In the Gulf of Mexico, a small cadre of recreational fishing interests spearheaded by the American Sportfishing Association, the Coastal Conservation Association and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation are continuing their misguided assault against our nation’s public waters and marine fish resources. Suffer no illusions, the ASA, the CCA, and the CSF want to shift federal […]
Let it be known that February 18th, 2016 marked the first day in history that a broad-based group of stakeholders from around the Columbia Basin came together to start a conversation on how to recover the 13 listed species of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its tributaries. A landmark day indeed. I […]
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 […]
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