Shark Discovery! [Part Two]

Shark Discovery! [Part Two]

Lemon Shark Photo by Walt Stearns Open Season on Sharks: Unfair Fisheries Management Threatens Lemon Sharks, Ecosystems & Tourism In the first installment, I explained what scientists and angler/divers discovered about unique aggregations of lemon sharks in the vicinity of Jupiter. Because of archaic ways of valuing fish, these sharks are being decimated, despite ample […]

Shark Discovery! [Part One]

Shark Discovery! [Part One]

Lemon Shark Photo by Walt Stearns Cooperative research off Palm Beach County, Florida yields important information about a vulnerable species On January 11th, 2001, I chanced upon something that had never been recorded in the waters off Florida’s southeast coast, near Palm Beach. On sand bottom, at a depth 87 feet were 40 — perhaps […]

The State of the Ocean is Not Red or Blue

The State of the Ocean is Not Red or Blue

When the House passed a bill earlier this year proposing changes to the nation’s fisheries law, the Magnuson Act, the vote went straight down party lines. YEA votes were 98% Republican, with only 5 Democrats on board. That seems like business as usual for Congress these days, but it wasn’t always so. The two previous […]

Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization: There’s No Escaping Reality

Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization: There’s No Escaping Reality

On Monday, December 7, the House Natural Resources Committee held an oversight field hearing in Riverhead, New York. Entitled “Restoring Atlantic Fisheries and Protecting the Regional Seafood Economy,” it illuminated the debate surrounding reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens). The Committee had already approved H.R. 1335, the so-called Strengthening Fishing Communities […]

MSA Flexibility & How Subprime Lending Failed Gulf of Maine Cod

MSA Flexibility & How Subprime Lending Failed Gulf of Maine Cod

Avoiding Past Mistakes and Keeping The Debate over MSA Reauthorization Focused on the Future On December 7, 2015 the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources held what is called an “oversight hearing” titled, “Restoring Atlantic Fisheries and Protecting the Regional Seafood Economy.” Instead of being held in Washington DC, this was a “field” […]