Water ‘Right’ or Wrong?

Water ‘Right’ or Wrong?

Photo: Lingcod from a deep-reef bottomfishing trip out of Garibaldi, Oregon 10-12-16 (photo courtesy Garibaldi Charters) I’m the new kid on the block. Not necessarily on fish policy, but more on water management and what it means for developing fish policy that is, in fact, fish-friendly. I’m a Governor’s appointee on the legislatively driven task […]

Celebrate Outdoors

Celebrate Outdoors

Photo: Elkhorn Mountains in Eastern Oregon, October 2016 It may not happen every year, but when it does, it’s pretty special. Some sort of unique opportunity for me to go to a different part of the state or a different part of the country to recreate. Good fortune this week sent me east, about as […]

Rules & Catch Limits Limit The Harm

Rules & Catch Limits Limit The Harm

Photo: Summer Flounder Summer flounder, more commonly known as “fluke” at the northern end of their range, were at the center of fisheries debates throughout the first eight or ten years of this century. It was the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s (MAFMC) failure to take the conservation and rebuilding provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation […]

Bounty on the Bay

Bounty on the Bay

Photo: 68 crab joined this 10 fish limit (eight coho, two Chinook) from the waters adjacent to Tillamook Bay on September 14, 2016. This is the time of year when I get to write a little bit about how lucky I am to live on the West Coast, let alone Oregon. It’s the time of […]

Voices Opposing H.R. 3094, the ‘Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority Act’

Voices Opposing H.R. 3094, the ‘Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority Act’

Learn more about red snapper and what you can do to oppose H.R. 3094. H.R. 3094 is the latest attempt to disrupt a fisheries management process that puts science and stakeholders first. We should be striving to improve the solid procedural foundation established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, rather than undermining it with piecemeal exemptions. — […]

Who Gets The Fish?

Who Gets The Fish?

Summer Flounder, photo via NOAA Of all the issues that face fisheries managers, probably none are as controversial as reallocating harvest. It’s a no-win issue for regulators. The need to establish annual catch limits makes fisheries management a zero-sum game. The only way to increase the landings of one group of fishermen is to decrease […]