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Fisheries regulators OK menhaden limits |
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States from Maine to Florida voted Wednesday to set new, strict limits
on catching menhaden from coastal waters and the Chesapeake Bay,
handing environmentalists and sports fishermen a major victory in how
this important little fish is managed.
"This is great news for jobs, for our economy and for a society that values wildlife," Will Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said in a statement after the vote. At a meeting in Boston culminating more than a year of scientific calculations, loud public hearings and more than 90,000 public comments, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted targets and thresholds intent on restoring menhaden stocks coastwide. Once implemented after another year of study and debate, the measures are expected to reduce harvests by up to 37 percent - cuts that Virginia officials say will be damaging to the menhaden industry centered in the Northern Neck town of Reedville and to watermen who catch and sell the oily fish as bait. Read the complete story from The Virginian-Pilot
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HASTINGS: Time to improve the Endangered Species Act
May 18, 2012 - When the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law in 1973 by President Nixon, he spoke about the importance of preserving “the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” I believe that goal is as important today as it was back then. However, after nearly 40 years, it’s time to take a fresh, honest look at the law and consider whether there are ways it could be improved to do a better job of protecting and recovering species.
