Whistling Past the Graveyard

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Fisheries don’t collapse all at once. Instead, they telegraph their distress with signals that may be subtle at the start, but grow more insistent as stocks decline. Often, at least in the case of migratory stocks, the first sign of trouble might be a contraction of the fish’s range. On the East Coast of the […]

Diving into the Ocean Climate Action Plan

Diving into the Ocean Climate Action Plan

This article first appeared on the NRDC website and is reprinted with permission The Biden administration’s new plan includes a series of agency actions aimed at ocean-related climate solutions. The Biden administration’s new Ocean Climate Action Plan (OCAP) looks to the ocean for climate solutions. Last Tuesday, the White House put out the first-ever Ocean […]

Recreational Fishing Economics is All About the Data

Recreational Fishing Economics is All About the Data

Spud Woodward, member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, said managing maximum sustainable yield does not work for catch & release fisheries. NMFS Holds First Recreational Fishing Economic Workshop in Nine Years Why is fishing catch and effort data so important to recreational fishing economics? First the obvious, […]

NOAA’s Turn: Agency Weighs In on Marine Recreational Information Program

NOAA’s Turn: Agency Weighs In on Marine Recreational Information Program

Photo by John McMurray When the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act (Act) was passed in 2018, it included the provision that The Secretary [of Commerce] shall, within 90 days after the date of the enactment of the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018, enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to […]

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

Do Fishery Managers Actually Listen to the Public? I’ve been there…and it’s incredibly frustrating. For months, you do your best to educate folks on what are often complicated fishery management actions, explaining the options/alternatives that are on the table, and which one(s) will best protect the fishery and serve their/our interests. You urge people to […]

Mid-Atlantic “Harvest Control Rule” Makes an Awkward Debut, Part II: Confusion at the Council

Mid-Atlantic “Harvest Control Rule” Makes an Awkward Debut, Part II: Confusion at the Council

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 […]

Mid-Atlantic “Harvest Control Rule” Makes an Awkward Debut, Part I: A Hasty Beginning

Mid-Atlantic “Harvest Control Rule” Makes an Awkward Debut, Part I: A Hasty Beginning

Read Part II of this two-part series. Top Photo: Summer Flounder When the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC’s) Interstate Fishery Management Program Policy Board (Policy Board) met in joint session on June 7, 2022, they approved the so-called “Percent Change Approach” to a “Harvest Control Rule” (Control […]

A View from the Hill: 2022 in Review

A View from the Hill: 2022 in Review

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 […]