We’re always reading up on things taking place in fishery management and ocean conservation. Whether it be a press release, letter or blog post, we’ll look to post a couple items a day here (sometimes more, sometimes less) with a brief synopsis. These articles may not be as focused as the rest of the site, and could cover initiatives or issues that aren’t found on the rest of the site, but we found interesting.

We’ll promote these on our Facebook and Instagram, so be sure to follow us there to receive all the updates.

Past WWRTs:

January, 2020

February 27, 2020: More on the Call to Close Codfishing, At-Sea Monitoring on Herring Boats, Blue Whales in the Northeast and a Response to Striped Bass Regulations on the Hudson

  • We covered the fact that the Conservation Law Foundation is petitioning the NMFS to shut down the cod fishery so the stock can recover. In their petition, they outline how management of the species has failed for decades, leaving the fishery a faint shadow of what it once was. Here are two articles covering the decline in the fishery and the management actions that may result moving forward. The first comes from Charles Witek on his One Angler’s Voyage blog, who covers how quickly the fishery declined over the years, attributing acceleration to important decisions and developments along the way. Dave Monti writes the second for the Marine Fish Conservation Network, highlighting the risks and consequences of commissions and councils not reacting quickly or effectively enough to protect species that are at risk. I caught a couple cod while fishing for black sea bass off Block Island a couple summers ago. Coincidentally (or not), I believe the timing coincided with the unexpected bump in abundance that Witek refers to in his piece. It was a surprise, but a welcome one, since I had never had a chance to target them otherwise. Hopefully cod can become a success story over the coming years.

  • Data collection and monitoring to understand the true effort and catch levels on species is a critical piece of the fishery management puzzle. How that data is collected and how harvest is monitored, however, is, at best, a touchy subject given concerns around costs and effectiveness. The National Fisherman covers that the New Jersey fleet is suing the New England Fishery Management Council, NOAA and the Department of Commerce over new regulations requiring that herring boats pay for and include monitoring on their trips. The fleet is claiming that these new requirements have been put in place without the appropriate congressional authority, and that they would have a potentially devastating impact on the fleet from a financial perspective. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and how monitoring of harvests and bycatch is implemented moving forward will be an important consideration in how effective management is.

  • This falls under the ‘that’s pretty cool’ category of our coverage. The New England Aquarium surveyed the Northeast Canyons and the Seamounts Marine National Monument off Cape Cod and the Northeast, and saw 322 whales and dolphins, including pilot, fin, sei humpback, sperm, Sowerby’s beaked and even two blue whales. I knew blue whales were rare, but had no idea that there were only 440 confirmed sightings in the Atlantic Ocean between 1979 and 2009. Pretty insane that the largest animal that has ever lived on our planet can only be seen that many times in 30 years. They estimate that there may be as few as 250 individual blue whales left in the Atlantic.

  • In addition to the new coastal 1 fish between 28” and 35”, new regulations on striped bass are being implemented in the Hudson River as well. As part of Addendum IV, the new Hudson River regulations eliminate the ‘trophy’ sized fish that anglers were historically allowed to keep, and now keep one fish between 18”-28” per day on the river. This seems long-overdue, since the large fish found way up the river in the spring are females carrying millions of eggs, but it’s a good step and something that, judging by feedback in the article, is welcome by charter boats and anglers who fish there. This has been relatively overlooked in discussions and coverage around the new regulations, but protecting those big, breeding females before and when they’re spawning is incredible important and hopefully makes a significant positive impact.

February 26, 2020: Rebuilding the Mississippi River, Tearing Down Dams, The Shark Fin Trade and More on Moosehead Lake Brook Trout

  • The Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana has been disappearing under rising sea levels. In response, the National Wildlife Federation, Environmental Defense Fund and National Audubon Society have teamed up to Restore the Mississippi River Delta, and are using a miniature model of the river near New Orleans to determine how diverting river water can restore marshland by bringing sand and other sediment into certain areas. The amount of wetlands that is being lost is insane, with the article stating that there are ‘ongoing losses of about a football field of land every 100 minutes.’ If you have ever been to this area, the wildlife and fish populations are insane, so protecting this incredibly important transition area is something I am certainly behind. Pretty cool ways to go about it.

  • Another article from the New York Times reporting on a comprehensive dam-removal project on Brandywine Creek in Delaware that will open up traditional breeding habitat for native fish, including shad and striped bass, according to the article. There are thousands of dams in the United States that have been in place for decades that are no longer used and are restricting the annual spawning migrations of fish species on both coasts, including salmon and steelhead, in addition to striped bass, shad and herring on the east coast. These efforts are continuing across the country, but the Brandywine Creek removals will be the largest single-river project, with hopes to remove or modify all 10 remaining dams in the 23-mile section of the river. Efforts to restore these historical spawning grounds and habitats are important to maintaining fish populations as climate change and other environmental and fishing-related pressures increase stress of populations. I have also included an article from a few weeks ago from American RIvers that reports that 2019 saw a record number of states remove 90 dams last year.

  • I’m surprisingly conflicted about this article, and haven’t done enough research to have a firm stance, but my gut tells me that supporting an industry that is as exploited globally as shark fins is not the right approach. Chris Oliver, the assistant administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service supports our participation in the global shark fin trade because our commercial shark fishery is sustainable and it would penalize US fisherman while having little impact on the illicit global fin trade. While I hope what he’s saying is true about the shark fishery being sustainable here, I feel as though any support of or participation in the shark fin trade globally will lead to increased illicit activity and illegal finning globally. The fewer legal shark fins that are available, and less support there is from countries like the US, the easier it would be, I think, to determine whether shark fins are legal or illegal if they are sold or consumed publicly. Anyway, I need to do more research, but it’s definitely not the stance I would expect from the NMFS on this.

  • Here’s a follow-up story on the piece we covered last week reporting on a recently confirmed group of large brook trout spawning in Moosehead Lake rather than up the rivers feeding into it. This report on that discovery points out an important thing to keep in mind in management and in conservation of habitat moving forward, and that is that fish and animals that are able to utilize their habitat in more than one way are more likely to survive as conditions change. In thinking about that, the importance of a healthy Chesapeake Bay and Hudson River to striped bass spawning success cannot be overstated. Stripers cannot utilize other parts of their ecosystem or habitat to spawn, so if we let those areas decline, we might be writing a death-sentence for those fish. Conversely, as fish stocks become more abundant, fish generally spread across a larger geography and take advantage of additional areas and regions that they might not have been in otherwise, which could help increase their ability to weather changes in conditions.

