Top Photo by John McMurray. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens) has been a success. Even its critics admit that. In 2000, 72 fish stocks were subject to overfishing; today, that number is down to 30. During the same period, the number of overfished stocks was reduced from 92 to 38. Since 2000, […]
Starting next week, ASMFC is holding Menhaden Amendment 3 hearings… and we need to be there. I’m not going to wax this time about how recent aggregations of menhaden have created extraordinary conditions for fishermen targeting striped bass, sharks etc., or all the other life the massive pods have drawn, most notably the whales. It’s […]
Photo: Mates Katie Viducic, Claire Hodson & Lauren Benoit of Snappa Charters. Early on a Saturday morning Capt. Charlie Donilon of Snappa Charters and mate Lauren Benoit picked up nine passengers in Newport. It was a foggy morning, with big rollers from an ocean storm pushing the boat forward through the East Passage in front […]
A few weeks ago, an EF 2 tornado ripped through a quiet little town on a small island in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The tornado pushed ashore in the middle of the night with a fury. There was no time for warnings. The tight-knit community that bore the brunt of the damage […]
Photo: Bluefin Tuna, by Captain John McMurray As we get into the thick of tuna season right now, and plenty of “large-medium” and “giant” class bluefin tuna are being caught by anglers around Cape Cod, and “small mediums” as well as good-sized yellowfin in the New York Bite, I thought it more than appropriate to […]
Photo: Bob Rees gets an albie You’ve certainly heard me talk long and hard about the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) over the months, but it has been getting some much needed attention at the national level lately. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, convened a hearing […]
Illustration: Zeus with Amalthea and nymph The ancient Greeks told a story, which may have originated more than 2,500 years ago, of the infant Zeus, who was destined to be King of the Gods. Hidden from his father, Chronos, who planned to devour him, Zeus survived by drinking the milk of the she-goat Amalthea. Yet […]
On the long road to change, we encounter twists and turns, roadblocks and detours. Right now, on the way to changing the way we allocate Atlantic menhaden among fishermen and other predators in the ocean (e.g., striped bass), we are at a crossroads. For well over a decade, the ASMFC’s Menhaden Management Board has been […]
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