Navigating Toward Healthier Oceans and More Productive Fisheries Requires a Climate Change Response in Management

Navigating Toward Healthier Oceans and More Productive Fisheries Requires a Climate Change Response in Management

By Linda Behnken and Kevin Scribner, MFCN Policy Council co-chairs For the two of us, climate change is top of mind. It impacts the way we do business, the way we think about the ocean resources we depend on, the way we see our communities surviving into the future. We’re going to have to adapt; […]

It’s National Ocean Month: Celebrate Our Opportunity for Catch and Conservation

It’s National Ocean Month: Celebrate Our Opportunity for Catch and Conservation

Photo: Bob Rees with a June 4th Newport, Oregon halibut, weighing in at nearly 53 pounds. My wife is an accomplished writer, and certainly wiser than I, so I take her words seriously when she says, “If you write it down, it can no longer own you.” I’m not so sure that’s true, when talking […]

Supporting Fisheries and Working Waterfronts with Infrastructure Improvements

Supporting Fisheries and Working Waterfronts with Infrastructure Improvements

As our country slowly recovers from the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent economic shutdown, the Biden administration has chosen to focus its attention on our nation’s infrastructure, with good reason. Historically, large-scale infrastructure projects with their influx of manufacturing and construction jobs have successfully helped the U.S. rebound after economic recessions. Although the word “infrastructure” […]

Solid Win for Striped Bass at the ASMFC

Solid Win for Striped Bass at the ASMFC

Top photo via Dave Monti On Wednesday, May 5, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) met to discuss the comments that it received on the issues presented in the Public Information Document For Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass (PID). The Management […]

Get Informed about Seaspiracy

Get Informed about Seaspiracy

For better or worse, the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy has introduced a wider audience to many of the challenges facing our global oceans. While the film presents a broad overview of the threats, it paints many of these issues with too broad of a brushstroke to effectively convey the complexity of what’s happening in our oceans. […]

Network Responds to Climate Change Executive Order

Network Responds to Climate Change Executive Order

During the first weeks of the new administration, President Biden issued Executive Order 14008 on tackling the climate crisis at home and abroad. This order initiated efforts within 60 days to collect input from fishermen, regional ocean councils, fishery management councils, scientists, and other stakeholders on how to make fisheries and protected resources more resilient […]

Why Small-Scale Fisheries Matter

Why Small-Scale Fisheries Matter

Photo: Author Linda Behnken on the water off the coast of Alaska Small-scale fisheries support a way of life that has become increasingly rare in our industrialized world—a way of life that is inexorably tied to the natural world, where individuals face forces far greater than human power and thrive only through humility and a […]