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 […]

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; […]

Network Responds to Climate Change Executive Order

Network Responds to Climate Change Executive Order

During the first weeks of the new administration, President Biden issued Executive Order 14008 on tackling the climate crisis at home and abroad. This order initiated efforts within 60 days to collect input from fishermen, regional ocean councils, fishery management councils, scientists, and other stakeholders on how to make fisheries and protected resources more resilient […]

AFFTA Report Offers Recommendations for the Health and Sustainability of America’s Marine Fisheries

AFFTA Report Offers Recommendations for the Health and Sustainability of America’s Marine Fisheries

Top photo by John McMurray As the Biden administration and Congress begin to tackle the challenges of fisheries management, especially the impacts of climate change, they will find recommendations and actions for federal fisheries management and marine conservation efforts in a new report released by the American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AFFTA). The Network’s National […]

Executive Order on Climate Change Takes Inclusive Approach to 30×30 Initiative

Executive Order on Climate Change Takes Inclusive Approach to 30×30 Initiative

President Biden’s recent Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad is a welcome sea change when it comes to addressing this increasingly urgent global challenge. As President Biden’s fact sheet notes, his administration’s actions will address climate change while, “creating good-paying union jobs and equitable clean energy future, building modern and […]

Alaska’s “Salmon Forest” is in Jeopardy

Alaska’s “Salmon Forest” is in Jeopardy

Why Removing Roadless Protections for the Tongass National Forest is a Mistake In late October, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) issued a final rule and record of decision exempting Alaska’s Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (2001 Roadless Rule). The 2001 Roadless Rule prohibited timber harvest and road construction in designated […]

We Must Take Action: Support Those Who Support Oceans and Fish

We Must Take Action: Support Those Who Support Oceans and Fish

Top photo: pilot whale with a rescue team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, FL. The ocean means a lot to a lot of people. Here’s why it means so much to me and how climate change and its impact on fish and habitat fit in. For years I had a scallop recreational fishing license on […]

Year Ends on Positive Note for the Fish

Year Ends on Positive Note for the Fish

Warming water has brought an abundance of black sea bass to the northeast, like this one caught by Lucia Wong of Cambridge, MA, which she caught when fishing with Capt. Dave Monti. Two initiatives underway in the U.S. House are making the fish very happy at years’ end: Rep. Jared Huffman’s (D-CA) national listening tour […]