April 29, 2024 — Atlantic salmon producer, Cooke Aquaculture USA, organized beach clean-ups in Washington County, Maine, to commemorate Earth Day 2024.
About 10 volunteers took five truckloads of debris that had washed up on the shore in Machiasport, while other volunteers gathered debris from the shore in nearby Jonesport.
April 19, 2022 — Every year on Earth Day, NOAA Fisheries joins citizens and organizations around the world in celebrating our planet and recognizing the need to care for our natural resources. After all, stewardship of our nation’s marine natural resources is the crux of NOAA Fisheries’ mission. It drives the work we do on Earth Day and every other day, too.
Thanks to world-class science, adaptive and accountable management, and dedicated enforcement, the United States is a global leader in responsible fisheries management. Regular assessments reveal that 80 percent of the stocks we monitor are at healthy sizes, and 92 percent are not subject to overfishing.
It’s taken decades of effort and investment, and the cooperation and sacrifice of U.S. fishermen, to get here. While our work continues, for Earth Day we can share some Earth optimism as we look back on our progress toward sustainable U.S. fisheries.
The Story of Sea Scallops
The first stock officially declared “rebuilt” following this new process was the Atlantic sea scallop. Decades of intense dredging in the scallop beds of Georges Bank and, later, the mid-Atlantic Bight had pushed sea scallop populations to the brink. In the early 1990s, managers shifted gears, implementing gear regulations, fishing effort restrictions, and limits on the number of participants.
In 1994, three large areas in Georges Bank and Nantucket Shoals were closed to fishing to protect similarly stressed groundfish species. Since dredges can catch groundfish by accident, those areas were closed to scallop harvest, too. Soon after, additional areas in the mid-Atlantic were closed specifically to protect scallops. Scallops were formally placed in a 10-year rebuilding plan in 1997.
Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries
April 6, 2017 — The following was released by Rare:
In honor of Earth Day on Saturday, April 22, and in affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution and Smithsonian Channel, global conservation organization Rare will elevate the urgency of sustainable management of small-scale fisheries. Rare and partners will do this through both speaking forums at the Earth Optimism Summit in Washington, D.C. and through AN OCEAN MYSTERY: THE MISSING CATCH, a documentary film produced by the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation set to premiere on Earth Day at the Summit and on Smithsonian Channel at 8 PM EST. Registration is open at https://earthoptimism.si.edu.
Rare’s involvement in the three-day Earth Optimism Summit reinforces its commitment to inspiring behavior change in conservation, serves to announce its role in an award-winning documentary and highlights its innovative new fishing app that could dramatically change data collection for small-scale fisheries in the developing world.
“The Earth Optimism Summit is the perfect forum to elevate the crisis facing small-scale fisheries and the solutions that can avert it, both of which are rooted in community behavior change,” said Brett Jenks, President and CEO of Rare. “The powerful combination of fishing data and community-led change efforts are key to enduring conservation results for coastal communities and habitats.”
February 12, 2016 — The United States Department of State has asked Saving Seafood to distribute this information regarding their “Fishackathon 2016” for which they are seeking judges from the fishing industry and related academic disciplines. For more information go to: Fishackathon.co, and if you are interested in being a judge please contact: Erika Crowell at CrowellE@state.gov
Fishackathon 2016
On Earth Day 2016, the U.S. Department of State will hold the third annual Fishackathon. Fishackathon is a public-private partnership that aims to capitalize on the expansion of mobile phone and internet use across the developing world to address sustainable fishery challenges. Volunteer coders, technologists, and designers will spend the weekend of April 22-24 developing usable solutions to problem statements solicited from fisheries experts around the world. At the end of the hackathons, teams will present their work and an expert panel of judges will nominate a winner from each site, eligible for worldwide grand prizes.
Here are the US/Canada Sites:
United States/Canada
1. Atlanta, GA (Georgia Aquarium)
2. Charleston, SC (South Carolina Aquarium)
3. Dallas, TX (Earth Day Dallas)
4. Long Beach, CA (Aquarium of the Pacific)
5. Monterey Bay, CA (Monterey Bay Aquarium)
6. New York City, NY (Patagonia)
7. Portland, OR (Uncorked Studios)
8. San Francisco, CA (Many Labs)
9. Seattle, WA (Impact Hub)
10. Tampa, FL (The Florida Aquarium)
11. Toronto, Canada
12. Vancouver, Canada (Vancouver Aquarium)
13. Washington, DC (Impact Hub)
14. Worcester, MA (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Get involved!
Fishackathon host sites are seeking fisheries and technology experts to participate in the hackathon as:
Panel Judge – Panel Judges will serve to judge host site creations and chose one host site winner eligible for world -wide grand prizes on Sunday, April 24. Judges will be provided with a list of criteria to rate the host site presentations and submissions.
On-Site Consultant – Consultants will serve to provide subject matter/technical assistance, answer questions, and provide feedback to coders. We’re also seeking “on call” experts who can answer questions and provide feedback to teams around the world via Skype or E-mail throughout the weekend.
Team Member – Join a Team! Everyone is welcome to participate in a local or virtual team.
For more information go to: Fishackathon.co