January 24 - Recent paper points to a need for improved ecosystem modeling - Fisheries managers in the U.S., and increasingly around the world, use stock assessments and scientific information about fish populations to set catch limits for fisheries. It is typically assumed that more adult fish means more reproduction, and thus more fish available for us to harvest. But the authors of a paper published last week by several prominent fisheries biologists found that the productivity of fish stocks can be nearly independent of the abundance of adults, and is influenced by other factors.

January 25 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, January 25 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, the SSC sets 2013 Allowable Biological Catch for three stocks; John Bullard denies a request for interim measures; the New England shrimp season begins; the Marine Fisheries Institute will review the groundfish stock assessment process; concern over a loss of fisheries advocates in Congress; an investigation into fisheries rule making finds flaws in record keeping.

January 9 - The Bottom Line: A Better Way to Manage Fish - Some proposed fisheries rules would take us backward, with costly new delays and exemptions that could allow overfishing and reverse conservation gains. Other proposals offer an opportunity to improve the health of our oceans, by managing our fisheries as part of the larger ecosystem. This holistic approach — often called “ecosystem-based fisheries management” — looks beyond the health of individual species to also consider the food and habitat they rely upon.

January 10 - NOAA’s 2011 Groundfish Report by the Numbers - On December 26th, NOAA released its “2011 Final Report on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2011-April 2012).” Overall, the report indicates that groundfish catch and net revenues are increasing steadily, although some stocks, most notably Georges Bank haddock, are fished at a level far below the annual catch limit. Consolidation and equity issues are still a major concern. Measures of fleet inequality generally improved from 2010 levels, and the decline in boat numbers has slowed noticeably following a sharp drop-off between 2009 and 2010. Here are some highlights of the data.

January 11 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, January 11 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, fishermen have caught less than half the 2012 catch limit on 14 out of 16 groundfish stocks; Maine lobster landings hit a record high; the House debates Sandy aid; Brian Rothschild calls biological reference points arbitrary; some fishing advocates support Barney Frank for interim MA senator.

December 31 – The New England Fishery Mismanagement Council - December 20th’s Council meeting in Wakefield, MA, was another excruciating chapter in the tragedy of New England groundfish management. This is not the fishermen’s resource; these are not the fishermen’s fish. This is the public’s resource: yours and mine. It is understandable that fishermen were angry at the meeting because their business world is a mess and getting worse. But conservationists and the general public should be getting just as angry, because their public resources are being plundered and pillaged while no one is being held accountable.

January 1 – Talking Fish’s Look Back at 2012 - A look back at the big stories in fisheries management this year and Talking Fish’s most-read posts of 2012.

January 4 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, January 4 - This week in Fish Talk in the News, the Senate approves Sandy relief but the House avoids a vote, causing outrage; the 112th Congress concludes with the departure of lawmakers active on fisheries issues; the industry responds to NOAA’s report on the multispecies fishery in 2011; debate continues on groundfish closed areas.

December 18 – There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays – After being declared a “fishery disaster,” changes in regulations to allow bottom trawling in Cashes Ledge, Jeffreys Ledge and the only protected portion of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary seems counterintuitive to ever devising a long-term strategy that could help restore groundfish populations in the Gulf of Maine. At a time of the lowest recorded groundfish populations in history, how does it make sense to increase bottom trawling in the best, remaining habitat areas?

December 20 – The Bottom Line: Don’t Remove Protection When Cod Need It Most - New England is famous for cod fishing. But the industry is ailing – and the cure being proposed might be worse than the disease. A proposal by regional fisheries managers to reopen areas where groundfish are currently protected is a big step in the wrong direction.

December 21 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, December 21 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NEFMC opens closed areas and delays decisions on catch limits; ASMFC cuts menhaden catch 20%;NOAA will return $543,500 in fines; Brian Rothschild replaces as head of Marine Fisheries Institute; a Gloucester scallop boat goes missing; warm waters in the Gulf of Maine cause environmental change.

December 10 – Closed Areas Cautionary Tales Pt. 3 – Something Rotten in Denmark - Previously on Talking Fish we looked at the actions that led to commercial extinction of the cod fishery in some Canadian waters, and the collapse of fish populations in Scottish waters after protected areas were removed. The waters between Denmark and Sweden hold another sobering lesson for New England officials.

December 12 – The Bottom Line: Big Turnout for Little Menhaden - The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has seen a lot in its 70-year history but nothing quite like this. More than 128,000 people flooded the commission’s inboxes with postcards and emails last month, a new record for public comment. Scientists, small business owners, nature lovers, and anglers sent letters and spoke out at public hearings. And it was all about a fish that almost no one ever eats—Atlantic menhaden.

December 14 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, December 14 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, a historic vote on menhaden; NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco steps down; a fishermen argues that the decline of cod stocks contributes to seafood fraud; continued calls for the release of a report on NOAA enforcement; the Senate Appropriations Committee proposes fisheries disaster aid; warming waters threaten Maine clams.

December 3- Video: Menhaden Matter – Pew Environment Group’s Atlantic Menhaden Campaign produced this short video to show how protecting this little fish can have big benefits for our coastal ecosystem.

