Author: Wild Ocean Team

Pacific Council Finishes Precautionary Plan to Protect Unmanaged Forage

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, Councils, Prey Base

In September 2015, I attended the Pacific Fishery Management Council in Sacramento to celebrate the Council’s completion of their first ecosystem-based amendment, three years in the making, which will protect unmanaged and unfished forage fish from directed commercial fishing. The Council approved regulations drafted by the National Marine Fisheries Service ...

The Past and Future of Menhaden

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Menhaden, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Blog, Prey Base

ASMFC INITIATES AMENDMENT 3 TO PROTECT ATLANTIC MENHADEN AS FORAGE On May 5th, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission had one foot in the past and one in the future. At the same meeting where it approved a modest increase in the coast-wide quota based on an out-moded single-species stock assessment, the Menhaden ...

Budget Dumpster Shines Spotlight on Wild Oceans Accomplishments

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, Wild Oceans, Our News

Budget Dumpster, a nationally renowned dumpster rental company with a strong commitment to sustainability, profiles “the best cities, companies, organizations and individuals who go above and beyond to improve the environment.”  Wild Oceans is proud to be featured in the company’s latest Profiles in Environmentalism, a regular segment in their blog The Fill.

A Gift to the Sea

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, Wild Oceans, Our News

Stephanie Choate, winner of the 2014 Fishing World Cup, donated $100,000 from her tournament winnings to Wild Oceans, a conservation group dedicated to the future of ocean fishing. She is pictured here with Wild Oceans president Ken Hinman, Wild Oceans Board Chairman Tim Choate, Vice Chairman Rick Weber, and Board ...

Sharks, Rays Win New Trade Protections

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, Sharks, Big Fish

Five species of sharks and two types of manta rays won new safeguards Monday, as delegates to a global wildlife summit voted to limit the trade of species that have been overharvested for decades. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/sharks-rays-win-new-trade-protections/2013/03/11/c4f8997e-8a7a-11e2-8d72-dc76641cb8d4_story.html

Protecting the Mid-Atlantic’s Coral Canyons

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, Habitat, Ecosystems

by Pam Lyons Gromen In the Summer 2014 issue of the Wild Oceans Horizon, we reported on recent discoveries of coral communities in the cold, dark waters of the Atlantic’s offshore canyons, and the efforts of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to protect these unique and important habitats. Packaged as Amendment ...

Lines Out for Bluefin

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, Sustainable Fishing Practices, Big Fish

NOAA CLOSES MORE WATERS TO LONGLINING, WILL CLOSE FISHERY IF IT REACHES BYCATCH CAP October 2014 Five years ago, when NOAA Fisheries announced they were looking for ways to limit the longline bycatch and discard of Atlantic bluefin tuna, we had some suggestions. In August 2009, Wild Oceans (then NCMC)recommended a comprehensive conservation program ...

Mid-Atlantic Council Strengthens River Herring & Shad Protections for 2015

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Herring, Blog, Councils

By Pam Lyons Gromen – I have good news from Freehold, New Jersey where the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council met last week from June 10-12. The Council’s newly-formed River Herring & Shad Committee significantly reduced the allowable bycatch of imperiled blueback herring, alewives and shad for the 2015 Atlantic mackerel ...

Renewing the Magnuson Act, Part 1

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, MSA

Keep the nation on the Path to Sustainable Fisheries One of the issues getting a lot of attention in the run-up to another reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (along with ecosystem-based management, upcoming in Renewing the Magnuson Act, Part 2) is adding “flexibility” to federal requirements ...

Pacific Council Makes Plans to Phase-Out Drift Nets

Author: Wild Ocean Team Posted Under: Blog, Councils, Sustainable Fishing Practices

Pacific Council Makes Plans to Phase-Out Drift Nets The Pacific Fishery Management Council, at its March meeting in Sacramento, Calif., took several steps toward developing a “comprehensive plan” for moving away from the use of drift gill nets to catch swordfish in favor of more “environmentally and economically sustainable” types ...