February 25, 2020: Increased Reporting Requirements Coming for the For-Hire Fleet, Attempted Reintroduction of Grayling, Cape Cod’s Effort to Combat Climate Change and Banks Against Arctic Drilling

  • An announcement from NOAA on new reporting requirements for For-Hire trips in the Atlantic, including for mahi and wahoo, which will be put in place in September of this year. As we’ve covered here frequently, more data and the more we know about where fish are and go, the effort that is being put in to fish for them and the number of fish being caught, the better we can develop management plans that set appropriate quotas and limits. I imagine this is a step towards electronic reporting being used more widely across commercial, for-hire and recreational boats.

  • Grayling used to be found in a number of rivers in Yellowstone National Park, but have been functionally extinct there for nearly 100 years. Since the 70’s, however, the Park has been working to try and restore populations of this native fish back into its original range within the park. While there is some that suggests grayling are once again spawning in certain areas, nothing has been confirmed to date. That said, the way the Park is going about the reintroduction of this native species seems to be pretty well thought out. With enhanced natural dams in place to prevent stocked, invasive brown trout from preying on the par grayling and by introducing eyed eggs rather than par, the hope is that the grayling that are born in the rivers imprint on those waterways in the way a wild, natural fish would. Would be pretty cool if they could bring back these native fish.

    The Cape Cod Times reports on a Cape Cod coalition asking towns on the Cape to declare a climate change emergency, and to begin implementing measures to lower carbon emissions on a town-by-town level to slow the pace of climate change. The article touches on how the northwest Atlantic around Cape Cod is warming as fast as any water on earth, and is having noticeable impacts on wildlife in the area. We’ve seen this in the recent article reporting on how summer flounder/fluke have migrated north over the past 30 years, and we’ll continue to see southern visitors moving further north as waters continue to warm. It’s an important message here, though, in that we can make a difference if we all do our part, and it can spread from person to person, to town to town, and continue expanding to really be impactful.

  • Corporate funding and chasing the next quarter’s earnings has gotten, and continues to get, in the way of conservation. With that in mind, it is great to see JP Morgan and more than a dozen global banks update their energy policies to rule out any financing for new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There has been substantial coverage on how the protections on these important lands are under attack from the Trump Administration, so to get the largest banks in the world to back away from providing the funding needed for much of it to proceed is a positive. Actions like these and corporations paying close attention to environmental impacts can result in serious change.

February 24, 2020: MA Pushes for Coastal-Consistency, Menhaden Fishery in Maine, Passing on Passion and Horseshoe Crabs

  • In all the coverage of the ASMFC meeting and the Conservation Equivalency proposals and process, one thing that was consistently highlighted was the progress that was made. That progress refers to the fact that the Commission actually reviewed, on a case by case basis, those proposals and even rejected some of them. Since that meeting, there’s been a lot of pushback on the few CE proposals that made it through, and on Friday Massachusetts sent a letter to Rhode Island urging them to NOT implement the CE proposal that they submitted and was approved. The letter points to the importance of consistency up and down the coast. It’s a pretty interesting and encouraging development, and another sign that the Commissioners are listening and that states are beginning to collaborate in the best interest of striped bass.

  • We covered an article last month about the burgeoning menhaden fishery in Maine that was growing rapidly as herring became more scarce and heavily regulated. In that initial article, Maine was contemplating shutting down the menhaden fishery proactively so it could get a grasp on the abundance and the demand for licenses before establishing a framework that might not be the best case. Since then, they have backtracked on that, and are now working on figuring out the licensing process and fishery framework while having an open commercial fishery. It will be interesting to watch how this progresses. Maine is unique given it’s huge lobster fishery and resulting demand for bait, but there could be additional demand for menhaden up and down the coast moving forward that will need to be monitored.

  • Here’s an opinion piece from Seattle on the importance of anglers as proponents of fisheries and conservation. As a life-long and passionate angler, I have become equally passionate about protecting the fish and the ocean that means so much in my life. While the author is pushing to reopen rivers that have been closed to fishing due to low populations, which is not especially comparable to what we’re facing here, the key message rings true wherever people fish. If there is nobody who cares about the fish and the resource, then nobody will take care of it. On that note, it is of CRITICAL IMPORTANCE that those who are connected and attached to fisheries and the ocean help teach and pass on that passion to others, so more people care and want to take care of it in the future. Without that passion and desire to protect the resource, it won’t stand a chance.

  • It’s honestly a bit of a surprise to me that horseshoe crabs are harvested at the levels they are, but apparently they are, and their population is declining precipitously. I find this article interesting in how it really echoes the arguments that we’re hearing from striped bass. One side is pointing to population studies and the fact that those tagging horseshoe crabs are able to only tag a fraction of what they have in the past, while the other points to what they’re seeing, and that there is no decline in the population. It sounds a lot like the argument that striped bass and bluefish are not in decline, they’ve just moved offshore. Horseshoe crabs are one of the longest-lasting species on the planet, but they’re at serious risk unless decisions are made to help protect them.

February 20/21, 2020: Good Fishing Leads to More Trips, the Compelling Force of Law on Management, Florida’s Proactive Action, More Perspectives of ASMFC & Striped Bass, Brook Trout in Maine and a non-Fishery Article on Protecting Birds

  • The American Saltwater Guides Association’s motto is ‘promoting sustainable business through marine conservation.’ As a group that was founded by fishing guides, members of the fishing industry and concerned anglers and citizens, they have a direct financial stake in keeping abundant fish populations in place. It doesn’t take much research to realize that much of the pushback against conservative regulations comes from the charter / for-hire fleet, claiming that not being able to keep more fish will negatively impact their business or, put them out of business all-together. The data that the ASGA points to in this article suggests essentially the exact opposite. By pointing to the amount of trips taken historically around times when striped bass were abundant and when they were not (recently and during the moratorium, for instance), it shows that with abundance, comes more interest in fishing. With that in mind, it’s hard to support the argument that we should make efforts to take more fish out of the ocean and lower the number of fish out there to pursue, and while the new regulations are set, this will become an incredibly important topic when we enter into the Amendment process for striped bass, because there will be a push by some to lower the threshold for a health stock, reducing the number of striped bass in the water forever.

