Just a couple of weeks ago, NOAA Fisheries released a proposed rule on the National Saltwater Angler Registry that requires anglers to be “registered” before fishing in 2009. NOAA’s Fisheries Service is seeking comment on the proposed rule, which was a requirement of the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act. Because sates in the Northeast which don’t already [...]
Don’t know about you guys, but my fall season was a poor one. There was a noticeable lack of those big fat pig fish that we all dream about. If it wasn’t for those albies I would have called it a bust. Last spring wasn’t so hot either. It’s not just me… There’s a growing [...]
Are economic incentives for conservation the answer? By Capt John McMurray Garret Hardin coined the phrase “Tragedy of the Commons” in a 1968 article in the Journal Science. Using the example of common grazing lands in medieval England, Hardin sought to show the destruction that humans impose on publicly-owned resources. Pointing out that common pastures [...]
The good, the bad, the ugly of live-release contests By Capt. John McMurray Historically, sportsmen have been the most effective leaders of the conservation movement. However, our record is far from perfect. From the perspective of conservation, it is difficult to defend the traditional “dead-fish” tournament. At their worst, they encourage anglers to kill overfished [...]
The tragic decline in the credibility of the angling community as a conservation force. By Capt. John McMurray At one time, anglers were proudly at the forefront of the marine conservation movement, calling on regulators to cut landings and impose more restrictions on all users, including anglers, for the betterment of our fish populations. Anglers’ [...]
How your tax dollars contribute to overfishing By Capt. John McMurray Paying taxes is certainly not something we take any pleasure in doing, but Franklin D. Roosevelt correctly noted “Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.” The underlying assumption to Roosevelt’s comments were that such [...]
By Capt. John McMurray Unless you failed out of school by junior high, you are familiar with “evolution” and Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection. If you are not, it can be summarized quite simply: “the fit survive.” In the natural world predators pick off the weak, the young and the infirm, leaving the fastest-growing, strongest, [...]
BEACH REPLENISHMENT OR BEACH DESTRUCTION? Why the Army Core of Engineers Sucks. By Captain John McMurray The Army Corps of Engineers is one of the largest government agencies in the US, dwarfing behemoths such as the departments of Labor, Education, and Energy. While a third of the bureaucracy work on military programs the rest focus [...]
By Capt. John McMurray In writing this article I had initially set out to pen a brief, easy to understand rundown of how the marine fisheries management systems works. However, the title I came up with struck me as ironic and somewhat funny. I thought perhaps I should use the title: Fisheries Management by Dummies, [...]
By Captain John McMurray Fishing is increasingly being maligned by animal rights groups as cruel. For all intents and purposes their arguments tend to border on the ridiculous, and do not really deserve consideration here. However, there also seems to be a growing number of people, both within and outside the angling community, who are [...]
