You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

Do Fishery Managers Actually Listen to the Public? I’ve been there…and it’s incredibly frustrating. For months, you do your best to educate folks on what are often complicated fishery management actions, explaining the options/alternatives that are on the table, and which one(s) will best protect the fishery and serve their/our interests. You urge people to […]

Rebuilding Striped Bass

Rebuilding Striped Bass

Photo by Kyle Schaefer In April 2019, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) accepted a benchmark stock assessment that found the striped bass stock to be both overfished and subject to overfishing. The Management Board acted quickly to reduce fishing mortality and end overfishing, but was much […]

Newest Amendment to ASMFC’s Striped Bass Management Plan Emphasizes Conservation

Newest Amendment to ASMFC’s Striped Bass Management Plan Emphasizes Conservation

On Wednesday, March 4, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) completed its work on Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (Amendment 7). Amendment 7 maintains the conservation measures adopted in earlier amendments, while embracing additional improvements to striped bass management that promote […]

Magnuson-Stevens: Is Familiarity Breeding Contempt?

Magnuson-Stevens: Is Familiarity Breeding Contempt?

People too often take things for granted, depreciating what they have simply because it’s familiar; sometimes, things must be seen through someone else’s eyes before they are fully appreciated. That certainly seems to be true of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens). When the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 (SFA) became law, amending […]

ASMFC Approves Draft Amendment 7 to the Striped Bass Management Plan

ASMFC Approves Draft Amendment 7 to the Striped Bass Management Plan

Photo by Kyle Schaefer On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 26, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) reviewed and amended its Draft Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (Draft Amendment), and approved such Draft Amendment for public comment. In 2003, when Amendment […]

Should the ASMFC Rebuild Striped Bass?

Should the ASMFC Rebuild Striped Bass?

Top photo by John McMurray Over the past few years, it was pretty clear to anyone who regularly fishes for Atlantic striped bass that the stock was declining badly, even before the latest benchmark stock assessment, released in 2019, confirmed what most serious fishermen already suspected—that the stock was overfished and suffering from overfishing. What’s […]