On Wednesday, July 11, the United States House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 200, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act. As we’ve written on a number of occasions, H.R. 200 is a bad bill, legislation that, if it becomes law, would substantially weaken the conservation and stock rebuilding provisions
Photo courtesy of Northeast Fisheries Science Center – NOAA By Tony Friedrich If you follow this blog, you probably know by now that the writers stand united against H.R. 200, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act. We’ve written extensively about this deeply flawed legislation to make all of you
Photo by Angelo Peluso The Council met this week, here’s what you should know By Capt. John McMurray There were really only three agenda items during this meeting that are of importance to anglers. Although before getting to those, we want to point out that during the Law Enforcement Committee report on Tuesday, a NOAA
This legislative session (the two-year 115th Congress, 2017-2018) has been a busy one for federal fisheries policy, with relevant legislation being introduced and moving through the Committee process in both the House and the Senate. But the bills have seemed to have hit a stalling point. When that point breaks and things begin
Striped bass were a hot topic at the most recent ASMFC meeting. First, Maryland proposed a one-inch reduction in size by mandating circle hooks for the Chesapeake Bay. Circle hooks will make an impact. Frankly, circle hooks should be mandatory anyway. But, these days you take conservation in any form available. A minimal reduction in
The States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island announced on May 23 that they will be going into contract negotiations for 1200 megawatts (MW) of ocean wind farm power generation. The Block Island Wind Farm pilot project, the first ocean wind farm in the nation, with five turbines is 30 MW. So by comparison these projects
There’s something in the wind that’s good for recreational fishing. According to the recreational fishing community, it is ocean wind farms. Ocean wind farms have and will continue to create fishing opportunities for anglers and above all will reduce pollution that harms fish and our environment. Wind farms create artificial reef structure that is habitat
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1) sponsored the amendment on an approved House appropriations bill that prohibits the Coast Guard and NOAA Fisheries from enforcing a moratorium on striped bass in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surrounding Block Island, Rhode Island. This House approved amendment is bad for the fish and fisheries management. Block Island Sound fishermen
On March 1, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued emergency measures intended to protect the shortfin mako shark from continued overfishing. The measures became effective on March 2. Prior to the new rule, no size or trip limits restricted the directed shark fishery, which included shortfin makos, although vessels that held an Incidental shark
Maybe the recreational fishing experience is more important than we think it is Let me preface all this by saying that I’m not a great dad. At least I’m not as good of a dad as I always thought/hoped I would be. I have two 8-year-olds. Yes, twins. A boy and a girl. They are awesome.
