February 26 - Destructive Trawling and the Myth of “Farming the Sea” - In the wake of significant but highly warranted cuts to catch limits for cod, the New England Fishery Management Council spent the last day of their most recent meeting in January discussing the development of a suite of habitat protection measures known as the Omnibus Habitat Amendment. Despite the obvious need for new habitat protections to help restore Atlantic cod populations, the Council had already taken action to potentially open over 5000 square miles of previously protected areas to destructive bottom trawling. By doing so, the Council has continued to demonstrate a lack of regard for the immeasurable documented benefits of habitat protection to the health and productivity of our fisheries.

March 1 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 1 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NOAA proposes measures to increase the monkfish catch, John Bullard writes an op-ed on the New England groundfish fishery, SMAST’s yellowtail avoidance system is growing, dogfish MSC certification expands, public lectures focus on seafood fraud and fleet consolidation, scientists Daniel Pauly, Trevor Branch, and Ray Hilborn face off in Nature.