Fighting for Chum Salmon: AMCC Advocates for Stronger Protections at February NPFMC Meeting

Fighting for Chum Salmon: AMCC Advocates for Stronger Protections at February NPFMC Meeting

This article was adapted from the Alaska Marine Conservation Council’s blog and reposted with permission. Top photo: Alaskabrown bear with chum salmon, by Alan Vernon via Wikipedia At the recent North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) meeting in February, the Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) testified, urging decisive action to address chum salmon bycatch in […]

Legislation Would Safeguard and Strengthen America’s Working Waterfronts and Fishing Communities

Legislation Would Safeguard and Strengthen America’s Working Waterfronts and Fishing Communities

U.S. Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Rob Wittman (R-VA) have once again reintroduced the bipartisan Keep America’s Waterfronts Working Act, H.R. 1808. “The Keep America’s Waterfronts Working Act is welcomed legislation for restoring and maintaining waterfront infrastructure and ensuring ocean access for commercial businesses, recreation, tourism, and traditional uses,” said MFCN Executive Director Robert Vandermark. […]

Forsaking the Future of New England Lobster: Part II

Forsaking the Future of New England Lobster: Part II

Read Part I of this two-article series Throughout most of the past twenty years, the Southern New England lobster stock steadily declined, and eventually collapsed, while fishery managers failed to take any meaningful action to address the problem. Yet, even as southern New England lobster abundance fell to new lows, Gulf of Maine lobster were […]

The ASMFC Faces Tough Challenges In 2025

The ASMFC Faces Tough Challenges In 2025

Just over 43 years ago, in October 1981, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) released a document designated Fisheries Management Report No. 1 of the ATLANTIC STATES MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION. It was 329 pages long and extremely well researched. Its title page declared it to be the “Interstate Fisheries Management Plan for the Striped […]

U.S. Looks Beyond Scapegoats to Secure Striped Marlin Conservation

U.S. Looks Beyond Scapegoats to Secure Striped Marlin Conservation

This article is reprinted with permission from the Fall 2024 Wild Oceans Horizon Newsletter. Top photo by Jackiemora01 via Wikipedia The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the international body responsible for ensuring the long-term conservation and sustainable use of highly migratory fish stocks in the western and central Pacific, met in Suva, Fiji […]

Kate Masury of Eating with the Ecosystem: Watch the Waterside Chat

Kate Masury of Eating with the Ecosystem: Watch the Waterside Chat

Kate Masury, executive director of Eating with the Ecosystem, joined the Marine Fish Conservation Network for a Waterside Chat on October 16, 2024. Among many topics, Kate and host Tom Sadler discussed: Eating with the Ecosystem, the work they do, and how they are a nonprofit that started as a food gathering Their place-based approach […]

ASMFC Stalls Striped Bass Rebuilding Efforts

ASMFC Stalls Striped Bass Rebuilding Efforts

On December 16, 2024, conservation-minded striped bass anglers waited to see whether the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) would vote to reduce 2025 striped bass landings, and so make it more likely that the currently overfished striped bass stock would be rebuilt by 2029, the deadline set by […]

The ASMFC Moves Forward — Slowly — To Conserve Striped Bass

The ASMFC Moves Forward — Slowly — To Conserve Striped Bass

By any objective measure, the coastal migratory population of Atlantic striped bass has fallen on hard times. In Maryland, the juvenile abundance index (JAI), which has gauged the success of each year’s spawn since 1957, was 2.0 in 2024, far below its long-term average of 11.0. It was the sixth consecutive year of spawning failure […]