September 12 - The Bottom Line: Rebuilding Plans Work for U.S. Fisheries - By Lee Crockett, The Pew Charitable Trusts. A congressional hearing this week on the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act examined a new report from the National Academies on the law’s effectiveness in rebuilding depleted fish populations. As a member of the peer-review panel for the report, I can attest to the amount of work that went into this study, which clearly recognizes our nation’s overall success in restoring fish stocks.

September 13 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, September 13 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, fishing stakeholders respond to a report and hearing on Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization and rebuilding requirements; a seasonal lobster closure begins in Long Island Sound; Serious Eats highlights Maine lobstering; New Bedford’s Working Waterfront Festival will take place September 28-29; GMRI’s Out of the Blue campaign continues with a focus on whiting; new research shows changes in marine life distribution follow the direction and speed of climate change.

The post This Week on TalkingFish.org – September 9-13 appeared first on Conservation Law Foundation.

May 24 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, May 24 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, Eric Schwaab is leaving NOAA; fisheries regulators ask fishermen not to take out frustration on at-sea observers; the ASMFC postpones a decision on the elver fishery; alewife counts in New England rivers are way up this year; a parasite may be affecting yellowtail flounder populations; Michael Conathan writes on fisheries and climate change; a local scientist testifies in a Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization hearing.

The post This Week on TalkingFish.org – May 20-24 appeared first on Conservation Law Foundation.

May 10 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, May 10 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, stakeholders discuss Magnuson reauthorization at the Managing Our Nation’s Fisheries conference in DC,NOAA releases its 2013 scallop regulations, alewives are historically and ecologically important to Maine; SMAST develops new yellowtail survey methods; John Bullard defends NOAA’s groundfish regulations; the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announces new fisheries grants; two new sensors in the Gulf of Maine will monitor red tide blooms.

The post This Week on TalkingFish.org – May 6-10 appeared first on Conservation Law Foundation.

March 15 - Fish Talk in the News – Friday, March 15 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, the northern shrimp season flounders; sharks granted additional protections by Cites; Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization hearings begin; scientists are concerned about ocean acidification in the Gulf of Maine; the Maine lobster fishery earns MSC certification; SMAST will conduct a review of New England groundfish stock assessments; NEFMC member Matt McKenzie discusses the decline of cod stocks; the groundfish committee resumes discussion on Amendment 18.

The post This Week on TalkingFish.org – March 11-15 appeared first on Conservation Law Foundation.

October 26 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, October 26 - In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, scientists and environmental groups speak out against a proposed fisheries data confidentiality rule; Carl Safina and Andrew Read argue against a delay for a gillnetting closure; The New York Times discusses the damaging effects of trawling; fishing communities prepare for Hurricane Sandy, a coalition celebrates the removal of a dam in Taunton; a new bill would allow spearfishing for stripers in MA; NMFS proposes more relaxed regulations for dogfish; Ellen Pikitch argues for precautionary, ecosystem-based fisheries management.

The post This Week on TalkingFish.org – October 22-26 appeared first on Conservation Law Foundation.

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.

The post This Week on TalkingFish.org – October 15-19 appeared first on Conservation Law Foundation.

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.

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August 10 – More Congressional Fisheries Misdirection – 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 2nd is a misguided piece of legislation.

August 10 – Fish Talk in the News – Friday, August 10 - This week in Fish Talk in the News: U.S. district court demands stricter regulations for Atlantic river herring; a NOAA workshop on catch per unit effort and landings per unit effort; new low-interest loans for small-scale fishermen; congressional delegates express concern over menhaden stock assessments; sustainable seafood is also the healthiest seafood; sustainable Maine squid grow in popularity; the Out of the Blue program to promote underutilized local seafood wraps up; and the Maine lobster glut causes protests in Canada.

The post This Week on TalkingFish.org – August 6 – 10 appeared first on Conservation Law Foundation.

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