October 2 – All About Aquaculture: from 2000 BC in China to Today in the U.S. - This piece is the first in a series that will focus on aquaculture, both world-wide and in New England. Over the next few weeks, the series will explore topics such as the various methods of aquaculture, its environmental and sustainability implications, current aquaculture research and production in New England, and national regulations and sustainability certifications. This first post focuses on aquaculture’s history and its current status as a seafood provider in the United States.

October 3 – The Bottom Line: Historic Moment for Menhaden - By Lee Crockett of the Pew Environment Group. Menhaden numbers have plunged nearly 90 percent over the past 25 years, and the regulators responsible for their management will soon make a critical decision. In December, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission(ASMFC) could finally help the depleted population recover by setting a coastwide, science- based annual catch limit.

October 5 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, October 5 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, fish stocks lacking scientific assessments are severely depleted; community-supported fisheries provide economic opportunity for fishermen; a sustainable seafood festival in Boston; Seacoast Online explores the tension between fishermen and scientists over stock assessments; sharks hurt Cape beach revenues; the History Channel puts the spotlight on New England fishermen; fish are likely to reach smaller sizes due to warming water; ocean acidification threatens ecosystems and fisheries.

September 17 – Booming New England Seal Population Creates a Management Challenge – Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in 1972, forty years ago. Intended to slow the precipitous decline of marine mammal populations due to human activities, the act prohibited the killing, harassment, or excessive disturbance of marine mammals in United States waters. For seals in New England—mainly harbor seals and gray seals—the MMPA’s protections effected a massive boom in population.

September 21 – Illegal and Wrong – Wednesday’s New England Fishery Management Council’s Groundfish Committee meeting was … depressing. As the expression goes, just when I think I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel I realize that it is the headlights of the on-coming bus. Once again, current events—bad as they are—seem about to be exploited to produce an even more dismal future. The topic was throwing open the decades-long fishery closed areas to exploitation again.

September 21 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, September 21 – In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, the NEFMC Groundfish Committee proposes opening closed areas; blanket shark fin bans may hurt the sustainable dogfish industry; Gloucester fishing personalities comment on warm waters this summer; a NOAA report ranks New Bedford first in the country in fishing revenues; cod stocks move north in response to record-setting warm water temperatures; the scallop quota could take a heavy cut over the next two years due to poor recruitment.

This post was originally published on TalkingFish.org.

Despite its caption, the “Transparent and Science-Based Fishery Management Act of 2012,” H.R. 6350, introduced by U.S. Representative John Runyun of New Jersey just hours before Congress adjourned for summer recess on August 2^nd is a misguided piece of legislation.  It brings political interference and micro-management back into fisheries management, thwarts science-based decisions, costs jobs and any hope of increased prosperity for hundreds of fishing families, eliminates government and fisherman accountability for a public resource, and reverses the painful progress and sacrifice that has been made in recent years to restore many of America’s once-bountiful fisheries.

New England certainly doesn’t need this bill.  All it would do here is to pull fishing families and businesses back into the tar pit of mismanagement and economic and social decline from which they have been struggling to escape for the past two decades. Whatever Representative Runyan’s intentions might be, the only outcome this legislation guarantees is more chaos and productivity losses in this nation’s fisheries.

In 2006, important accountability provisions were introduced into the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and recent reviews of fisheries management indicate that they are working to rebuild fish stocks. Despite this success, Representative Runyun is trying to un-do these provisions. In 2006, 28 % of the nation’s fisheries for which data was available were overfished; in those fisheries with adequate data, 26% of them were subject to overfishing. By June 2012, just one or two years after the new Magnuson measures took effect, 23% remained in an overfished condition and overfishing was down to 17%. Not great after 35 years of federal management but headed the right way. Unfortunately, New England’s fish stocks–the poster child for what happens with “management flexibility”—remained among the worst in the nation.

New England managers have destroyed hundreds of good fishing businesses and plummeted cod populations to levels never seen in history by catering to short term economic interests at the expense of long term profitability.  In the New England groundfish fishery, overfishing and mismanagement have resulted in significant revenue losses. If stocks were at managed at sustainable levels, current groundfish revenues could be three times greater – infusing New England’s economy with nearly $170 million in additional dockside revenues compared to 2010 revenues. In New England, we’ve seen the human and ecological damage caused by ”flexible fishery management.” It doesn’t work. Not for the fish and not for the fishermen..

If Congressman Runyun cared about fisheries, he would lead the charge to secure adequate federal appropriations for better research, better stock assessments, more data, better assessment technology research and development, and innovative gear research by fishermen, not file backward laws. Unfortunately, he appears to be more interested in demagoguery and ideology than he is in solving real fisheries problems. From where I sit, his legislation is a political distraction to the real work that needs to be done —  restoring sustainable fisheries and communities in New England.

July 31 – Local Summer Fisheries – Sea Scallops – In the last post of the Local Summer Fisheries series, read about sea scallops: one of the most valuable fisheries in the United States and a great success story in fisheries management.

August 1 – Bangor Daily News supports returning alewives to the St. Croix – In June, CLF attorney Sean Mahoney blogged about CLF’s lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an effort to overturn a Maine law that has prevented the alewife, a forage fish crucial to marine and freshwater ecosystems, from accessing its native habitat in Maine’s St. Croix River. This week, the Bangor Daily News published an editorial expressing support for opening up the St. Croix River to alewives.

