Most of the world’s important commercial fish species have been declining for years. Nearly one-fourth are unable, essentially, to reproduce. The biggest cause of the deterioration in ocean health - bigger than climate change or pollution - is overfishing. American fisheries are in better shape than most but not by much.

The White House seems prepared to give this issue high priority. President Obama recently ordered a new task force to develop a national oceans policy. He said he wants a more unified federal approach to ocean issues, now spread across 20 different agencies operating under 140 separate laws. He also wants a plan for allocating resources among competing interests like fishing and oil exploration.

A more immediate measure of the administration’s commitment is the steps it is taking to meet a 2006 Congressional mandate to end overfishing in America’s coastal waters by 2011. The most important of these is an effort led by Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist who runs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her mission is to persuade America’s fishermen to broadly adopt a market-based approach known as “catch shares” to manage their fisheries sustainably.

Under the present system, America’s regional fishing councils, which are run largely by fishermen with federal oversight, set annual catch limits. The system does not work well. Some people obey the rules, and others don’t.

Ms. Lubchenco’s alternative would give individual fishermen or groups of fishermen fixed shares - a guaranteed percentage - of the annual catch, then let them set the rules. The theory is that share-holding fishermen will have a vested interest in seeing their resource grow, much like shareholders in a company.

Fisheries that use this system - also known as “dedicated access” - have prospered in places like New Zealand. The dozen or so American fisheries with catch shares, accounting for about one-fifth of the total domestic catch, have also done well.

Ms. Lubchenco has lately been advocating for catch shares in New England, whose regional council will shortly take a preliminary vote on the issue. New England’s fishermen could use a change in direction; four-fifths of their commercially important stocks - including cod, pollock and flounder - are in trouble.

The truth is that fisheries almost everywhere could use a change in direction. A well-managed American system would be an example for the world.