February 18, 2021 — Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is launching a new program with the aim of improving data collection and fisheries management.
The program, SmartPass, integrates shore-based cameras with artificial intelligence to get a more accurate assessment of the number of vessels fishing in a particular region, according to EDF Global Fisheries Initiatives Senior Manager Sepp Haukebo.
March 19, 2020 — Let’s go fishin’! After all, a lone angler fishing from a dock or a few friends going out to sea can’t have all that much of an effect on fish populations … right?
Think again.
“When you’re floating in the open ocean, it can be hard to imagine that your hobby will have an impact on the overall health of a fishery,” said Sepp Haukebo, who works on recreational fisheries conservation issues for the Environmental Defense Fund. “But multiply the number of fish a single angler catches and discards in a day by millions of anglers and you have a significant harvest on your hands.”
Haukebo echoes points made in two new studies, published in the journals Fish and Fisheries and Frontiers in Marine Science, that show recreational fishing has a much bigger collective effect on oceanic species than previously realized, with nearly one million tons of fish caught every year.
Far from being an insignificant drop in the proverbial ocean, this is a massive amount of fish — about 1% of total global marine fisheries catch, a much higher number than many scientists and managers used to believe.
February 6, 2020 — States on the Gulf of Mexico can keep setting seasons and bag limits for anglers going after red snapper in federal waters when a two-year experiment becomes permanent Thursday.
The rule will take effect with publication in the Federal Register, the U.S. Commerce Department said.
The Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental group, said Wednesday that it was cautiously optimistic about the rule for the popular sport and table fish, which is recovering from nearly disastrous overfishing.
“There’s still some kinks to be worked out with the data collection” in some states, said Sepp Haukebo, the group’s manager for private angler management reform. For instance, he said, in some years before the experimental program started, Alabama’s estimates of the amount taken were as low as 30% of the federal estimates for that state.
“They’ve gotten a lot closer in the last couple of years,” he said, adding that Alabama has announced improvements that should make its tallies more accurate.