August 3 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, August 3 – This week in Fish Talk in the News: expected reductions in catch limits for New England’s groundfish stocks have fishermen and congressmen up in arms; public support for opening the St. Croix River to alewives; an update on the December, 2011 removal of Shorey’s Brook dam in Maine; NOAA fisheries plans to conduct a survey to better understand the social and economic impacts of fishing regulations on the east coast; a new piece of legislation to prevent seafood fraud; the Maine lobster crisis continues, even as the Maine Lobster Festival kicks off in Rockland; Sport Fishing Magazine interviews Obama about his administration’s plans for and achievements in fisheries management; the Gulf of Maine Research Institute releases a study on changing zooplankton abundances in the Gulf of Maine; and the New England Ocean Odyssey blog posts about the Atlantic wolffish.

July 17 – Local Summer Fisheries – Summer Flounder - Summer flounder, also known as fluke, can be found in New England’s shallow coastal waters in the summer months, when they migrate inshore from their deeper, offshore winter habitats. They have historically composed one of the most popular and important commercial and recreational fisheries on the east coast.

July 18 – A Tale of Two Cod - The almighty cod – the most legendary fish in our New England waters. Atlantic cod is greyish-green, and a renowned dweller of the Gulf of Maine. It is a staple of our traditional cuisine and a historic driver of our economy. You’ve seen an Atlantic cod, right? But have you ever seen a red Atlantic cod?

July 20 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, July 20 – This week’s fish news includes: More news about the Maine lobster surplus; congressional delegates from New England states urge the House Committee on Natural Resources to use caution in determining 2013 groundfish quotas; innovative technology decreases environmental impact of sea scallop surveys; underutilized species may be key to sustainable seafood; Stellwagen Bank celebrates its 20th anniversary as a national marine sanctuary, New England Ocean Odyssey posts about red cod; marine mammal protection may play a role in perpetually low groundfish populations; controversy over the latest Georges Bank yellowtail flounder stock assessment; and a showing of the documentary Ocean Frontiers in Nahant, MA.

June 26 – Local Summer Fisheries – Striped Bass - This new series will focus on a different New England summer fishery each week. Each post will include information on each fish’s biology and behavior, management history, and current stock status, along with a recipe or two. This first post focuses on striped bass.

June 29 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, June 29 - This week in Fish Talk in the News: River herring get a conservation boost as the NEFMC imposes higher regulations on the industrial Atlantic herring fleet and the Great Works Dam on the Penobscot River is demolished; the U.S. Commerce Department announces the new members of the regional fishery management councils; new studies on Atlantic cod in the Gulf of Maine reveal a more complex system than previously understood; the NEFMC votes to transfer 150 metric tons of yellowtail flounder quota from scallopers to groundfishermen; the Long Island Sound lobster fishery will be closed in 2013; and the Conservation Law Foundation and New England Ocean Odyssey release the first pictures of Brian Skerry’s recent dive to Cashes Ledge.

June 20 – Conservationists and fishermen agree to agree – By Peter Baker. (Peter Baker directs the Northeast Fisheries Program for the Pew Environment Group.) News stories in New England about fishing often pit conservationists and fishermen against each other over how many fish should be caught, or play up every instance in which a private citizen bemoans government intervention. But today there is a much more compelling story, on which fishermen and conservationists agree.

June 22 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, June 22 – This week’s stories include: new regulations for the industrial Atlantic herring fleet to protect river herring and shad, Native American tribal support for the opening of the St. Croix River to alewives, a bill to fight illegal fishing, a study to map the seafloor of Long Island Sound, an objective look at New England fisheries and fishing communities, and an article about how London is working to achieve their commitment to serve only sustainable seafood at the 2012 Olympic Games.

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  The International Boston Seafood Show

  March 14: “How Investing in Our Fisheries Pays Off” – Lee Crockett of the Pew Environment Group explains how the Fisheries Investment and Regulatory Relief Act (FIRRA) of 2012 would provide financial support to fishermen and improve management of our oceans.

• March 15: “Some Thoughts from the Boston Seafood Show” - CLF Program Assistant Samantha Caravello writes about the Boston Seafood Show, U.S. reliance on seafood imports, and how important it is to try to support local fishermen instead.
• March 16: “Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 16″ – This week’s roundup of interesting fish stories: a stop-motion video of where your sushi is coming from; fish is high on the list of disease-causing imported foods; a federal district court judge rules to protect river herring; and groundfish populations may have been overestimated in the 2008 stock assessments.

The Gulf of Maine (Northern) shrimp season ends today (Photo credit: Aldric D'Eon, courtsey of the NEFSC).

• February 13: “A behind the scenes peek at the Gulf of Maine cod stock assessments” - What really happened to Gulf of Maine cod? Heather Goldstone of Climatide investigated last week by talking to Liz Brooks and Mike Palmer, two of the scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center who were involved in producing the 2011 Gulf of Maine cod stock assessment.

• February 14: “To help GOM cod, NMFS should not touch closed areas” - It’s been widely reported that at its February meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to ask the National Marine Fisheries Service to take emergency action on Gulf of Maine cod for the 2012 fishing year. The measures proposed, including a mere 3-13% reduction in the catch limit, were notable largely for their failure to address the condition of the depleted cod stock. But there is an aspect of the proposed package that has received little attention, which is troubling, because it would have NMFS open up five of the six existing areas currently closed to groundfishing.

• February 17: “Fish Talk in the News” - A weekly roundup of stories we think will interest readers. This week: news and opinion on Gulf of Maine cod regulations and fisheries science, the end of this year’s Gulf of Maine shrimp season.