  • These next two articles are by Charles Witek, one on his One Anglers Voyage Blog, and the other on the Marine Fish Conservation Network. Both of them touch on the topic of legal ramifications around fishery management, specifically in regards to the ASMFC. It starts by covering the history of the fight to cut back the reduction fishery of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, which recently resulted in the management of the species in Virginia shifting from the Virginia Legislature to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. It uses this to show that the only reason that happened is because the AMSFC has the ability to enforce its regulations over states that violate them. In this case, Omega Protein willingly exceeded the menhaden harvest cap for the Chesapeake Bay, and were found out of compliance. What happened next was the Federal Secretary of Commerce upheld that finding that the fishery was out of compliance, and implemented a moratorium on the fishery beginning on June 17 or unless the fishery became compliant again. This action, and legal enforcement, resulted in action. Witek then turns (in both articles) to how, despite having that authority over states, the ASMFC has no oversight or legal requirement to follow their own guidelines or rules, which we have seen in striped bass recently. According the the ASFMC’s bylaws, when a fishery is found to be overfished, a plan is required to be put in place that rebuilds the stock back to the target biomass within 10-years. If you’ve been following along with discussions and developments regarding the new striped bass regulations, you’ll know that the 10-year rebuilding timeline has not been discussed at all, and was not considered when the new rules were proposed. Without that legal oversight, the ASMFC has no reason to follow its own rules, and the fisheries suffer as as result, and that needs to change. We need Congress to step in and enforce the rules and bylaws that the ASMFC has in place for itself, so the outlook and regulations around our fisheries are effective.

  • While this post covers similar topics that we have discussed extensively in the past - striped bass and bluefish and the failure to manage them effectively - the author points to specific discussion in Rhode Island that highlights one of the major problems we’re facing generally in management. There’s an ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ mentality, both from the conservation-focused side and the pro-harvest side, that reduces the chances of effective management regulations taking hold. As the ASGA points out in their article above, abundance leads to more trips, more fishing and a stronger fishing economy. With that in mind, we should all be working together on finding regulations that work best for the fish, so they can maintain abundance and drive trips for both the recreational catch & release contingent and for those who rely on the fishery to make a living. I’m not entirely sure how this can be dealt with, but until we do, the entire management process will be more difficult than it needs to be.

  • The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission just announced that it is extending a full closure on harvest for snook, redfish and speckled trout for much of the state’s west coast through May of 2021. This action was taken to help protect the species following significant impact from red tide. Now, I’ve read a few comments from the East Coast about how little the FWC has done in protecting important fisheries throughout the state - including the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon - which are for sure warranted, but this is a pretty big move for a state to take to protect the valuable natural resources it has. It would be nice to see some northern states and regulatory bodies take similar actions in certain areas where fish are heavily targeted or vulnerable.

  • This is a cool article from Maine on a pretty recent discovery of large brook trout spawning in Moosehead Lake rather than up the feeder rivers. The article touches on acoustic tags and studies on how and where Brook Trout go before, during and after spawning, and how data collected from those studies has led to closures of certain areas at certain times to protect the fish from overfishing. When reading this, it’s amazing how little we really know about these species, and how important studies tracking activities and migrations of fish are in understanding how best to manage them. This is a heavily-targeted species of fish in a contained lake, and we are just now learning that the largest specimens (6-9 years old) seem to be spawning in the lake rather than up the streams, where the mortality of spawning males are much higher - mainly due to predation. Imagine what we don’t know about fish in the ocean that have essentially an endless number of places to hide and travel to. Brook Trout being our native trout on the east coast hold a special place in many anglers’ hearts, so to hear about new realizations on the species and better ways to protect them is encouraging.

  • This isn’t fishery-related, but comes back to the type of impacts some of the environmental protection rollbacks that the Trump Administration has tried to push through lately, in this case, the impact on protections for migratory birds. While this focuses on birds, and specifically the energy sector, it is pretty easy to imagine how this and similar rollbacks of long-existing regulations would have a significant impact on our waterways and fisheries.

February 19, 2020: Climate Change in Management, Striped Bass Perspective, Potential Progress on Bonefish and Feedback from TU on the Administration’s ‘21 Budget

  • Bloomberg Green covers a developing trend in fishery management, the impact of climate change and warming water temperatures.  In this case, New York has sued the Department of Commerce for an increased portion of the summer flounder (fluke) quota on the east coast.  The article highlights how the stock of fluke has moved up the coast, so despite a large portion of the catch coming from the waters off New York, the majority of the quota is allocated to states further south due to the historical (70s / 80s) distribution of the stock.  The decision from this lawsuit, and how the fluke stock is allocated moving forward could set precedent on how climate change will be handled in fishery management going forward, so it will be an interesting thing to watch. 

  • This guy nails it on striped bass. We have ignored signs of a decline for several years, which has brought us to the place we are now. Despite that, the ASMFC and state management oversight is not acting in the best interests of the fish, instead skating a fine line with management plans that may or may not work. The important takeaway here is that striped bass can recover, if we let them. They, and other species / mother nature, have shown the ability to overcome the pressure we place on the species and rebuild when given a chance. Again, we’re not asking for a moratorium, yet, but more comprehensive management leads to better fishing and a stronger fishing economy around it.

  • Bonefish Tarpon Trust has done a lot of unbelievable work protecting those three species, their habitats and more.  Included in this work are studies to identify and protect the spawning areas for bonefish throughout the Caribbean.  Interestingly, we still don’t know where Florida Keys bonefish spawn, however there’s an ongoing study that is beginning to uncover areas where spawning might take place.  Understanding that bonefish do not have the same value as food as striped bass do, it’s a pretty stark contrast when comparing the way we handle and protect their spawning habits with what we are doing in the Chesapeake.  Unlike stripers, however, it’s pretty incredible to note that bonefish generally live in a 2-3 mile area for the majority of their lives, so if you’ve ever seen or caught a bonefish, it’s pretty likely that you caught or saw it on its home flat.  With that in mind, think about how many flies those bonefish see if they’re in heavily trafficked areas and how well they know that flat by the time they mature. 

