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 […]
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 […]
With the kid growing up (read: friends now more important than parents) and more free time on my hands (read: kid no longer in dance class), plus an understanding wife, I’ve had an opportunity to get out more as a sportsman than a professional fishing guide lately. I have good fish and wildlife management as […]
I’ve spent a fair amount of my adult life organizing anglers to do good for fish. It seems that unless there’s a crisis (i.e. hatcheries closing) most anglers are content just going about their business, taking advantage of the good times, and critiquing agency policy during the bad times. I think it may stem from […]
People too often take things for granted, depreciating what they have simply because it’s familiar; sometimes, things must be seen through someone else’s eyes before they are fully appreciated. That certainly seems to be true of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens). When the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 (SFA) became law, amending […]
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 […]
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens) has governed federal fishery management since 1976, but for its first 20 years, it was largely ineffective, encouraging the growth of a large, overcapitalized domestic fishing fleet while doing little or nothing to prevent the decline of once-abundant fish stocks. Recognizing Magnuson-Stevens’ shortcomings, Congress eventually passed the […]
The Network’s new Waterside Chat online discussion series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. In each edition, Network Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with guests about current ocean policy and fisheries management topics and what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, […]
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