Our Blog: From the Waterfront

Recreational Fishery Reform in the Mid-Atlantic: Sidestepping Magnuson-Stevens?

Recreational Fishery Reform in the Mid-Atlantic: Sidestepping Magnuson-Stevens?

Since March 2019, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), in conjunction with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), has been working on what they call the “Recreational Reform Initiative,” (Initiative) a project that could completely change the way recreational fisheries are managed in the mid-Atlantic region. The Council describes the Initiative this way: The […]

Salmon are Integral to California’s Coastal Economy. We Must Not Lose Them.

Salmon are Integral to California’s Coastal Economy. We Must Not Lose Them.

This is a perilous moment for California’s salmon and the communities and businesses that depend on them. As has been widely reported, and as many experts have agreed, the endangered Sacramento River Winter-run Chinook Salmon, which spawns solely in the Sacramento River and its tributaries, could be facing total annihilation this year. But it’s also […]

Science-Based Fisheries for Healthy, Productive and Resilient Marine Ecosystems, Now and for Future Generations

Science-Based Fisheries for Healthy, Productive and Resilient Marine Ecosystems, Now and for Future Generations

This article was originally published on The Ocean Project blog and was reprinted with permission. View more articles by The Ocean Project. Photo: Allen M. Shimada, NOAA Photo Library “All management should be for the generation coming, not for the generation that’s here today. If all you can think about is your own next year’s […]

Ocean Moment with AFFTA Executive Director Lucas Bissett

Ocean Moment with AFFTA Executive Director Lucas Bissett

Recently, the Marine Fish Conservation Network welcomed two new members to the Network Policy Council, Captain Lucas Bissett and Bill Mott. Tom Sadler, the Network’s deputy director, caught up with them to learn more about their backgrounds, their work and why they joined the Council. This first interview is with Captain Lucas Bissett. Tom Sadler: […]

Genetic Database Offers New Hope for Shad & River Herring

Genetic Database Offers New Hope for Shad & River Herring

ASMFC & USGS Announce Research Partnership This article was originally published in The Wild Oceans Horizon newsletter and was reprinted with permission. View the latest issue and past issues of The Wild Oceans Horizon. Top image: shad, photo via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The 2020 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) American shad […]

Should the ASMFC Rebuild Striped Bass?

Should the ASMFC Rebuild Striped Bass?

Top photo by John McMurray Over the past few years, it was pretty clear to anyone who regularly fishes for Atlantic striped bass that the stock was declining badly, even before the latest benchmark stock assessment, released in 2019, confirmed what most serious fishermen already suspected—that the stock was overfished and suffering from overfishing. What’s […]

Navigating Toward Healthier Oceans and More Productive Fisheries Requires a Climate Change Response in Management

Navigating Toward Healthier Oceans and More Productive Fisheries Requires a Climate Change Response in Management

By Linda Behnken and Kevin Scribner, MFCN Policy Council co-chairs For the two of us, climate change is top of mind. It impacts the way we do business, the way we think about the ocean resources we depend on, the way we see our communities surviving into the future. We’re going to have to adapt; […]

Bluefish: “Either We Have a Risk Policy Or We Don’t”

Bluefish: “Either We Have a Risk Policy Or We Don’t”

Bluefish photo by John McMurray On Tuesday, June 8, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Bluefish Management Board (Management Board) finalized their joint Atlantic Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment (amendment). When the amendment process began in 2017, it only addressed allocation, but after a 2019 operational stock assessment […]