People don’t like to be told what to do. Fishermen are no exception. Ask any fisheries managers who ever imposed an annual catch limit to regulate landings. Fishermen’s aversion to annual catch limits has always been particularly acute in the northeastern United States. The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) refused to impose hard poundage […]
The reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation & Management Act that will dictate management of our nation’s fisheries for years to come is currently working its way through Congress. Much of the debate has focused on the effort to add more “flexibility” to rebuilding timelines (although some flexibility already exists in the act). Unfortunately, a […]
Federal Fisheries Policy Needs Face-to-Face Discussion I recently had the pleasure of presenting to our Eugene Chapter of The Association of Northwest Steelheaders, highlighting the different campaigns we’re engaged in at headquarters. It’s always great getting out to these chapter meetings to hear what our members have to say about the work we’re doing on […]
In late January, I had the pleasure of attending my first meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. The meeting, held Jan. 25-28 in Orange Beach, Alabama, drew hundreds of anglers and other concerned citizens and stakeholders from across the Gulf. On the agenda were important fishery issues, such as electronic reporting for […]
Cooperative Fisheries Research Can Transform Fishermen And Management A ways back, I was hired to help a tech diver named Kerry Dillon monitor artificial reefs off Martin and St. Lucie counties, along Florida’s Treasure Coast. At the time, I was running inshore and nearshore charters on the Indian River Lagoon, and captaining a 36-foot Venture […]
When it comes to fisheries management, you can’t have too much data. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens) requires that “Conservation and management measures shall be based upon the best scientific information available,” and that’s a good thing. Yet it also creates a problem, for a penny-pinching Congress has long denied the National […]
Photo: Bob Rees (left) pictured with Stan Litner and his 60 lb. Kenai River Chinook salmon To the chagrin of some of our readers, no, we’re not talking about the end of my blog, sorry about that. Thanks for all the feedback you are providing, however. The sad news is, I’m referencing an article I […]
“Ocean Planning” Offers Anglers An Opportunity We Should Take If you’ve spent any real time offshore, you know that some spots are more “fishy” than others. To any fishermen worth his/her salt, that’s just a given. Often, a spot’s productivity is due to hard-bottom, structure or rapid depth changes. But other times, for no particular […]
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