[Editor's note: This article was cross-posted on Alternet under the title "Science for Hire: Why Industry's Deep Pockets May Be Depleting the Last of Our Fisheries."] It’s sunset in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a time when the little town’s handful of shops board up for the night, and the lights click off at no fewer than …
[Editor's Note: The recommendations of fisheries scientists play a critical role in determining fishing regulations. But unlike regulatory meetings of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which are transcribed, the meetings of the scientific committees are undocumented -- accessible only by attendance. At the Public Trust Project, we make an effort to transcribe, as faithfully …
9:45:34 AM: Menhaden meeting at the ASMFC getting underway here in Alexandria, Virginia. 9:47:32 AM: There will be a high volume of tweets coming down the pike about little stinky fish! Live from ASMFC! A word of warning to our followers… 10:04:34 AM: Ron Lukens: I’m the senior fisheries biologist with Omega Protein. There are …
Emails unearthed in a Freedom of Information Act request indicate that representatives of Omega Protein sought to influence the official government science that determines how many Atlantic menhaden are in the ocean. The emails also suggest that state officials in Virginia were willing to help Omega lobby to limit fishing restrictions that could be imposed …
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is taking steps to ensure greater transparency in its scientific committee meetings after industry consultants tried to dominate a subcommittee hearing in May in North Carolina. That meeting, which was reported by the Public Trust Project, included government scientists from state agencies as well as federal researchers who …
At a meeting this week in North Carolina, government scientists were largely silent on the question of how the Atlantic menhaden population should be assessed in 2012. Fishing industry consultants, on the other hand, dominated the process — so much so that some in attendance questioned whether efforts by industry representatives to steer the discussion …
