By Bill Mott, co-founder and senior advisor to World Ocean Project (formerly The Ocean Project), and Suzanne Iudicello, principal at Iudicello and Associates, an environmental consultant firm to fishing organizations, government agencies and foundations. Top photo by Mark Stebniki via Pexels. Conservation advocates were largely the new kids on the dock when it came to […]
The following article was originally posted on November 19, 2025 on the Alaska Marine Conservation Council’s blog and has been reposted with permission. Top photo: Alaska’s Hannah Heimbuch during Bristol Bay drift gillnet season in 2020. This November, AMCC honors International Fisher Women’s Day by celebrating the women who sustain Alaska’s fishing communities and the […]
This post originally appeared on the Alaska Marine Conservation Council’s blog and is republished with permission. Photo: Bonin/Wayner Family When three generations of Bristol Bay fisherwomen gather to talk fish and family, there is a shared pride for meaningful work and a fierce commitment to sustaining their fishing heritage revealed between words of wisdom, heartfelt […]
Photo: Charles Witek in a different era of fishing technology When I was young, marine recreational fisheries, at least in the northeast, were virtually unregulated. There was a 16-inch (fork length) minimum size for striped bass that was in place throughout the region, but other than that, anglers could take as many fish as they […]
Read Part II of this series On and Off the Water Observations of 2023’s Fishing Season There aren’t many anglers around who wouldn’t agree that the striped bass run in the New York Bight this fall was downright EPIC. And the spring/early summer? ‘Twas really good too. Indeed, I said similar things last year, but […]
About a year ago, I found myself in immediate need of a new boat. Someone at my marina had just put his 32-foot Topaz on the market, and after a quick conversation with my wife and a far longer inspection by a marine surveyor, I made it my own. At that point, I needed to […]
It’s difficult to describe what fishing for bluefish was like in Long Island Sound forty or fifty years ago. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and for a while after that, bluefish defined the summer fishery along the Connecticut shore. Every morning, in at least one local harbor, untold hundreds of bluefish, many of them […]
In celebration of World Ocean Day, the Marine Fish Conservation Network and our partners are reflecting on what the ocean means to our planet, our communities and our way of life. “Since time immemorial, fisheries have supported diverse indigenous cultures. For centuries, small-scale fisheries have been the economic engine of coastal communities. In return, fishermen […]
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