Category: Climate Change

EDITORIAL – Science must acknowledge climate change effects

Populations of many fish species – summer flounder, butterfish, squid, black sea bass, cod, and bluefin tuna to name a few – are clearly being impacted by changing ocean water temperatures.  The challenge now is to realign fisheries stock assessment science and fisheries management protocols to acknowledge this new reality. Climate-related changes in migration, abundance, …

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GMRI report: Plan for emerging fisheries in the Gulf of Maine

PORTLAND, ME – If fishery population centers keep trending northward due to warming water temperatures, and if quotas continue to be allocated based on historical landings, the summer flounder dilemma could extend to more stocks – Mid-Atlantic states having large quotas with low stock abundance and New England states having high stock abundance with low …

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Mid-Atlantic council tackles climate change

WASHINGTON, DC – Climate change is here and fishermen, scientists, and managers alike are seeing shifts in fisheries populations, distribution, and productivity along the East Coast.  That was the takeaway message from the March 19-21 East Coast Climate Change and Fisheries Governance Workshop sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The workshop brought together over …

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Fishermen’s Energy: In it for the long haul

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – When Fishermen’s Energy goes before the US Department of Energy (DOE) in April to present its proposal for a $46.7 million grant, it will be “shovel ready,” as the saying goes.  Unlike other demonstration-scale wind farms proposed in state waters, the company’s Atlantic City wind farm project has all required state and federal …

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CFRF whelk, scallop, lobster projects reveal surprises, climate change effects

SOUTH KINGSTON, RI – Fishermen got some surprising news about channeled whelk and engaged in a lively Q&A over Southern New England lobster nursery survey results during a shellfish research session hosted by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) on Nov. 7. Biologists from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) also presented findings from …

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Changing Ocean

Water temperature, ocean patterns altering fish behavior, distribution MYSTIC, CT – Back in April when the New England Fishery Management Council was gathered here, member David Goethel of New Hampshire described the groundfish fleet’s downward slide in the following fashion. In the 1990s, he said, “We had an overcapacity issue with groundfish, and we dealt with …

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