Photo: Pacific Sand Lance The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) this month finalized a new rule put together by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) that protects forage fish between California and Washington. On the West Coast, we’re celebrating. Forage fish are the little marine critters that transfer energy up the food chain – from […]
Photo: From left to right, Bob Rees, Paul Englemeyer & Lyf Gildersleeve It’s different here, in Washington DC. I don’t often find myself traveling 3,000 miles for a birthday party, but here I am, walking the halls of Congress, telling the Oregon delegation of the importance of preserving the most important components of the Magnuson-Stevens […]
Last week, as we celebrated 40 candles on the cake for the Magnuson Stevens Act, Oregonians got some pretty significant wins for fish just prior. It’s been a long time coming, and even for common-sense measures such as dam breaching and protecting our forage base, it takes a long time and an incredible amount of […]
Photo: Keven Scribner on the Antigone in the 1970s I began commercially fishing in 1976, the year when the original Magnuson Act was signed into law. Chasing salmon, I fished in both Washington state and federal waters, and quickly became acquainted with circumscribed fishing seasons, specific opening times, gear-type restrictions and allowable catch limits. Regulation […]
This post continues Charles Witek’s two-part personal journey in U.S. fisheries management and conservation. Read Part One here. I had gotten more and more involved with fisheries conservation over the years. By 1996, I sat on the executive board of the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), an organization that had worked hard to get SFA signed […]
The Magnuson-Stevens Act established a successful framework for sustainable science-based fishery management that is responsive to regional stakeholders while protecting national interests. Authors of the Act had a long-term, bi-partisan commitment to productive fisheries and healthy fishing communities. Our job is to uphold and build on that legacy for future generations. —Linda Behnken, Executive Director, […]
This post is the first in a two-part series about Charles’s personal journey with U.S. fisheries management and the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Read Part Two here. As a boy growing up in the southwest corner of the New England coast, I had no way of knowing that Congress would someday pass the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and […]
Some dates are indelible: birthdays, the first day of spring, weddings, graduation. And they certainly can’t be ignored when the anniversary falls on a nice round number. This year we observe 40 years of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), a milestone in the history of the management and conservation of U.S. fisheries. Congress passed the original […]
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