For many years, anglers and businesses critical of recreational fishing regulations have focused their ire on the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) and on MRFSS’ successor, the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP), claiming that the landings estimates those surveys produced were very inaccurate and did not truly reflect recreational harvest. Their criticisms of MRFSS […]
Photo: The Slavins with springers After 20+ years on the Oregon Coast—during which a depleted stock of sturgeon contributed to the loss of a huge component of my guide business and an opportunity presented itself to work for the Association of Northwest Steelheaders—I find myself in disbelief as to the state of our inland fisheries. […]
Scale matters. It’s probably foolish to try to distill the message of a 2+-day conference where a wide variety of participants covers dozens of topics, yet that short and simple sentence has come back to me over and over again as I reflect on my time at Slow Fish 2018. The second annual conference, which […]
My fishing seasons begin bright with hope and filled with expectations. Last year’s mistakes and missed opportunities have been recalled and dissected all winter; plans have been laid to assure better outcomes next time. And those next times are coming soon. The marina has promised that, sometime later this week, my boat will go into […]
According to short term projections by the Food and Agricultural Organization (or FAO), global fish demand could increase by 47 million tons in less than ten years. In the last several decades, despite rising seafood consumption, wild-capture fisheries’ production remained steady, while aquaculture production grew to help meet this demand. The United States is not […]
Obesity, chronic heart disease, depression, cancer, diabetes, malnourishment are all components of our failing food system. Worldwide we produce enough calories of food to feed the entire planet, but due to inequality and distribution of power there are billions of people that are starving. Here in the United States we have a different problem; the […]
Like most big headline-grabbing policy breakthroughs achieved through the regional fishery management council process under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the recently announced protections for deep sea essential fish habitat (EFH) on the West Coast took years of painstaking work. Many fishermen and environmentalists are rightfully celebrating their collective achievement, but it’s worth taking a moment to […]
Photo by John McMurray No one can deny the social and economic importance of recreational fishing, and sport fishing organizations used to be a significant voice for conservation and management of our marine resources. However, there is a disturbing trend in some corners of the sport fishing community. Where conservation and abundance were once the […]
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