Given that U.S. fisheries operating under MSA are considered among the best managed in the world [6], it is worthwhile to
consider which conservation concerns prevent the majority of U.S. fisheries from being rated “Best Choice”. For both “Good Alternative” fisheries and the few fisheries rated “Avoid”, by catch issues emerged as a major limiting factor. The majority of these fisheries scored below the red threshold for the by catch criterion,but above it for other criteria (Fig. 2).