Author: Wild Ocean Team
Mid-Atlantic Council Strengthens River Herring & Shad Protections for 2015
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
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
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 ...
Get Rid of Drift Nets, Bring in Safer, “Greener” Gears
It’s Time to Remove Mile-Long Entanglement Nets from the California Coast Wild Oceans is urging the Pacific Fishery Management Council to phase-out the use of drift gill nets in the west coast swordfish fisheries and begin phasing-in more sustainable alternative gears demonstrated to have minimal bycatch of non-target billfish, sharks, sea ...
Support Measures to Limit Longlining to Protect Bluefin Tuna and Other Big Fish
The National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed new measures to protect one of the ocean’s most threatened species of fish, the Atlantic bluefin tuna, from one of the most lethally indiscriminate types of fishing gear, the pelagic longline. Longliners fishing for swordfish and yellowfin tuna typically hang hundreds of hooks ...
Mid-Atlantic Council to Make Critical Decision for Future of River Herrings
By Pam Lyons Gromen – In 2009, Wild Oceans brought attention to the plight of the Atlantic’s river-spawning herrings in an article entitled Out of Bounds. Coastwide, populations of alewives, blueback herring and American shad had plummeted to record lows. We argued that saving these critical forage fish required conservation ...
5-Year Plan Offers Promising Future for Mid-Atlantic Fisheries
Tell the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council that You Support Their Commitment to Ocean Stewardship! The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is seeking public comment on a draft strategic plan that outlines the Council’s vision, mission and strategic goals for 5 years spanning 2014 through 2018. Developed from extensive stakeholder outreach and ...
Federal Councils Act to Protect River Herring and Shad at Sea
Bycatch of river herring and shad in federal fisheries will finally be regulated, affording these imperiled forage fish protection at sea where they spend most of their lives. Measures adopted by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council two weeks ago in New York City and last week by the New England ...
Federal Council Approves Measure to Conserve River Herring and Shad
On June 12th the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council placed the first-ever limits on the catch of river herring and shad in offshore waters, capping the amount that can be taken in a year by trawl netters fishing for mackerel. Individual states along the eastern seaboard have tightly restricted and in a ...
NOAA Fisheries Implements International Provisions of the Shark Conservation Act
NOAA Fisheries has stepped up measures to protect sharks from the lucrative shark fin trade. New regulations issued on January 16th to implement international provisions of the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 require the United States to identify nations whose fishing vessels catch sharks on the high seas but whose ...
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