Happy Holidays from our nation’s capital! As 2022 comes to a close, we’re looking back at significant actions that Congress took on oceans and fisheries policy this year. Update This week (12/19-25) is the last week of the 117th Congress. The text of the $1.7 trillion FY23 omnibus spending package was released just before 2:00am […]
Category Archives: Working Waterfronts
Message to NOAA: Time to Prioritize Climate-Ready Fisheries
This piece first appeared on NRDC’s expert blog and is reprinted with permission. Top photo by John McMurray. Healthy fish populations are building blocks of a healthy ocean. They support marine ecosystems, including other wildlife like whales and seabirds. They are also engines of our coastal economies and the communities that rely on them, with […]
Watch our Waterside Chat about Bristol Bay and Pebble Mine
As news of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision about Bristol Bay and Pebble Mine broke last week, Sam Snyder of the Wild Salmon Center and Scott Hed with Businesses for Bristol Bay joined Waterside Chat host Tom Sadler on May 25th for a wide-ranging and highly informative discussion about the bay and the people […]
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 […]
Dealing With Localized Depletion, Where And If It Exists
Top Photo: Atlantic Menhaden Localized depletion has, over the past few years, become a hot topic in forage fish management. It’s based on the notion that, even though the overall stock of fish is healthy, intense fishing pressure in a particular region could significantly reduce abundance in that location, and have adverse impacts on the […]
The America COMPETES Act moves on to the Senate: What’s relevant to MFCN?
In early February, the House passed the America COMPETES Act, a bill that intends to enhance U.S. competitiveness with China by strengthening America’s supply chain, among other things. The bill has now moved on to the Senate where it is expected to be conferenced with Senate legislation that passed last year. The Senate bill was […]
Watch the Network’s Inaugural Waterside Chat with Linda Behnken
The Network’s new Waterside Chat online discussion series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. In each edition, Network Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with guests about current ocean policy and fisheries management topics and what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, […]
NOAA Taking Comments for Proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary
Harbor at Morro Bay; Photo by Robert Schwemmer On November 10, NOAA began a 60-day comment period (ends January 10, 2022) for the public to tell NOAA what they think about the proposed designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. As NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad stated in a video announcement: Some of the earliest […]