On Wednesday, August 14, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board voted to ignore the results of the Black Sea Bass 2024 Management Track Stock Assessment Report (Management Track Assessment), and leave the acceptable biological catch (ABC) and annual catch limit (ACL) for 2025 unchanged from […]
After June 28, 2024, when the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (Loper Bright), some of the commentary in both the popular press and various legal publications made it sound as if the sky had fallen. One opinion article in the Tampa Bay Times went so far […]
Photo: Charles Witek in a different era of fishing technology When I was young, marine recreational fisheries, at least in the northeast, were virtually unregulated. There was a 16-inch (fork length) minimum size for striped bass that was in place throughout the region, but other than that, anglers could take as many fish as they […]
On May 1, 2024 Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) introduced a bill, titled the “Bristol Bay Protection Act,” in the House of Representatives. Such legislation, if passed and signed into law, would finally end the long-running conflict that has pitted proponents of the so-called “Pebble Mine” against Alaska Native peoples and others who have long harvested, […]
Top Photo: Gulf of Maine Atlantic Cod, by Joachim S. Mueller One of the most frustrating aspects of fisheries management is the fact that two people—or, more often, two groups of people—can look at the same set of facts and come to two very different conclusions. It’s not unusual for scientists who manage fish stocks […]
After the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC’s) Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board adopted Addendum II to Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (Addendum II) in January 2024, it was generally assumed that striped bass management issues would be put on a back burner until a new stock assessment […]
When the Chesapeake Bay striped bass stock collapsed in the late 1970s, people tried to figure out why. Recreational fishermen were quick to point fingers at the commercial sector, which was not yet burdened by significant regulation. There were no gear restrictions and no annual quotas, and the fishery accounted for a larger share of […]
In 1984, New York’s recreational fishermen took home about 14.5 million winter flounder, a harvest that totaled about 13.9 million pounds and dwarfed the 1.35 million pounds of flounder that was landed by the state’s commercial fishermen in the same year. Winter flounder made up over one-third of the nearly 40 million fish landed by […]
Join our email list to receive occasional updates and priority alerts