  • Trout Unlimited weighed in yesterday on the budget cuts to EPA and other environmental legislation that were proposed in the Trump Administration’s 2021 Budget.  It outlines that if these cuts were enacted, it would put coldwater habitat areas like the Colorado River basin, the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds, and native salmon spawning ranges across the Northwest and Alaska at risk.  As was outlined in articles last week about the proposed budget cuts, there’s a good chance that they do not make it through Congress, but there’s obviously a serious risk that some of them do.  In addition to these specific regions, the cuts include the complete elimination of the EPA Non-point Source Grant  Program, which is essential for organizations like TU to complete the important work they do.  Will be important to watch what happens with the budget proposal moving forward.

February 18, 2020: Global Fishery Management, Including Protected Areas, More Pushback in Maryland, Aftermath of NJ and MD ‘Public Comment’ and our Takeaways from the ASMFC Winter Meeting

  • Another article on the study we covered last month on global fish stocks and how fishery management works to maintain, or even rebuild, fish stocks on a global level. This article has a few additional points in it that weren’t covered in as much detail in the previous articles. One is the issue of bringing data collection and management capabilities to lesser-developed countries. The stocks of fish that were examined in this study were predominately in developed countries, where the vast majority of fishing operations and stocks in lesser-developed countries are unregulated and likely not in-line with sustainable practices. Another interesting topic that was touched on in this is Marine Protected Areas. There’s some argument about how effective these are in helping rebuild stocks, and it goes well beyond just protecting the fish that would be harvested from those areas. Instead, having these protected areas allows for habitat preservation that can preserve biodiversity and lead to healthier ecosystems and fish populations outside of the MPAs. Given what’s happening with many environmental protections in the US right now, keeping an eye on these areas is going to be important. There’s one line, though that echoes true to me in this piece, and it comes from Boris Worm, a professor of biology at Canada’s Dalhousie University who was not involved in the current study. “The ocean still has enormous resilience, if we give it a chance and act on what we know needs to be done.” Again, if we are smart about managing these fisheries, the ocean and nature can and will respond effectively.

  • More angry feedback from Maryland, this time from a charter captain - the exact audience that the Maryland DNR is claiming to support with its new regulations by allowing charter clients to keep 2 fish per day - calls them an embarrassment. Captain Nick Lombardi highlights how misguided the state’s trophy season is as well as the timing around a closure to both targeting and retention of the fish, given the water temperatures and likelihood of survival. It’s just more proof that what Maryland has proposed will not work and is not acting in even the best interest of those who fish in its state. It’s great to see guides in any state step up and say that they will implement more conservative regulations on their boat than required by the state, especially when it comes from Maryland. Hopefully he’s able to gain traction with the move to change the view on C&R fishing in the Bay.

  • In the latest entry from One Angler’s Voyage, Charles Witek incorporates angry comments from people in Maryland and New Jersey about the way their states have acted over the past several months in regards to striped bass. Specifically, the lack of reception to public comment in New Jersey and the complete disregard for the majority of their own constituents and those up and down the coast in Maryland. What he ends at though, is what we touched on in our blog today (link below), and that is the importance of all of us standing up, speaking up and increasing the pressure on the Commission to do the right thing for striped bass as we move into the amendment process this spring.

  • Here’s our latest blog post, which we posted today. It’s been two weeks since the ASMFC winter meeting on striped bass, bluefish and menhaden. In that time, there has been significant coverage in our WWRT entries, so I don’t want to get into a recap on what happened. That said, there were a few takeaways and overarching lines of discussion that I think deserve a bit more attention (or questioning), so here are our takeaways from that meeting and what it means moving forward, specifically for striped bass.

    ASMFC WINTER MEETING TAKEAWAYS

February 14, 2020: Maryland and New Jersey Continue to Show Their True Colors, Improved Data Again Leads to Better Management, A Call to Take Action in Our Daily Lives and Great White Tracking

  • More from Maryland, as Mark Eustis chimes in with an op-ed on the way the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has continued to neglect the best interests of the Chesapeake Bay and striped bass. He points to the way the DNR has taken advantage of inaccuracies in data - overestimating the number of fish harvested in the spring and underestimating the impact of fishing during the warmest summer months - to come up with a piecemeal regulation that will almost certainly result in continued overfishing and decline of the species. He also points out additional issues that striped bass are faced with, including dead zones and habitat destruction, that should be taken into account in management. He then concludes with actual options that could help lead to more effective management.

  • Unfortunately, despite the op-ed above and a flood of discontent from recreational anglers in both Maryland and New Jersey about each state’s Conservation Equivalency proposals, the complaints and desires of the recreational community have fallen on deaf ears. Last night in New Jersey people trying to attend the public hearings in each state were turned away at the door, as they were held in venues that couldn’t hold everyone who tried to attend. Not only that, the original agenda for the meeting had the vote on striped bass take place BEFORE public comment was heard and the ‘winning’ decision (28”-38” slot in NJ instead of the suggested 28”-35”) was circled and highlighted. People were invited to provide comment on what they wanted knowing full well it would make no difference. It is encouraging that the recreational community is standing up and speaking out, it is incredibly discouraging that the process remains so broken in certain states. This cannot continue and we need to stay active and keep pushing until change takes place.

    • The Fix is In

      The American Saltwater Guides Association

      By Tony Friedrich

  • A cool article on the way Pacific Halibut are managed. Once again, more data leads to better management, this time in regards to the sex of the fish that are being harvested. According to this article, data shows that the sex ratio of the commercial halibut catch ranged from 81% to 97% female in some regions. Given that heavy focus on the breeders, the quota has been cut by just more than 5% this year to better prevent the population from declining.

  • Captain Dave Monti, who fishes out of Rhode Island and southern New England, writes of the impacts that our actions as individuals and a collective whole are having on the ocean. He highlights the different species being caught regularly in his neck of the woods and the disappearance of some colder-water fish (cod, winter flounder, etc.). He also points to how important the ocean is in protecting us from rapid climate change, while taking the brunt of that impact itself. According to NOAA, if the ocean would release all the heat it has stored since 1955 instantly transferred to the atmosphere, the atmosphere would warm by 65 degrees F. Lastly, he closes by emphasizing that we are all investors in our earth, our planet and the animals and habitats that comprise it. We need to start taking action, trying to influence political action by supporting and voting for leaders who aim to preserve the environment and acting as stewards to our world to help slow the change and preserve the natural world that we all rely on.

