The letter, addressed to the executive secretary of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), was short. Dated January 27, 2026, it read: This letter is to acknowledge that the Western Bluefin Recommendation 22-10 does not require Western harvesters to count their recreational catch of Bluefin toward their quota. As such, beginning […]
Read this post on Substack. Top photo: John McMurray The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) plays a big role in East Coast fisheries management. It has the primary responsibility for drafting and updating management plans for important commercial and recreational species such as striped bass, red drum and menhaden, while also working with the […]
Read Part I of this series PART II: Virginia Looks at the Future Although the Board set the 2026 TAC at its October 2025 meeting, future TACs, and the future of the Bay cap, were not yet established. To help resolve that uncertainty, Virginia legislators have introduced four bills addressing the menhaden resource, which range […]
Read Part II of this series PART I: ASMFC Struggles with Menhaden Management Atlantic menhaden are an important forage fish all along the East Coast, feeding everything from striped bass off New England to king mackerel in the southeast. Their appeal isn’t limited to predatory fish; they are also an important part of the diets […]
Top photo by John McMurray Legislation introduced into the House of Representatives on October 8, 2025 represents a real threat to the federal recreational fisheries data collection process, and to how that data will be used in the management process. H.R. 5699, the so-called “Fisheries Data Modernization and Accuracy Act of 2025,” was introduced by […]
Early in 2014, a group of recreational fishing and boating industry organizations, organized under the aegis of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, issued a policy document titled “A Vision for Managing America’s Saltwater Recreational Fisheries” (Vision Statement), which noted that “Spending by saltwater anglers generated more than $70 billion in economic output, supporting more than […]
Top photo by John McMurray Thirteen months ago, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Loper-Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a decision that abolished the so-called “Chevron Doctrine,” created by court in 1984, which had given agencies the ability to make reasonable interpretations of law related to such agencies’ core expertise, and required […]
Atlantic bluefin tuna, photo courtesy of Wikipedia In recent years, fishermen have seen a resurgence of Atlantic bluefin tuna off the United States coast, with 2024 commercial and recreational landings some of the highest in many years. In fact, as things stand now, 2024 bluefin landings, when combined with dead discards, were a little too […]
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