Thoughts on Climate Change Planning, Resilience & Forage Fish

Thoughts on Climate Change Planning, Resilience & Forage Fish

Managers Take Up Next Phase of East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning This article was originally published in Wild Oceans’ The Horizon newsletter and is reprinted with permission. View the latest issue and past issues of The Horizon. Top photo: Atlantic menhaden. After the East Coast Climate Scenario Creation Workshop (held June 21-23), I left […]

The Bluefish Conundrum

The Bluefish Conundrum

It’s difficult to describe what fishing for bluefish was like in Long Island Sound forty or fifty years ago. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and for a while after that, bluefish defined the summer fishery along the Connecticut shore. Every morning, in at least one local harbor, untold hundreds of bluefish, many of them […]

Court Vacates Atlantic Herring Buffer Zone

Court Vacates Atlantic Herring Buffer Zone

Midwater Trawling Resumes Near Shore This article first appeared in the Wild Oceans Horizon Newsletter. Top photo by John McMurray. On April 21st, NOAA Fisheries announced that the Atlantic herring buffer zone, also called the inshore midwater trawl restricted area, would no longer be enforced as a result of a District Court ruling to vacate […]

Restoring Resilience: Anglers Must Lead on Climate Change

Restoring Resilience: Anglers Must Lead on Climate Change

This article first appeared in Moldy Chum and is reprinted with permission. Top photo: Fly fishing on the South Fork of the Boise River, Idaho At the end of February, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released another massive report — this one pulled together by researchers from 67 countries — describing […]

Dealing With Localized Depletion, Where And If It Exists

Dealing With Localized Depletion, Where And If It Exists

Top Photo: Atlantic Menhaden Localized depletion has, over the past few years, become a hot topic in forage fish management. It’s based on the notion that, even though the overall stock of fish is healthy, intense fishing pressure in a particular region could significantly reduce abundance in that location, and have adverse impacts on the […]

Mid-Atlantic Council’s Unmanaged Forage Fish Protections Put to the Test

Mid-Atlantic Council’s Unmanaged Forage Fish Protections Put to the Test

This article originally appeared in the Wild Oceans Horizon newsletter. Meeting the Challenge of a Shifting Prey Base The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Unmanaged Forage Omnibus Amendment (UFOA) stands as a testament to the value of stakeholder engagement in our fishery management process. The amendment “prohibits the development of new and expansion of existing directed […]