Our Blog: From the Waterfront

Watch: Fishing Guide & AFFTA Executive Director Lucas Bissett Joins Tom Sadler for a Waterside Chat

Watch: Fishing Guide & AFFTA Executive Director Lucas Bissett Joins Tom Sadler for a Waterside Chat

Capt. Lucas Bissett joined host Tom Sadler on September 28, 2022 for latest of the Network’s monthly Waterside Chats (now available as a podcast). Lucas is the executive director of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, and he’s also an award winning saltwater fly-fishing guide, a member of the Marine Fish Conservation Network’s National Policy […]

NMFS Seeks Angler Input on Recreational Fishing Policy

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 […]

Thoughts on Climate Change Planning, Resilience & Forage Fish

Thoughts on Climate Change Planning, Resilience & Forage Fish

Managers Take Up Next Phase of East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning This article was originally published in Wild Oceans’ The Horizon newsletter and is reprinted with permission. View the latest issue and past issues of The Horizon. Top photo: Atlantic menhaden. After the East Coast Climate Scenario Creation Workshop (held June 21-23), I left […]

Watch: How the Pribilof Islands’ Tragic History May Shape a Marine Sanctuary

Watch: How the Pribilof Islands’ Tragic History May Shape a Marine Sanctuary

On August 24, 2022, Waterside Chat host Tom Sadler was joined by Marissa Merculieff, director of the Office of Justice and Governance Administration for the Aleut Community of Saint Paul Island, and Lauren Divine, director of the Ecosystem Conservation Office for the Tribal Government of Saint Paul Island. Saint Paul is the largest of the […]

Does the Inflation Reduction Act Fund Network Partners’ Priorities?

Does the Inflation Reduction Act Fund Network Partners’ Priorities?

When the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (H.R. 5376) cleared its last congressional hurdle on August 12th, Robert Vandermark, the Network’s executive director, released the following statement applauding its passage: U.S. ocean fisheries support American fishing and seafood industries that have been important drivers to our nation’s economy for generations. Our fisheries sustain local businesses […]

Learn More about the ‘Heart of the Ocean’

Learn More about the ‘Heart of the Ocean’

Join us August 24th for a Waterside Chat featuring the proposed Heart of the Ocean (Alaĝum Kanuux) marine sanctuary in the waters off Alaska. Host Tom Sadler will speak with guests Marissa Merculieff, director of the Office of Justice and Governance Administration for the Aleut Community of Saint Paul Island, host Tom Sadler, and Lauren […]

The Bluefish Conundrum

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 […]