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MFCN Sends Policy Priorities to the Trump Administration

MFCN Sends Policy Priorities to the Trump Administration

Jun 5, 2025 | No Comments

Top photo via Linda Behnken In a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) leadership, the Marine Fish Conservation Network outlined recommendations for promoting economic and food security through policies, endorsed by the Network’s members, supporting science-based fisheries management and thriving working waterfronts. The Network has sent similar […]

South Fork Wind is Creating a ‘Reef Effect’

South Fork Wind is Creating a ‘Reef Effect’

May 23, 2025 | No Comments

Top photo: Fishing Machine Charters, Pt. Judith, RI hooked up with cod, pollock and cunner in the Cox Ledge area wind farm this winter. A visual survey conducted at South Fork Wind (SFW), an offshore wind farm located 16.5 nautical miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island in the Cox Ledge area, shows that the […]

Administration’s Proposed Budget Slashes Funding Needed for Successful Coastal Economies

Administration’s Proposed Budget Slashes Funding Needed for Successful Coastal Economies

May 14, 2025 | No Comments

President Trump’s recommendations on discretionary funding levels for fiscal year (FY) 2026, also known as the “skinny budget,” reduced NOAA’s total budget by at least $1.52 billion, with $1.31 billion of that reduction coming from “climate-dominated research, data, and grant programs.” The budget also called for moving parts of the National Marine Fisheries Service into […]

Personnel Cuts Threaten Science-Based Fisheries Management

Personnel Cuts Threaten Science-Based Fisheries Management

May 7, 2025 | No Comments

Top photo: NOAA monkfish assessment The message from Jon Hare, the director of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) was as distressing as it was clear: I have raised at both [the New England Fishery Management and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management] Council meetings the issue that the NEFSC is not going […]

Alaska’s Fishing Industry Faces Uncertain Waters as NOAA Cuts Threaten Science, Safety, and Sustainability

Alaska’s Fishing Industry Faces Uncertain Waters as NOAA Cuts Threaten Science, Safety, and Sustainability

May 1, 2025 | No Comments

The following article was originally posted on April 18, 2025 on the Alaska Marine Conservation Council’s website and has been reposted with permission. Last month, we shared an alert about proposed federal cuts to NOAA’s budget — cuts that would eliminate climate research and undermine the science our fishing communities rely on. Since then, we’ve […]

About the Marine Fish Conservation Network

The Marine Fish Conservation Network is a coalition of commercial and recreational fishing associations, regional and national conservation groups, aquaria, sustainable seafood suppliers, and marine science organizations dedicated to sustaining abundant fish populations, healthy marine ecosystems, and thriving fishing communities through defending and strengthening U.S. ocean conservation policy, including our primary federal fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Learn more.