Rethinking Marine Protected Areas

Rethinking Marine Protected Areas

Sunset over Stellwagen Sanctuary. Photo courtesy of Anne Smrcina, NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary When various conservation organizations began pushing the concept of marine protected areas (MPAs) back in the late 1990s, I didn’t like the idea at all. Back then, the MPAs being proposed were, with few if any exceptions, so-called “ocean wilderness […]

Utilizing Bycatch: The Hidden Hazard

Utilizing Bycatch:  The Hidden Hazard

For many years, reducing or eliminating “bycatch,” unwanted fish or other creatures incidentally caught by fishermen while seeking other species, has been a goal of fisheries managers. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens), defines “bycatch” as “fish which are harvested in a fishery, but which are not sold or kept for personal use, […]

Red Snapper: Fishing Outside The Box

Red Snapper:  Fishing Outside The Box

Today, red snapper management in the Gulf of Mexico may be the most bitterly debated issue in fisheries management. By 1990, the stock was badly overfished. Abundance had fallen so low that the population retained only 2.6% of its spawning potential. Since then, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) implemented a successful recovery plan. Spawning […]

Part Two: Magnuson and Me

Part Two: Magnuson and Me

This post continues Charles Witek’s two-part personal journey in U.S. fisheries management and conservation. Read Part One here. I had gotten more and more involved with fisheries conservation over the years. By 1996, I sat on the executive board of the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), an organization that had worked hard to get SFA signed […]

Part One: Magnuson-Stevens and Me

Part One: Magnuson-Stevens and Me

This post is the first in a two-part series about Charles’s personal journey with U.S. fisheries management and the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Read Part Two here. As a boy growing up in the southwest corner of the New England coast, I had no way of knowing that Congress would someday pass the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and […]