fishmonger

The rule making boards of NOAA's Fishery Management Council are getting just a bit more diverse. In an effort to address some real or perceived bias on the board a small minority of seats have been recently filled by new members that have no financial gains to be realized or lost based on recommendations. One of these new appointments is Steve Schafer. I know Steve personally and I am confident that he will bring fresh insight and a new outlook to the council. He is a person of great integrity and reason. I think that any fears that might be raised by the commercial fishing industry will be allayed when they get to know this intelligent and thoughtful person. Steve's focus has always been to help to educate the consumer on the benefits of moving seafood to a more sustainable resource. Based upon the press release below from NOAA, I would say that Steve fills that role well. Congratulations are in in order and well deserved. June 25, 2009 The Commerce Department today ann...

Today is Earth day. The Earth is composed of mostly water. Therefore today should be mostly about water. I hope you do not mind my philosophical stretch. But how can you blame me since the fishmonger must be focused on the seas and such? Let us not make light of today's significance, even though I may not agree with many that take a particular extreme view of today's environmental issues, PETA for one. I for one enjoy eating seafood, and I am especially invested in the seafood industry for my livelihood. I just believe that protection does not exclusively rule out enjoyment. If you are a first time visitor please take a moment to look around. I hope that you enjoy my musings and smattering's of actual information. I welcome, actually I encourage your comments and questions be they friendly or otherwise. Actually I hope to expand the content here with additional authors, so stay tuned. And happy Water, eh.. Earth Day.

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX] - April 21, 2009 - SANTA BARBARA, Calif., A major shift in ocean policy is strongly urged by a team of scientists who are calling for comprehensive, national, ecosystem-based ocean zoning for the United States. Newly emerging data on the combined effects of multiple human stressors on marine ecosystems are now available to support this shift in policy, the scientists say. The work, published in the Spring 2009 issue of the journal Issues in Science and Technology, was conducted at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at UC Santa Barbara, with support from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Despite increasing emphasis in recent legislation on the cumulative effects of human activities, 'the oceans are still largely managed one species, sector, or issue at a time,' says Carrie V. Kappel, the lead author. Some promising new initiatives do take an integrated approach, but these tend t...