This piece first appeared on NRDC’s expert blog and is reprinted with permission. Top photo by John McMurray. Healthy fish populations are building blocks of a healthy ocean. They support marine ecosystems, including other wildlife like whales and seabirds. They are also engines of our coastal economies and the communities that rely on them, with […]
We were trying to protect the blowfish, and for a few hours, it looked like we would. Then things got derailed by a group of folks who clung to the status quo. Blowfish, more properly known as “northern puffer,” range along the entire eastern seaboard of the United States, although they’re probably most common between […]
Capt. Lucas Bissett joined host Tom Sadler on September 28, 2022 for latest of the Network’s monthly Waterside Chats (now available as a podcast). Lucas is the executive director of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, and he’s also an award winning saltwater fly-fishing guide, a member of the Marine Fish Conservation Network’s National Policy […]
Photo by John McMurray Most anglers probably don’t realize that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has a policy that addresses recreational fisheries management (Recreational Policy). Most anglers have probably never even considered the issue. Yet it’s an issue that deserves some thought for, as the introduction to the Recreational Policy notes, “The purpose of […]
On August 24, 2022, Waterside Chat host Tom Sadler was joined by Marissa Merculieff, director of the Office of Justice and Governance Administration for the Aleut Community of Saint Paul Island, and Lauren Divine, director of the Ecosystem Conservation Office for the Tribal Government of Saint Paul Island. Saint Paul is the largest of the […]
When the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (H.R. 5376) cleared its last congressional hurdle on August 12th, Robert Vandermark, the Network’s executive director, released the following statement applauding its passage: U.S. ocean fisheries support American fishing and seafood industries that have been important drivers to our nation’s economy for generations. Our fisheries sustain local businesses […]
It’s difficult to describe what fishing for bluefish was like in Long Island Sound forty or fifty years ago. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and for a while after that, bluefish defined the summer fishery along the Connecticut shore. Every morning, in at least one local harbor, untold hundreds of bluefish, many of them […]
I’ve spent a fair amount of my adult life organizing anglers to do good for fish. It seems that unless there’s a crisis (i.e. hatcheries closing) most anglers are content just going about their business, taking advantage of the good times, and critiquing agency policy during the bad times. I think it may stem from […]
