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 to rebuild overfished fisheries. How…
“SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT GET INTO THE BUSINESS OF CERTIFYING FISHERIES?” By Ken Hinman The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is seeking public input on a proposal to certify United States seafood as “sustainable.” The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which sets the standards for federally-managed fisheries, would provide the basis for the certification…
By Ken Hinman Two iconic fish – the striped bass, perhaps the most popular game fish on the east coast, and menhaden, the prey of choice for stripers and dozens of other coastal Atlantic predators – will be the topic of discussions at the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on…
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 and management that encompassed their…
By Theresa Labriola – Thanks to everyone who signed our petition asking the Pacific Fishery Management Council to initiate a process for developing a forage status indicator. In June, I traveled to the Council meeting in Garden Grove, California to hand deliver your petition to the Council. While there, I presented testimony on behalf of…
Bill Cox, a member of our Board of Directors for nearly 40 years, passed away on May 1st. The following remembrance was written by founding board member and good friend Chris Weld. By Christopher M. Weld I first met Bill when my family rented a house in the summer of 1944 in Cohasset, a harbor…
By Ken Hinman Are Atlantic menhaden “overfished” or not? For the most important fish in the sea, that’s not what’s most important. What matters for menhaden and other forage species is whether or not we are leaving enough fish in the water to serve their vital role in the ecosystem. And we aren’t. Even the…
by Ken Hinman The Pacific Fishery Management Council recently took a pass on proposals to expand the use of drift entanglement nets off the west coast, opting instead for another year of study. I went to meetings of the federal council in Tacoma, Washington last weekend to testify in favor of phasing-out the nets entirely…