Dealing With Localized Depletion, Where And If It Exists

Dealing With Localized Depletion, Where And If It Exists

Top Photo: Atlantic Menhaden Localized depletion has, over the past few years, become a hot topic in forage fish management. It’s based on the notion that, even though the overall stock of fish is healthy, intense fishing pressure in a particular region could significantly reduce abundance in that location, and have adverse impacts on the […]

Unseemly Haste: Recreational Reform in the Mid-Atlantic

Unseemly Haste: Recreational Reform in the Mid-Atlantic

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens) has governed federal fishery management since 1976, but for its first 20 years, it was largely ineffective, encouraging the growth of a large, overcapitalized domestic fishing fleet while doing little or nothing to prevent the decline of once-abundant fish stocks. Recognizing Magnuson-Stevens’ shortcomings, Congress eventually passed the […]

ASMFC Approves Draft Amendment 7 to the Striped Bass Management Plan

ASMFC Approves Draft Amendment 7 to the Striped Bass Management Plan

Photo by Kyle Schaefer On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 26, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) reviewed and amended its Draft Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (Draft Amendment), and approved such Draft Amendment for public comment. In 2003, when Amendment […]

Mid-Atlantic Black Sea Bass: “Is The Magnuson Act Optional?”

Mid-Atlantic Black Sea Bass: “Is The Magnuson Act Optional?”

Of all the fisheries on the East Coast, the mid-Atlantic black sea bass stock may present the most challenging management issues. The fish aren’t in immediate peril; the most recent stock assessment update indicated that spawning stock biomass was more than twice the target level. Overfishing is not taking place, and young fish continue to […]

Because It’s Always Easier to Conserve Someone Else’s Fish

Because It’s Always Easier to Conserve Someone Else’s Fish

Top photo by by Mark Conlin, SWFSC Large Pelagics Program In September 2021, at a meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), the United States, supported by the European Union and other nations, proposed that NAFO ban the retention of Greenland sharks accidentally caught in the Arctic and western Atlantic waters that fall under […]

The Pendulum Swings for Bristol Bay

The Pendulum Swings for Bristol Bay

Top photo: Bristol Bay sockeye salmon, via Earthjustice and courtesy Of Fish Eye Guy Photography The fight to protect Bristol Bay’s still near-pristine ecosystem, which includes the world’s largest run of wild salmon, untainted by hatchery fish—or, if you’re on the other side of the issue, the fight to develop the Pebble Mine and its […]