Continued Fishing During Decline Results in Deeper Sardine Collapse by Theresa Labriola April 15, 2020 Pacific sardine has undergone large population fluctuations for centuries and there is consensus that environmental conditions are the main factor driving the changes. However, maintaining continuous high volume fishing on the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine when stock productivity is in rapid…
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 fishing, we don’t support wasteful…
August 2, 2018. President Donald Trump today signed into law HR 4528, bipartisan legislation to amend the Billfish Conservation Act to clarify that Pacific billfish exempted from the 2012 law’s federal no-sale provision must be sold locally in Hawaii and Pacific island territories (Guam, Samoa, etc.). In effect, it achieves the original BCA’s intent to outlaw…
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,…
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…
In September 2015, I attended the Pacific Fishery Management Council in Sacramento to celebrate the Council’s completion of their first ecosystem-based amendment, three years in the making, which will protect unmanaged and unfished forage fish from directed commercial fishing. The Council approved regulations drafted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), that identify a suite…
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…