March 25, 2015 — “Ecosystem-based fisheries management is a way to sustain the benefits people get from the ocean by accounting for the interconnections among marine life, humans and the environment.” That’s the way Greg Wells of Pew Charitable Trusts kicked off the 2015 Southern New England Recreational Fishing Symposium.
Wells defined ecosystem–based fisheries management for the 86 invited recreational fishing industry leaders and fishermen in attendance Tuesday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Warwick. Pew, the University of Rhode Island Coastal Institute and the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Foundation sponsored the daylong symposium.
"The theme of the symposium is to grow recreational fish to abundance through ecosystem-based management," said Rich Hittinger, symposium director and first vice president of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association. "We need to protect and grow our recreational fishing resource in Rhode Island. According to NOAA, it supports 2,000 full-time jobs and has a $208-million impact a year on Rhode Island's economy."
Russell Dunn, the top policy adviser for recreational fishing at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, presented highlights of the nation’s first recreational fishing policy, released this year. "The policy was developed to institutionalize NOAA's commitment to recreational fishing, to guide the agency's actions and foster accountability to recreational fishing stakeholders," he said.
Jonathan Hare, director of NOAA's Fisheries Science Center Lab in Narragansett, said climate change has been affecting fisheries for decades and will continue to do so for decades to come.
Read the full story at the Providence Journal