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 …
Old tensions – and some new ones – reared their heads during a recent conference call to discuss the future of the menhaden fishery, including the growing divide between the industrial menhaden harvester, Omega Protein Inc, and the smaller bait companies. Now that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the regulatory agency that manages …
