Category: Sustainable Fishing Practices
Policy Underway for Unmanaged Mid-Atlantic Forage Fisheries
Wild Oceans has for the last six years been engaged in ensuring strong implementation of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's (Council) Unmanaged Forage Omnibus Amendment (UFOA). We did not have to wait long for a challenge to this crucial safeguard for Atlantic coast forage species: in 2021, fisheries managers received ...
BIPARTISAN BILL PHASES OUT DRIFT GILLNETS
Update: You might have heard that the federal legislation to end the use of drift gillnets in US waters received a Presidential Veto on New Year’s Day. But, Senator Feinstein, the lead sponsor of the legislation, has promised to have the final word and reintroduce this legislation on the first day of the new Congress! Thanks Senator Feinstein for fighting to protect the future of fishing!
PROTECT OUR OCEANS FROM DESTRUCTIVE FISHING GEAR
This November, we have a chance to end the use of destructive drift gillnets in our oceans. California commercial fishermen use large-mesh gillnets to catch swordfish, but the gear also entangles, injures and kills over 60 other species, including sharks, billfish, endangered marine turtles, marine mammals and scores of ocean fish. Because drift gillnets are indiscriminate, ensnaring all marine life in their path, they are prohibited off the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts, Washington state, Alaska, Oregon and Hawaii.
Diverse Coalition Supports Keeping Longlines Out of California
24 local and national recreational leaders tell the Pacific Fishery Management Council to keep longlines out of west coast ports Next Tuesday, November 19, the Pacific Fishery Management Council is meeting in Costa Mesa, CA to revisit a plan to permit a California based longline fishery. While we all support ...
Short Sighted
Short Sighted – NOAA’ s Push for More Longlines Jeopardizes Long-term Conservation Gains by Theresa Labriola In the past two years, the gatekeepers of our public trust resources have been pursuing an aggressive agenda of increased exploitation that has reached the ocean. When Wilbur Ross was appointed Commerce Department Secretary, he ...
No Going Back
The National Marine Fisheries Service is questioning whether long-standing measures to minimize longline bycatch, such as time-area closures, are still needed. The answer is most emphatically yes. No Going Back by Ken Hinman July 2018 The first meaningful action taken to reduce bycatch in the U.S. pelagic longline fisheries occurred ...
A Giant Leap for Fishkind
The following article was written by Wild Oceans president Ken Hinman for the Nov/Dec 2000 issue of the Big Game Fishing Journal. The magazine asked him to recount for its readers the actions that led directly to the historic longline area closures enacted earlier that year. A GIANT LEAP FOR ...
Nothing Really Changes Except the Rules
The following commentary by Wild Oceans president Ken Hinman was written when Congress was in the midst of amending the federal Magnuson Act and remains relevant today as lawmakers re-examine the Act and consider making changes. Ocean View, Spring 2005 "NOTHING REALLY CHANGES EXCEPT THE RULES" The late, great Hunter ...
Congress Steps-Up To Bring California Swordfish Fishing Into the 21st Century
New legislation will improve marine resource conservation and promote innovative new fishing gear by Theresa Labriola Last Tuesday, Senators Feinstein (D-Calif.), Capito (R-W.Va.) and Harris (D-Calif.) introduced the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act to phase out the use of mile-long drift gillnets in the eastern Pacific by 2020 and bring ...
NOAA Fisheries Cuts Safety Net for Pacific Whales and Sea Turtles
by Theresa Labriola For more than forty years, California fishermen have used mile-long drift gillnets to catch thresher shark and swordfish, a period during which most of the world banned drift netting, including off the east coast of the United States. That’s because driftnets indiscriminately entangle any large animal they encounter, ...
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