfishing at a time when many fish species in U.S. waters are overfished or in danger of being overfished.

Don't you want to leave future generations with healthy oceans that still include large and healthy populations of fish?

Report after report has come out saying the same thing: our oceans are in crisis and the time to act is now. Over the last 50 years, our ability to catch fish more quickly than they can reproduce, the rising demand for seafood, coastal development, and pollution have created an indisputable fish crisis. Bottom line - our oceans are overfished.

Until we find a way to balance the huge demands upon our oceans' valuable resources with sustainable management of their fragile riches, our ready supply of fresh seafood and countless jobs in the fishing industry are at enormous risk.

This crisis is striking populations of popular seafood - tuna, cod, skate and grouper - species that now are much smaller than they were decades ago. In addition, ninety percent of large ocean predators - sharks, rays, swordfish and marlin - have been fished out of existence.

But the Bush administration and the National and Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are proposing to weaken the standards, known as National Standard 1, that protect fisheries from overfishing.

National Standard 1 is the cornerstone of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, the principle law governing America's fisheries and is designed to prevent fish populations from collapsing.

We are working hard to make sure that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) keeps overfishing protections in place, and, right now, NOAA is accepting your input on what to do.