This article was originally published on The Ocean Project blog and was reprinted with permission. View more articles by The Ocean Project. Photo: Allen M. Shimada, NOAA Photo Library “All management should be for the generation coming, not for the generation that’s here today. If all you can think about is your own next year’s […]
By Linda Behnken and Kevin Scribner, MFCN Policy Council co-chairs For the two of us, climate change is top of mind. It impacts the way we do business, the way we think about the ocean resources we depend on, the way we see our communities surviving into the future. We’re going to have to adapt; […]
Every ten years, as the story goes, Congress has worked together in a bipartisan fashion to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). And each time Congress has risen to the occasion to address the new challenges our oceans and fisheries face by amending and strengthening the MSA to conserve and sustain U.S. […]
Top photo by John McMurray The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) requires that “Conservation and management measures shall prevent overfishing while producing, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery for the United States fishing industry.” MSA also states, in part, that “The term ‘optimum,’ with respect to the yield from […]
Top photo by John McMurray Striped bass are one of the United States’ most important recreational fish. Between 2010 and 2019, anglers landed more striped bass (measured in pounds) than any other saltwater fish. The bass has paid for its popularity. A benchmark stock assessment released in April 2019 found that female spawning stock biomass […]
Top photo by John McMurray As the Biden administration and Congress begin to tackle the challenges of fisheries management, especially the impacts of climate change, they will find recommendations and actions for federal fisheries management and marine conservation efforts in a new report released by the American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AFFTA). The Network’s National […]
Photo: Gulf of Maine cod The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens) is probably the most comprehensive, and most successful, marine fishery conservation law in the world. Since the year 2000, it has been responsible for rebuilding 47 once-overfished stocks; other overfished stocks are well on their way to recovery. Much of that success […]
Bluefish photo by John McMurray The relationship between the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and overfishing goes back a long way. In 1999, the Council adopted a summer flounder quota that had just an 18 percent probability of preventing overfishing, an action that led to the landmark court decision in Natural Resources Defense Council v. […]
