Photo: river herring migrate in large numbers. Photo by Diane Lomba. River herring are really two species, alewife and blueback herring. Both species make their way up creeks and rivers in the spring to spawn in fresh water; however, both spend the majority of their lives at sea. River herring are managed under the Atlantic […]
Many fisheries conservation advocates were dismayed when, in October 2016, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) decided that it would not develop a management plan for shad and river herring, fish that some thought should be included as stocks in the Atlantic mackerel, squid and butterfish fisheries. Although I would have preferred to see the […]
Photo: Coho Salmon In sophomore chemistry class (one of my least favorite classes, but one of my favorite teachers), I got to witness the ping pong ball sprung from the mouse trap trick that really demonstrated the effects of a nuclear explosion. It was a pretty profound experiment, clearly demonstrating the true effect of a […]
I don’t remember the first time I went to a menhaden hearing, but I sure do remember the first time I saw menhaden in person. It was the 1970s and I was fishing from the Castle Island Pier in South Boston. Boston Harbor was still one of the dirtiest bodies of water in the country, […]
After years of coordination with stakeholders the final products are out, but what does it mean for us? Late last week, the National Ocean Council released the nation’s first ocean plans. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. Because really, it’s the first comprehensive effort to provide a holistic, regional look […]
I was attending the November meeting of New York’s Marine Resources Advisory Council when the topic of lobsters came up. The southern New England stock of American lobster has collapsed, and a state biologist was doing her best to explain just how far abundance had fallen and what the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) […]
Despite What Some Are Saying, We Have To Do Something with Fluke Over the years, I’ve written a lot about summer flounder… mostly using it as an example of how the conservation provisions of federal fisheries managed law (AKA the Magnuson Stevens Act – MSA) have worked to rebuild stocks… and subsequently provided access to […]
Michael O’ Leary with a Tillamook Bay spring Chinook from June 2016 Some funny things happened in this last election. Besides the obvious, not all of the votes went the way you would think. One of my fellow Marine Fish Conservation Network bloggers mentioned on a recent call, that a district that voted strongly for […]
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