  • Quick bonus read for the long weekend on where some of the OCEARCH tagged great whites are pinging at the moment. A big collection of them is concentrated off North and South Carolina, with a few others in the Gulf of Mexico. The bluefin video we posted in our blog last week obviously suggests there’s life in the area, but it’s interesting how incredibly tight they appear to be. We’re learning a lot from these satellite tags, a very cool operation.

February 13, 2020: The Sad State of a Once Prevalent Cod Fishery, MRIP and Recreational Data Tracking, More on the Clean Water Act and a Letter Urging a Reduction in Menhaden Harvest in Virginia

  • The Atlantic Cod fishery is a skeleton of what it once was. A fish that drove the economy in the Northeast has been overfished for years and the population remains at historically low levels. With current management plans not effectively rebuilding the stock, the Conservation law Foundation has launched an official petition calling on managers to end overfishing and help bring back this important fish, proposing actions including a moratorium on the species to allow it to rebound. I have caught one cod in my life, several years ago by the windmills in Block Island. Given that it was the middle of the summer, I was surprised to find one so close to shore. Historically, cod used to be caught off the beaches in Rhode Island during the winter and the nearshore cod fishery in the summer was readily accessible. The species is facing an uphill battle, with warming temperatures not only impacting their habitat, but introducing new competition in the way of Black Sea Bass and other species that used to remain south. I support this petition and hope to see the National Marine Fisheries Service implement a real management plan that allows these fish to begin a path towards recovery.

  • We cover this topic a lot, but the more information we have on effort and catch data, the better we can manage fisheries. As we’ve seen recently with new MRIP data and bluefish, changes in that information could expose overfishing that we may have otherwise overlooked. Capt. Dave Monti dives into an amendment proposed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the ASMFC that explores the allocation of Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass between commercial and recreational anglers. This stems from new MRIP information on catch and effort data, and looks to more appropriately divide the quota between the two groups. He then discusses electronic reporting, and an app that he has used to report what he has caught on his boat. NOAA has formed a task force to explore electronic recording in the recreational sector. While it may take some time for participation levels to really catch-up, I imagine any sort of real-time data might more effectively represent results than the process we have now. Will be interesting to watch, and the apps that Capt. Monti is using are something I plan to play around with this upcoming season.

  • The New York Times ran the following opinion piece from the President of Trout Unlimited, the President of the National Wildlife Federation and a former director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It explores the impact that the Trump Administration’s decision to rollback protections on our nation’s waters could have, and dives into the troubling concept that there was little or no research done on how many waterways would be impacted by these rollbacks and what the potential impact might have been in advance to the decision being made. As you might expect, this could have serious repercussions, not only on fish, wildlife and their habitats, but on American citizens and their access to clean water.

  • Here’s a short letter to the editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch from the Chairman of the Virginia Agriculture Council urging for a reduction in menhaden harvest. It points to the history of menhaden, the species’ importance as a filter feeder and forage fish (including the impact a depleted biomass has on other fish species that quickly become prey) and the importance of not being influenced by lobbyists of for Omega. Momentum seems to keep building in the states that menhaden are still fished in on an industrial level.

February 12, 2020: A Look Back at Fisheries No Longer, Montauk Surf-fishing Through the Decades and the Other Side of Menhaden

  • Here's a look at east coast fisheries that no longer exist, at least in any semblance of what they were historically, from Field and Stream.  There are a few species here that I have never heard of, despite being right in the center of where they used to live and be targeted.  While habitat destruction has played its part in the decline of a number of these, poor (or no) management is the culprit for the majority of them.  Despite these fisheries that have declined or disappeared, there is hope, and Capt. McMurray points to a few success stories, but strong management and a conservation-minded approach is needed and benefits everyone in the long run.  On the flip-side, these stories point to how fisheries can collapse and not come back.  Just because striped bass, for example, were recovered in the 80s and 90s, doesn’t mean that we will be able to do it again if we don’t keep the future of the stock in mind. 

  • Another look back on past decades from On The Water Magazine.  This article is by Ralph Vigmostad and talks about surf fishing in Montauk starting in the ‘50s.  It’s an interesting piece in the way it shows the different cycles that some fish have gone through over the years.  I didn’t realize how much smaller bluefish were 50 years ago than they are now (however, judging from the photos, there were a lot more of them).  Surf anglers are kind of like the canaries I the coalmine when it comes to striped bass and bluefish stock health.  They’re the first ones to notice a decline in population, since the fish just stop coming so far inshore, and the end of this article shows that they’ve noticed and seen a decline in both fish to target and effort over recent years.  Remember, the big surf-fishing tournament this past fall saw ZERO keeper bass weighed in over a weekend – pretty alarming.

  • This article from the Associated Press has shown up in a number of high-profile publications, including the Washington Post and the New York Times.  It points back to the economic and job impact that shutting down Omega Protein would have in the Chesapeake Bay.  While it does point to other alternatives for menhaden oil and fish meal (insects, algae, etc.), the discussion of economic benefit that the company provides does not mention the fact that Omega is now owned by a foreign entity, Cooke Protein, any bycatch issues or illustrate the critical importance of these fish as part of the ecosystem.   Lastly, as was outlined in this article, much of the push against Omega is not to shut them down completely, only to limit the harvest in the Chesapeake and keep them in-line with the quotas that are set by the fishery management bodies. 

February 11, 2020: Importance of Management in Light of Climate Change, Budget Cuts from Trump and Cool Bear Activity in Alaska

  • After a straight week of stuff about the ASMFC, we’re taking a break from it today.  First, another article / opinion piece, this time from Miami, about the importance of diversity and sustainability in seafood.  This piece, by Chef Allen Susser in the Miami Herald, wraps a few really important concepts around climate change.  Climate change is having a significant impact on our fisheries, not only by pushing certain species further north than they usually have been, but also by acidifying the ocean and damaging larvae – especially those of crabs – and hurting the fisheries that focus on them.  This leads him to the studies that are showing that the most sustainably managed and healthy stocks of fish are best able to deal with and adapt to climate change.  As a result, in light of the changes taking place on a global level, managing our fisheries conservatively to ensure that there are healthy enough stocks to adapt is more critical now than ever before.  Lastly, he mentions Congressman Huffman’s listening tour, pointing again to the importance of everyone standing up and speaking up for conservative management to protect our fish species moving forward. 