December 7 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, December 7 – In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, ASMFC makes sharp cuts in the 2013 northern shrimp quota; the Boston Globe continues its investigation of seafood fraud; congressmen attempt to tack aid for groundfishermen onto a Hurricane Sandy relief package; a Gloucester Daily Times editorial supports the Amendment 18 process; Cape Cod towns want more shark monitoring; NOAA proposes new rules to help target healthy dogfish and redfish stocks.

This week, the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston dashed the hopes of the cities of New Bedford and Gloucester to throw out the management structure that has been in place since May 2010 for harvesting cod, haddock, flounder and other groundfish. The court upheld a prior decision by the district court in favor of the government and CLF, which intervened on the side of federal agencies. The carefully written and thoroughly considered 68-page opinion demolished every claim brought by New Bedford, calling New Bedford’s views in one case “misguided,” in another “inaccurate”, and in a third as having “no textual basis for the argument.”

At stake was the validity of the significant new management plan that was adopted by the regional fishery management council in 2010 and approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service that same year.

The judicial review of this plan bordered on frivolous. The 60,000+ page administrative record memorializing the decision to approve the new program provides extensive documentation on each and every decision made. New Bedford and Gloucester barely participated in that public process but nevertheless felt at liberty to drag the issue into court for two years. As the Court concluded: “the record demonstrates that the [National Marine Fisheries Service] engaged in reasoned decision-making and reached rational outcomes to hard choices.” That is what good fisheries management is all about. It’s never easy and there are always winners and losers, but decisions have to be made.

In this case, an overhaul was desperately needed. As the First Circuit said in its decision, “[t]wo decades of [a different form of fishing limits on the industry] has left the [f]ishery’s stocks on the brink of collapse.”

The new plan, created by Amendment 16 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, accomplished two goals. First and most importantly from a conservation perspective, scientific opinion became paramount in setting catch levels, removing the politics that had previously trivialized scientists’ warnings about the risks of overharvesting. As a result of using scientifically-set fishing limits, the amount of groundfish that was available to the fleet at the beginning of the fishing year on May 1, 2010 was drastically reduced.

The second accomplishment of the new plan was the expansion of the “sector program,” an approach that had been pioneered in the region by the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. The sector program allowed fishermen to form voluntary organizations in which they could pool their catch allotment and re-distribute it amongst themselves in any way that made the most economic sense to them. Since they were guaranteed a set amount of fish, they could choose when to fish, freeing them up to wait for high wholesale prices or good weather or to reserve some quota for late season holidays like Easter, which always brought strong prices. In return for forming the sectors and agreeing to be bound by the “hard” quota of fish, other regulations were relaxed, further increasing the potential for efficient operations.

It is a mystery to me why New Bedford and Gloucester, and their Congressional allies U.S. Representatives Frank and Tierney, tried to blow this new scheme up in court. None of their publicly stated reasons hold much water, and the Massachusetts representatives, including those from New Bedford, overwhelmingly approved the plan in 2010.

Perhaps the best explanation is that the lawsuit provided a handful of political demagogues with an opportunity to decry federal oversight of the public’s fisheries. In doing so, they diverted scarce federal management resources away from solving fisheries problems, no doubt spent significant municipal dollars on a fruitless goose chase, and intentionally destabilized and attacked a new management system in the front pages of their local papers. Now that the challenge to Amendment 16 is behind us, we can better focus our efforts on restoring the prosperity of this region’s fisheries.

New Bedford v. Locke Opinion – First Circuit Court of Appeals

November 26 – Closed Areas Cautionary Tales Pt. 1: Canada’s Cod Catastrophe - As fishery managers consider re-introducing damaging forms of fishing like bottom trawling into these protected areas, they should also consider the experiences of other fisheries that exploited protected areas. This post, the first in a series of three, will focus on the dramatic collapse of Canadian cod stocks, brought about in part by poor habitat protection.

November 29 – Closed Areas Cautionary Tales Pt. 2: Scotland’s Firth of Clyde - The Firth (or bay) at the mouth of the Clyde River southwest of Glasgow has been fished for centuries. But the area suffered a crippling collapse in populations of the most important fin fish after eliminating protected areas which had stood for decades.

November 30 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, November 30 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, the First Circuit Court upholds the legality of catch shares; stakeholders argue over menhaden catch limits; gillnetters take action to prevent porpoise bycatch; the Coast Guard searches for a lost fisherman; dogfish grow in importance for Cape Cod fishermen; a symposium on lobsters and environmental change.

October 16 – All About Aquaculture: Environmental Risks and Benefits - This post, the third in the All About Aquaculture series, discusses the environmental risks and benefits inherent in various types of aquaculture practices and the sustainability challenges associated with aquaculture.

October 18 – Murky Waters Make for Poor Fishing - The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed a long-awaited rule regarding confidentiality of information under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). Unfortunately, it would unnecessarily stifle public participation in the management of public trust ocean resources, including depleted fish populations and protected species. The proposed rule would take the unprecedented and unwarranted leap from protecting personal privacies to withholding basic required information.

October 19 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, October 19 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, recreational and commercial fishermen express concerns over opening the closed areas; a new website documents cases of marine ecosystem-based management; SMAST will conduct an independent survey of groundfish stocks; barramundi thrive in New England aquaculture; record warm sea surface temperatures linked to a Gulf Stream shift, and the NSC hesitantly supports catch share accumulation caps.