WILL THE ASMFC SNATCH DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY?” By Ken Hinman On Tuesday, May 5, a 15-state ASMFC Menhaden Management Board will decide the next steps in conserving “the most important fish in the sea,” based on the latest stock assessment; that is, whether to continue toward an ecosystems approach that protects menhaden’s…
New Menhaden Stock Assessment Highlights, Yet Again, the Need for Ecosystem Goals By Ken Hinman “We have all been here before.” – David Crosby, Déjà Vu The just-published 2015 Atlantic menhaden stock assessment says the species is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. Okay, we’ve heard that before. But what does it mean, really? Well,…
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 16 to the…
STEPHANIE CHOATE CELEBRATES HER INDEPENDENCE BY WINNING THE WORLD BLUE MARLIN CHAMPIONSHIP By Stephanie Choate I came to Kona, Hawaii with the understanding that it had fish – and big fish at that. I had previously fished the World Cup in Cape Verde and Madeira, but I never saw a fish over 500 pounds when…
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 fishing year to help these…
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…