Many commercial fishing stocks off the United States coast that were depleted by decades of overfishing are returning to abundance, thanks largely to a 1996 law that effectively ordered limits on catches until the fish populations had rebounded, a newly released analysis of federal data on fish populations states.

The analysis, by the Natural Resources Defense Council, concludes that 21 of 44 species that it studied have met rebuilding targets and 7 others have made significant progress, increasing their populations by at least 25 percent.

Sixteen have made less or no progress, the report stated, including 10 species off the New England coast, most of them popular bottom-dwelling fish like cod and flounder. In half of those cases, the fish populations had grown by more than 25 percent but were still being overfished.

All have been managed under the 1996 law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which sets a 10-year target for rebuilding each species.