The nation's management system for controlling overfishing is broken, at least in the Northeast. The basic problem is that we fish too much. That's driven cod to virtually disappear from our waters, and many other kinds of fish are on their way to disappearing.

It's no surprise that what we need to do to fix the problem is fish less and allow the various species to rebuild their numbers. But we haven't had the self-control to do that, and we are on our way to fishing out the Gulf of Maine.

Consider this fact: The populations of 18 of New England's different kinds of fish are in such bad shape they require federally-mandated "rebuilding plans" to help them recover their numbers. Only two of those 18 have recovered enough that they are no longer considered over-exploited.

Part of the problem is that our management system puts the fishing industry in charge of regulating itself. The country's historic fishing grounds are divided into eight regions that are overseen by separate management groups called councils that set catch levels and limits for the fishermen in each respective region.

Those councils are dominated by the fishing industry; their members are under enormous pressure to keep their industry fishing, at the expense of the sustainability of the resource from which they derive their livelihood. Would you vote to put yourself and your friends and colleagues out of business by limiting how much they could catch?

Of course not, so councils ignore the advice of scientists who tell them the number of fish remaining in the region can't withstand the current or increased levels of fishing and still maintain healthy populations -- and they allow overfishing.

As Maine's commissioner of Marine Resources put it recently, quoting Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and it is us."

We have depleted the historic fisheries of the Gulf of Maine because we have succumbed to greed, self-interest and short-term profit.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the overarching federal law governing the management of our nation's fish populations. It is up for reauthorization in Congress and now is the time to ensure that our policies truly protect those fish. The Senate version of the bill reflects a strong commitment to rebuild fish populations based on science.

The current version of the act allows the eight regional councils to set limits on the volume of fish that can be caught as high as two times the amount recommended by scientists. The new version proposes serious and enforceable measures to control overfishing. The bill was unanimously passed by the Senate.

Lamentably, the opposite approach is being championed in the House. There, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., -- the same lawmaker who led a recent attack to weaken the Endangered Species Act -- has submitted a version of Magnuson-Stevens that rolls back the already weak-kneed conservation provisions of the current act. It is riddled with loopholes, exemptions and provisions for "flexibility," a euphemism that generally means lack of enforceability.

Pombo's fishing industry-supported bill would not require regional councils to set limits on total amounts of fish that can be caught, for example -- and without that bedrock limitation, any other regulation is irrelevant.

Furthermore, and deeply disturbing, it allows fisheries management plans to be exempt from the provisions of the nation's fundamental environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires an assessment of the environmental impacts of a proposed project, consideration of less harmful alternatives to the proposed action and federal review and public hearings for proposals that significantly affect the environment.

The act was intended to achieve "productive harmony between man and nature," as President Richard Nixon put it; exempting fisheries management will guarantee the opposite.

Passing a strongly conservation-oriented bill like the Senate version of Magnuson-Stevens will hurt, in the short term. It may put some of Maine's fishermen out of business. But it is an essential move if we are to achieve the long-term viability of the fish populations in the Gulf of Maine, as well as the rest of this country's waters.

And that's what will make it possible for our fishing communities to have a future. We encourage Rep. Allen to press his fight to make sure that we manage our fish populations -- and our fishermen -- to ensure healthy populations of each.