Tag Archives: Eco Based Management
Maine: Pending bait shortage poses another threat to New England lobster industry
Regulators want to cap this year’s herring landings at last year’s levels, or 50,000 metric tons, and slash next year’s quota of the most popular lobster bait from 110,000 to 30,000 metric tons. They want to do this to offset record low numbers of newborn herring that are entering the fishery to replace those that are caught, eaten by other predators or die from natural causes. The 2019 quota could fall even lower if regulators adopt a separate proposal to leave more herring in the sea to feed the fish, birds and marine mammals that eat them, including Gulf of Maine species such as cunner, cod, seals, whales, puffins and terns. The New England Fishery Management Council could decide the issue as early as September. Eco-based Management. >click to read<10:51
Inland Fisheries: Native Fish Keepers – Picking up the tab for conservation
Conservation isn’t cheap. Under a cloudless sky on waters as smooth as glass, a crew of four men clad in bright orange rain gear splattered with fish scales and slime was doing its part last week to pay for the tab of conserving native trout in the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi.,, Last spring, the Tribal Council approved the incorporation of the nonprofit, tribally owned Native Fish Keepers Inc. business that has begun selling some of the lake trout and whitefish caught in both netting operations and during the spring and fall Mack Days fishing contests hosted by the tribes. “Our overall objective in putting this all together is conservation,” said CSKT fisheries biologist Barry Hansen. “From the very beginning, we’ve been focused on reducing the number of lake trout to benefit both bull trout and cutthroats. We realized early on this would be an expensive operation.” click here to read the story 17:51
A Must Read! FishNet USA / Dogfish and seals and dolphin, oh my!
The bottom line is that while commercial fishermen from North Carolina to Maine are at work catching on the order of half a million mt of fish and shellfish a year, it appears as if it takes an annual 20,000,000 tons or more to keep all those marine mammals and low-value spiny dogfish and various other predatory fish going. How much of that 20 million tons is commercially/recreationally valuable species or the forage species that sustain them? No one seems awfully interested in finding that out, but they sure should be. Read the rest here 10:55
Eco Based Management Failure: Otter battleground – Fishermen lose lawsuit in battle against sea otter; supporters relieved
If you’re out surfing or walking along the beach, take a peek toward the Channel Islands. Among the seals, dolphins or rare whales, you might once again spot the California sea otter, due in part to the lifting of an artificial “no-otter zone” and a failed lawsuit to have it reinstated. Read more here vcreporter 12:18
