Photo: California salmon fisherman Mike Hudson wrestles a Sacramento River Chinook salmon on his boat, the F/V Cash Flo II Jerry Brown did many good things for the state of California during his multiple tenures as governor, but water management was not among them. He was a good showman, but it has been rightly pointed […]
Our Blog: From the Waterfront
‘Toxic 2018’
The Nightmare that Should Teach Us Several Lessons about Water Quality & Fisheries Management 2018 proved a good time — if there is such a thing — for this angler to have both hips replaced. Though surgery meant six months off and out of the water, the recovery took me out of the fishing game […]
Government Shutdown Hurts Fish, Fishermen
The holiday season is over; the new year is well underway. As days begin to lengthen, anglers begin to look forward to the coming season, which grows closer with every passing day. But for federal fishery managers, things aren’t going anywhere, for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is one of the many agencies that […]
The Importance of Telling Our Story
Our flight banked beside the National Mall on approach as the sun set orange over Washington, D.C. This was my first trip back since I left my job as a Senate staffer eighteen months before. Some of the fishermen flying in with me had never made this landing; some, like me, had seen it many […]
Opportunity to Comment of State Management of Recreational Red Snapper
As recreational anglers, we find ourselves at the precipice of a breakthrough in state management of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. Thanks to work done by the Gulf states, the federal government and through the Gulf Council, we now have an opportunity to give public testimony on a plan that would allow the […]
Why I Will Continue to Sell (and Eat) Chinook Salmon
It’s up to us as consumers to decide where we live, how we live, and what we eat. For many of us, knowing how our food is produced determines these choices. Sustainable seafood, humanely reared livestock, and small-scale organic agriculture shape my choices as a consumer, and they form the backbone of my business as […]
Slot Limits No Panacea for Summer Flounder
The summer flounder population has been in a decline. Such decline is due, in large part, not to overfishing (although modest overfishing has occurred in one or two recent years), but to at least six consecutive years of below-average recruitment of young fish into the flounder population. Biologists haven’t yet figured out why such low […]
Reflections on the 115th Congress and the Future of Fisheries
Holiday decorations are up, people are wishing each other “Season’s Greetings” and lawmakers have been busy pushing through legislation in the last few days of the 115th Congress. It’s been an interesting year for fisheries. Both the House and Senate introduced bills that would roll back years of progress in fisheries management. H.R. 200, the […]