  • Similar to the Rolling Stone article we sent a few weeks ago about the lawyers who are fighting many of the environmental protection rollbacks being pushed by the Trump Administration, The Choose Clean Water Coalition issued a statement yesterday in light of the Administration’s 2021 budget cutting funding for the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program from $85 million to $7.3 million, a 91% cut.  In the statement, Choose Clean Water highlights the major risk this poses to the critical habitat that the Chesapeake provides to species like blue crabs and striped bass, but also points to the efforts being made bot legally and in congress to thwart the rollbacks being proposed.  Hopefully, like last year, these budget cuts are prevented and the Chesapeake and other important nurseries and ecosystems are protected appropriately.  

  • Here’s a pretty interesting article from Alaska that, while it’s not really focused on conservation, highlights the importance of viewing each species as a piece of a larger puzzle and not as an independent population.  Historically, bears in Katmai Alaska have feasted on clams on the mud flats, however with a significant increase in sea otter populations (which also eat clams), the predatory habits of these animals is shifting.  The article shows how at least one bear has been seen swimming to nearby islands to hunt seals, and others are beginning to prey on the sea otters themselves, taking a special liking to the otters’ brains.  This is similar to what we’ve seen happen on the east coast with some of our fisheries.  As menhaden populations dwindle in certain areas, the next available forage fish – weakfish, for example – are targeted and their populations take a big hit.  While these new habits in Katmai are not putting any of the species in danger, there are lessons to learn and cool new behaviors being witnessed. 

February 10, 2020: Goods (menhaden) and Bads (stripers) of ASMFC Meeting from a Commissioner, How the Commissioners think the ASMFC meeting went, and an Effort to Reduce Balloon Pollution in RI

  • Here’s more on last week’s AMSFC meeting, including a recap of what happened regarding menhaden. Unlike striped bass, the Commission has acted relatively conservatively with menhaden lately, and didn’t take a whole lot of action. As we highlighted before the meeting, there was the possibility of initiating the use of Ecological Reference Points (ERPs) into menhaden management moving forward, which would incorporate menhaden’s value as a keystone forage fish rather than just on the sustainability of it as a single species. While ERPs were not initiated yet, it’s looking likely that they will be implemented in the near future. As for striped bass, this goes through a lot of what has been covered by others (this time by someone who was a part of the meeting), pointing out that the process was chaotic and, in the end, Maryland and New Jersey found a way to go around the goals of the new regulations. What resulted wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but not as good as it could have been either, especially considering how close keeping New Jersey to the coast-wide 28-35” slot seemed to be. It ends on more talk about the amendment, which is the next big thing coming, and where we’ll all really need to make some noise.

  • Not much to comment on here, but this is the final meeting summary from the ASMFC, which doesn’t cover the commentary, however does show how the motions evolved and how NJ went from having the same regulations as the vast majority of the coast to likely having their own.

  • This is an interesting angle on the ASMFC, and something I was unaware of until reading it. Apparently after meetings, the ASMFC will send out questionnaires to its Commissioners asking about the process, discussion, effectiveness, etc. Overall, the results are much higher than I would give them - especially in regards to how effectively they’re managing the species they oversee - however Charles Witek, who has paid attention to these results historically, is starting to see shifts in the results that echo what we have read in a number of the meeting recaps. That is, an understanding that the Commission has not done its job and needs to step up. Again though, if this survey was passed out to anglers or others in the public who have been paying attention, the ‘approval ratings’ would likely be a fraction of what the ASMFC awards itself. It’s an interesting read into how the Commissioners view their job last week in comparison to what we’ve heard from outside.

  • It’s safe to say that anyone who has spent time on a boat has run into a floating balloon at some point during their trip. When fishing nearshore off Rhode Island, it is common for me to come home with five or ten bunches of balloons that were found floating during a 50 mile or so round-trip. They’re all over the place. On one occasion, I pulled a floating balloon away from a green turtle who was trying hopelessly to stuff it in his mouth. Anyway, the picture that is painted by commercial fishermen up and down the coast is even worse than that, and there’s evidence pointing to balloons showing up in stranded whales and other marine mammals and wildlife. I’m not agains balloons, but take care of them and make sure you dispose of them appropriately. Simple things like this are big contributors to declining populations of fish and other marine wildlife, and it’s great to see the angling (commercial or recreational) come together on an issue to help prevent it from getting any worse.

February 7, 2020: More Reaction from the ASMFC Meeting, from Maine to Maryland

  • The news and decisions that came out of the ASMFC on Tuesday are still top of mind, so each of today’s entries cover them. The first comes from Captain Peter Fallon in Maine, who attended the meeting in VA. His commentary is well balanced, pointing out some of the shocking (shocking in the fact that none of them had happened before) firsts and which commissioners stepped up for striped bass, as well as highlighting the historical and continued disregard and ineffectiveness of both the Commission and its process. The biggest takeaway here though, continues to be the fact that we need to keep the pressure on. While the decisions made by the Commission on Tuesday were not ideal, feedback from constituents was mentioned by a number of Commissioners. We’re being heard, and as discouraging as it has been, we can’t give up now with a full amendment on the docket.

  • The Bay Journal from Maryland weighs in as well, pointing out that even anglers in Maryland are skeptical and disappointed in what the state has proposed. The Commissioners from Maryland claim that the state’s Conservation Equivalency proposal was meant to ‘keep charter captains in business.’ In doing so, however, it allows private anglers to keep fewer fish, and relies on seasons that are ‘closed to targeting’ striped bass to reduce both harvest and release mortality. There’s so much to go into here, but the science around what reduction those closures might result is sketchy at best. Additionally, the state is keeping its trophy fishery open despite the rest of the coast being prevented from harvesting fish over 35” or 40.” It blows my mind that Maryland can claim that they should be entitled to a trophy season because, unlike the rest of the coast, they only have access to large stripers during a very finite (i.e. spawning) season and think that’s a reason to allow them to kill more fish. During the summer months the Chesapeake has many visitors from the south that we up north would love to have. We rely on only striped bass and bluefish for most of our shorter season. Generally, Maryland continues to neglect the best interests of the fish and the rest of the coast.

