Saving Seafood

ASGA Hires New Executive Director

March 30, 2020 — The following was released by the American Saltwater Guides Association:

The American Saltwater Guides Association (ASGA), a coalition of forward-thinking guides, small business owners and like-minded anglers who understand the value of keeping fish in the water, today announced that William (“Willy”) M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., has joined the organization as Executive Director, effective April 1, 2020.  In this role, Goldsmith will advise on policy and regulatory strategy and lead membership outreach and engagement, fundraising and day-to-day operations.

A lifelong angler with a background in fisheries science, Goldsmith joins the ASGA after spending the past two years working in fishery management in Washington, DC, first as a Sea Grant Knauss Fellow with Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and more recently at the Lenfest Ocean Program.  In those roles, Willy engaged with fishery stakeholders and constituents on key management issues and communicated policy-relevant research to decision-makers.  Before arriving in Washington, DC, he received a doctorate in Marine Science with a sub-concentration in Marine Policy from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William and Mary, where his research focused on characterizing the biological impacts and human dimensions of the U.S. east coast recreational Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery. He received a B.A. in History with a Secondary Field in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University.

“A year ago, we set out to provide a powerful voice to the recreational fishing community to support the conservation of our fisheries, and have made a material impact on the way a number of important fish are managed on the East Coast,” said Peter Jenkins, Chairman of the ASGA Board of Directors and Owner of the Saltwater Edge tackle shop in Newport, Rhode Island.  “Our work is just getting started, and adding someone with Willy’s experience, contacts and understanding of the way fisheries are managed will enable us to more effectively engage on critical management issues for the benefit of fishing guides, tackle shops and other businesses in the fishing industry, and conservation-minded anglers everywhere.”

“Willy has quickly become a well-known and respected fishery management mind in Washington, DC, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the ASGA team,” said Tony Friedrich, Vice-President and Policy Director of the ASGA.  “In addition to his exceptional grasp of both fishery science and policy, Willy shares the passion for fishing that we were founded on and is committed to helping ensure that we have abundant marine resources for generations to come.  We are proud of what we have accomplished in our first year, but believe Willy’s addition will allow us to significantly accelerate our impact as we continue to fight for abundant and responsibly managed fish stocks that support the needs of the recreational angling community and the businesses that rely on them.”

“I have closely followed the ASGA since it was founded, and am honored and humbled at the opportunity to advance its mission and promote its values,” said Goldsmith.  “In a remarkably short time, the ASGA has activated and mobilized thousands of for-hire captains, private anglers, business owners and concerned citizens in the name of marine fish conservation, providing the community with a unified voice. I look forward to joining this effort and to advocating for common-sense, science-based management strategies while also building partnerships across fisheries sectors to conserve and rebuild our nation’s fisheries.”

The ASGA is hosting a live video introduction for Goldsmith on its Facebook page on April 2, 2020 at 12pm EST, where it will also discuss key priorities and plans for the next several months.  To attend that discussion, please visit https://www.facebook.com/salth2oguides/ at 12pm on April 2.

Read the full release here

Jellied sea creatures confound scientists, fishermen on U.S. Pacific Coast

June 28, 2017 — Drifting throngs of jelly-like, glowing organisms native to tropical seas far from shore have invaded Pacific coastal waters from Southern California to the Gulf of Alaska this year, baffling researchers and frustrating fishing crews.

Known as pyrosomes, they are tubular colonies of hundreds or thousands of tiny individual creatures called zooids, enmeshed together in a gelatinous tunic roughly the consistency of gummy bear candy.

No relation to jellyfish, they resemble bumpy, opaque pickles in the water, typically a few centimeters or inches long, though some grow 1 or 2 feet (30cm or 60cm) in length.

They feed by filtering microscopic algae, or phytoplankton, as they float with the current, and are known to glow in the dark – a bioluminescent characteristic that gives the organism its scientific name — Pyrosoma, Greek for “fire body.”

Pyrosomes have rarely if ever been seen along the U.S. West Coast until 2012, when first spotted in California waters. Since then, they have gradually multiplied and spread north, before exploding in numbers this spring, according to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Although harmless to humans, they have been especially troublesome to the commercial salmon catch in Oregon, with large globs of the rubbery critters clogging fishing gear by the thousands in recent months. Some have even washed ashore.

“It gets to a point where they’re so abundant, you can’t even fish out there, so you have to pick up your gear and move elsewhere,” Nancy Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Oregon Salmon Commission, said on Monday.

A single five-minute trawl with a research net by scientists off the Columbia River in late May scooped up roughly 60,000 pyrosomes, NOAA reported.

Fishermen were also hit in southeastern Alaska, where some crews suspended operations earlier this year when pyrosome densities were at their height, said Aaron Baldwin, a fishery biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Read the full story at Reuters