Salt Water Sportsman – August 2019

were depleted? How long would it be
until that depletion rippled through a
number of fish populations? Those are
all questions that managers need to ask
their science advisers.
A few years ago, the Mid Atlantic
Fishery Management Council
had the foresight to put in place
the Unmanaged Forage Omnibus
Amendment, which prohibits the de-
velopment of new and expansion of
existing commercial fisheries on 16
“unmanaged forage species in mid-At-
lantic federal waters until the Council
has had an adequate opportunity to as-
sess the scientific information relating
to any new or expanded directed fish-
eries and consider potential impacts to
existing fisheries, fishing communities,
and the marine ecosystem.” This was
a brilliant piece of forward thinking.
Unfortunately, the Regional Fishery
Management Councils have not repli-
cated this thinking. But that does not
mean that those interested in sustain-
ing forage have given up.
Earlier this year, the South Atlantic
Council initiated the process to pro-
tect bullet tuna and frigate mackerels.
These were supposed to be part of the
Mid Atlantic Council action but were
prevented from being included. Studies
have shown that they are an important
part of billfish and wahoo diets.
A new effort is being mounted for
the protection of forage. The American
Sportfishing Association, Center for
Sportfish Policy, Theodore Roosevelt
Conservation Partnership, and more
have joined with a number of environ-
mental organizations (ENGOs) such
as the Pew Research Center and the
National Audubon Society to push
for the Forage Fish Conservation Act.
This is truly a bipartisan effort at the
constituent and political levels to re-
quire that managers consider impacts
on the ecosystem when setting forage
fish catch limits. The effort will push
to have this act incorporated into the
Magnuson-Stevens Act so forage pro-
tection becomes part of our entire
coastal fishery management.
In my opinion, this legislation has
several important parts. The obvious

one is the protection of forage and

the recognition that they have a real

value to the marine ecosystem as a

whole. Another important part of this

is the coming together of the recre-

ational fishing community and the

ENGO community to work on this is-

sue. Too often there has been distrust

between us, and this does not benefit

anyone or the resource. User groups for

marine resources need to support this

legislation.

In the past, I may have differed in

opinion with our recreational advo-

cates in Washington, D.C. But not on

this push to protect forage. I am all in,

and praise their efforts. This is an issue

we have talked about for far too long.

We have an opportunity to move the

needle and get behind the little fish.

Tough Daiwa BG and SALTIST spinning reels are the tools of the

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SEPTEMBER 2019 SALTWATERSPORTSMAN.COM 23