  • Charles Witek weighed in as well, including some of the specific discussion that took place during the proceedings. He does a good job of pointing out how the Commissioners referenced public feedback, echoing what we’ve heard from other recaps and pointed out - our voices are starting to be heard and acted on. We can’t give up now. Interestingly, Charles points out that it’s likely (as suggested in the Bay Journal article above) that many recreational anglers even in Maryland are supportive of more conservative measures, despite the actions of their commissioners. All-in-all, he offers a similar recount of the day to that we have heard from others. There’s hope moving forward that the ASMFC is listening and may be shifting towards effective regulation measures, but we’re not there yet.

  • Lastly, if you haven’t seen them, we finished up our five-part series recapping the Policy Update portion of the ASGA Annual Meeting a few weeks ago. These cover Striped Bass, Bluefish, Menhaden, Federal Management and Bluefin Tuna, and are up on our website:

February 6, 2020: The First Write-up on What Happened at this Week’s ASMFC Meeting, Positive News in Belize

  • First up, the first write-up of likely several (including one that we’ll put together over the weekend) that recaps what happened on Tuesday at the ASFMC Winter Meeting on striped bass. As outlined in this concise summary, the process that the Commission went through was chaotic. Many commissioners appeared to be unprepared to vote on the 49, yes FORTY NINE Conservation Equivalency proposals, and it took hours to narrow down each state’s options. At the end of the day, things probably went the way we expected. Some commissioners really get it and attempted to step up to achieve the goal of recovering the stock and protecting the fish, while the normal bad-actors were, well, bad actors. There’s still some uncertainty on where we’ll land in New Jersey, but we should have clarity soon.

  • Next up, here’s the entry from the ASGA. It’s a bit more alarmist than the first, but it touches on similar points and is probably not wrong to be. First, the process and the meeting was chaotic. Second, the bad actors were, indeed, bad actors and supported by the majority of the commission. There’s some color here on what NJ might come up with as far as their new CE proposal too, which suggests what we feared, they’re going to try and use trophy tags, bonus tags and a wider slot to increase harvest and still meet the 18% reduction state-wide. The most important thing here, moving forward, is that while this did not go our way, it is not time to give up, or these fish will be overfished forever. Now, with the amendment coming up and the ASMFC acting in complete disregard of its stakeholders’ wishes, we have a chance to stand up, speak up and change the way the management works and the way the fish are protected. We have a few additional thoughts on the meeting, which we’ll probably post Monday.

  • This article from the Marine Fish Conservation Network is a bit technical, but covers an important topic, once again stemming from rollbacks to environmental protections ordered by the Trump Administration. The National Environmental Protection Act was signed into existence by Nixon, and established Environmental Impact Statements as a required piece of any approved federal project approval process. The article offers an example that highlights how important EISs are, especially when considering the legal weight they wield. The efforts by the Trump Administration now are focused on weakening the impact of NEPA and weakening the power of Environmental Impact Statements moving forward. The article ends with three main takeaways, which pretty much sum things up 1) ‘A weakened NEPA would make it far easier for government-supported irrigation projects to strip away the last cold-water refuges from already endangered stocks of Pacific salmon, and make it more difficult to remove federally-licensed dams that prevent anadromous fish on every coast from accessing upstream spawning grounds. 2) A weakened NEPA would make it easier to adopt federal fishery management plans that, like the Management Plan giving rise to Anglers Conservation Network v. Pritzker, don’t consider the ecosystem role of forage fish when setting harvest quotas for such species, or that permit the use of fishing gear that puts fragile habitat, or threatened species, at risk. And 3) A weakened NEPA is something that America’s fisheries, and its marine ecosystems, cannot afford.

  • Let’s end this with a bit of positive news coming from the Caribbean. It’s pretty straightforward. The Turneffe Atoll Trust has purchased 17,000 acres of atoll mangroves and wetlands and has committed to protecting them in perpetuity. I’ve never fished Turneffe, but would love to one day, and hopefully efforts like this start spreading to other ecologically rich places around the globe.

February 5, 2020: What is MRIP and How is it Used?, NOAA’s New Proposed Monitoring Requirements, A Visual of What Reduction Menhaden Fishing Is and A Profile of Charles Witek

  • In the latest One Angler’s Voyage entry, Charles Witek dives into MRIP (the Marine Recreational Information Program), which is how fishery mangers collect data on effort and harvest from recreational anglers. Since there are very few instances where recreational anglers are required to report their trips or catches to a regulatory body, tracking effort and harvest is inherently difficult. That said, MRIP is a vast improvement over past tracking systems, and has led to a few instances of more effective management quickly. It is not perfect, however, and has with it built-in confidence ratings around effort and harvest data. Using those ratings, the data collected by MRIP is generally very accurate, except for the cases where Conservation Equivalency comes into play. The reason for this is outlined in the article, but has to do with the complicated measures that certain states devise to ‘reach the targeted reductions associated with new regulations’ without following the coast-wide suggestions. This article focuses on Black Sea Bass and shows yet another way that Conservation Equivalency throws a serious wrench into effective management of specific species. One thing that I think is very interesting in here, is the suggestion and potential effectiveness of the ASMFC instituting regional management rather than state-by-state. New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut approached this option with striped bass, but in the end it did not pass. With these species that are found in different states waters at different times of the years, having consistent regulations in different regions simply leads to better management.

  • Interesting article from the Gloucester Times on NOAA’s recent proposal calling for monitors on all groundfish trips in New England. While it sounds good, there are a lot of conflicting views on this, and the cost associated with having monitors on every boat could be pretty crippling for smaller operations. One of the fears we saw with Carlos Rafael, the ‘Codfather,’ is the concern around the commercialization and vertical integration of commercial fishing operations, because it allows for fish to slip through without being accounted for. NOAA does suggest, however, that the initial proposal included the highest requirement for monitors (100% of trips) to encourage public comment, and not necessarily to land on that highest of hurdles. More information and monitoring is important, but there are more factors at play than there might appear on the surface.

