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 […]
Author Archives: Charles Witek
Rebuilding Striped Bass
Photo by Kyle Schaefer In April 2019, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) accepted a benchmark stock assessment that found the striped bass stock to be both overfished and subject to overfishing. The Management Board acted quickly to reduce fishing mortality and end overfishing, but was much […]
NMFS Seeks Angler Input on Recreational Fishing 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 […]
The Bluefish Conundrum
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 […]
When Sharks [Don’t Really] Attack
Top: Sand tiger shark, photo by D Ross Robertson via Wikipedia For some reason, the summer of 2022 has seen an unusual number of people being bitten by sharks off the beaches of Long Island, New York. According to the International Shark Attack Files, a comprehensive aggregation of all known shark attacks dating back to […]
Council Staff, Scientists Caution Against Mid-Atlantic “Harvest Control Rule”
Top photo by John McMurray For more than two years, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Program Policy Board (Policy Board) have been working on something they call a “Harvest Control Rule” (Control Rule), which could make very significant changes to the way that the […]
Newest Amendment to ASMFC’s Striped Bass Management Plan Emphasizes Conservation
On Wednesday, March 4, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) completed its work on Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (Amendment 7). Amendment 7 maintains the conservation measures adopted in earlier amendments, while embracing additional improvements to striped bass management that promote […]
Magnuson-Stevens: Is Familiarity Breeding Contempt?
People too often take things for granted, depreciating what they have simply because it’s familiar; sometimes, things must be seen through someone else’s eyes before they are fully appreciated. That certainly seems to be true of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens). When the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 (SFA) became law, amending […]