The Gulf of Mexico’s most valuable fish stocks are under threat as years of conservation and fishery success are quickly becoming unraveled. Gag grouper and greater amberjack face 70-80% quota reductions. As of 2017, red grouper spawning biomass is the lowest it has ever been. Even the celebrated red snapper fishery is in decline. This […]
It’s hard to watch a fishery die, particularly one that you’ve been a part of for virtually all of your life. I’ve long mourned the demise of the Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic (SNEMA) stock of winter flounder. I’m not sure when I caught my first flounder, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was […]
The news just keeps getting better for West Coast groundfish. Ringing in the New Year comes with good news for saltwater anglers in Oregon, and other West Coast ports as well. For starters, the seasonal depth restriction has been lifted, which should excite many anglers. It’s like the good ol’ days all over again, with […]
Read Part I of this two-part series. Top Photo: Black Sea Bass caught off Fire Island Each year, before the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC’s) Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board (Management Board) meet in December to set the recreational specification for the next […]
Happy Holidays from our nation’s capital! As 2022 comes to a close, we’re looking back at significant actions that Congress took on oceans and fisheries policy this year. Update This week (12/19-25) is the last week of the 117th Congress. The text of the $1.7 trillion FY23 omnibus spending package was released just before 2:00am […]
This piece first appeared on NRDC’s expert blog and is reprinted with permission. Top photo by John McMurray. Healthy fish populations are building blocks of a healthy ocean. They support marine ecosystems, including other wildlife like whales and seabirds. They are also engines of our coastal economies and the communities that rely on them, with […]
Top photo: Panoramic shot of the “Ghost-Town-Hole” with just 4 boats plying the waters for salmon on Sunday, October 16th, 2022 It’s as if Mother Earth knows, fall is for putting away a cache of food for the long winter ahead, and rarely does she disappoint, at least until this year. In my 26 years […]
Science-based fisheries management has been the key to maintaining long-term healthy and abundant fisheries upon which coastal and Indigenous communities depend. The law that ensures the successful and sustainable science-based management of U.S. federal fisheries is the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which has been evolving since it first passed in 1976 to end […]
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