March 7, 2022 A New Effort to Better Understand and Protect Depleted Billfish Stocks Launches in the Pacific With nearly fifty years experience working to conserve large open-ocean predators, Wild Oceans (formerly the National Coalition for Marine Conservation) has just launched an exciting new effort to protect billfish in the Pacific Ocean. The Wild Oceans…
The following editorial appears in the Winter 2018 edition of The Wild Oceans Horizon. Become a member to receive our newsletter on a regular basis. The Year Looked Good on Paper by Ken Hinman We did everything we could to get where we wanted to be. But it turned out not to be enough. Three…
Ecological Reference Points for Menhaden are Ready, But Menhaden Managers Are Not by Ken Hinman, November 17, 2017 Earlier this week, the ASMFC’s Menhaden Management Board, meeting in Baltimore to finalize Amendment 3 to its Atlantic Menhaden Management Plan, voted to wait at least another two years before adopting catch limits that account for the…
Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden Finally Offers a Way to Protect “The Most Important Fish in the Sea” by Ken Hinman In nature, you cannot do just one thing, as Walter Youngquist puts it, because everything is connected to everything else. That’s why you can’t fish for Atlantic menhaden…
With ESA Listing Denied, Attention Shifts Back to International Management Bodies by Ken Hinman The U.S. government earlier this month denied a petition to list Pacific bluefin tuna under the Endangered Species Act, citing recent international actions that may have stabilized the population and could, if continued, put bluefin on “a positive trajectory.” NOAA Fisheries,…
At The Crossroads by Ken Hinman On the long road to change, we encounter twists and turns, roadblocks and detours. Right now, on the way to changing the way we allocate Atlantic menhaden among fishermen and other predators in the ocean (e.g., striped bass), we are at a crossroads. For well over a decade, the…
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, and for every fish caught…
by Theresa Labriola Anglers can help NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC or Center) with their research of Pacific Bluefin Tuna and Pacific Albacore. Here’s how. In recent years, Pacific bluefin tuna bigger than 150 pounds have schooled off of California. This year, it looks like history may repeat itself, and scientists are asking anglers for…