  • This article doesn’t need a whole lot of description or commentary around it, as the videos imbedded in it speak for themselves. There have been a lot of references of and coverage on the reduction menhaden fishery over the past few weeks, but it’s hard to fathom the scale of the operation and of the destruction it leaves in its path without seeing it visually. Take a look, it’s pretty incredible the number of fish they take out of the water and to imagine what other species are being sucked up as bycatch.

  • This one doesn’t either. We feature Charlie’s blog here frequently, and here’s his story, including insight into all that he has done and continues to do to fight for the fish we all love.

February 4, 2020: Warming Sea Temperatures, A Vineyard Derby Update, Commercial vs. Recreational and the Importance of Showing and Speaking Up

  • Here’s an article about studies the Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography has been conducting about how changing water temperatures are impacting local fish populations. There are a few really important things in this article. First, and most obviously, climate change and warming water temperatures are causing certain species to expand their range north, with a focus on striped sea robin and black sea bass. Both of these species, neither of which were traditionally abundant in New England, are now taking over and competing with more traditionally resident fish, like cod and winter flounder. The quotas for black sea bass, as have been documented elsewhere, have not caught up to the new geographic range of the fish, and how fish are managed in light of that is going to be a big discussion point moving forward. Another important piece of this article is the stress on how management based on the entire ecosystem is better than management based on individual species. It’s a positive article that shows how researchers are working on solving some of the issues fishery management is facing. Once again, more information allows us to manage more effectively.

  • News from the Vineyard that the Derby, one of the largest and oldest tournaments in the country, will not include striped bass in this year’s event. This is the second time the tournament has not had striped bass as a target species, the first, obviously, around the moratorium in the 80s and early 90s. While I think this is a positive development - the tournament’s hand was really forced with the new slot-limit for striped bass (the largest fish are no longer legal to keep) - its a positive step. That said, the entire article, and the comments from the Derby organizers, focuses on striped bass, without a word about bluefish, which are also overfished. Like the Striper Cup did last year, I would have liked to see the Derby do what they claim to they do, and be on the forefront for conservation by making the entire tournament catch & release. There is technology available today that makes that pretty simple and would likely encourage more participation. Just my two cents. Even if this doesn’t save a lot of fish on its own, the Derby is a high-profile event, and this hopefully helps raise awareness around the importance of protecting the fish we all chase.

    There are a couple quick takeaways from this article from the Cape Gazette in Delaware. First, the fact that the commercial sector is not the problem with many fish that we fish for on the east coast, but instead it is the recreational group. Commercial anglers are heavily regulated, and the fish they catch and keep are accounted for when they are brought to the dock. As recreational anglers, there is little oversight to what we bring home with us, and how we treat the fish that we release. In addition, there are a LOT more of us than there are commercial anglers, so our ability to make an impact is larger than you might think. As a result of all this, it’s CRITICAL that we are all responsible, both in following regulations and, as importantly, taking care of the fish we release to make sure they survive. At the end of the day, nobody fights when there are a lot of fish, but once populations fall and the resource becomes scarce, the claws come out. If we are responsible and take care of the resource, we can all benefit.

  • The last entry from today is a Facebook post by John Papciak that sums up a big part of why regulations haven’t been more conservation-focus in the past, and that is the inconsistent voice that the recreational angling community has had. Looking at the most recent public comment period on striped bass (last fall), there were VERY few people in relation to the number of anglers who pursue striped bass up and down the coast (~1000 people showed up, when there were an estimated more than 9 MILLION trips taken). That type of participation will never result in change, especially with the for-hire, pro-harvest crew consistently showing up and speaking louder. We’re at an inflection point here as we enter into a broader amendment process with the ASFMC, and we NEED to do better at showing up, or else there’s a good chance there will be fewer striped bass in the ocean forever. Alternatively, if we do indeed show up, there’s a chance we can implement needed accountability provisions, eliminate conservation equivalency and keep the same thresholds in place. John includes the link to the ASMFC meeting webinar as well. Listen in, it’s usually pretty interesting (and at times infuriating) to listen to the discussion and how decisions are made.

February 3, 2020: The ASMFC Winter Meeting, Potential Silver Lining on Bluefish, Perspective on Conservation Equivalency

  • The latest installment from the ASGA includes some hope from the Technical Committee regarding striped bass in advance of tomorrow’s ASFMC Winter Meeting. As we have highlighted here, the conservation equivalency proposals from Maryland and New Jersey are not good, and are taking advantage of the CE provision to allow for an increased harvest in their respective states. The comments and questions raised and released by the Technical Committee before tomorrow’s meeting give some hope that the Commission will not just blindly accept what has been proposed. Regardless, please check our Take Action page and send a letter to your commissioners TODAY, before the meeting takes place.

  • Charles Witek dives into the bluefish management plan that is being discussed and implemented by 2022. In light of the population being overfished, new regulations were put in place within months to reduce the recreational harvest from 15 fish per person per day to 3 fish per person per day. That’s a big step in the right direction, but there’s much more to come on this, and we’ve commented on it here before. What Witek does well in this article is show that there’s a potentially precedent-setting opportunity with bluefish, and that is to shift the way that the species is viewed. As many know, bluefish is not the greatest table-fare, and therefor the vast majority of fish caught are released (more stats on that in his article). As a result, it is arguable that the fish is more valuable when they are abundant because, simply, they’re a fun fish to catch and they drive a catch-and-release fishery (more stats in the article around that as well). The hope is, and there are public comment periods coming up on this, that we can get the regulators to view the fish as more important in the water, and to assess a value to those fish in the water rather than only on the value of a fish that has been harvested, it could have a ripple-effect throughout other species as well. Regardless of what this all means, we’ll have to show up during the public comment period and make our voices heard.

  • The Saltwater Edge posted a quick piece on how Conservation Equivalency is meant to work, and why it might be necessary for certain species. The one thing that they point out clearly, however, is something that I think many of us agree with, and that is the fact that conservation equivalency has not worked historically on fish that migrate up and down the coast, spending time in each state’s waters along the way. The post uses Summer Flounder as a species that CE works for, since the fish generally migrate from shallow water to deep water in the summer, rather than on a north / south basis like striped bass.