144th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

August 17 - 21, 2014

With the passage of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Act) in 1976, the United States Federal Government took on the responsibility to develop a comprehensive marine fisheries management system for United States waters in the Exclusive Economic Zone (mostly 3 to 200 miles from shore).  Under the Act, a system of marine Regional Fishery Management Councils (Councils) was created and charged with the responsibility to develop fishery management plans (FMPs) for important marine fisheries.  The Councils, under the guidance of the U.S. Department of Commerce, have over the past several decades, developed FMPs for numerous marine species. Concurrently, the coastal states independent of, in cooperation with the Councils, or through marine interstate commissions have developed coastal regulations for managing many of the same species under Council FMPs for the near shore marine and estuarine waters.  There has been mixed success by the states and Councils in solving fishing management problems.  In particular, Federal and state actions to monitor and manage marine and estuarine recreational fisheries has been most challenging.  This symposium will discuss implementation of the Act, NOAA’s recreational fisheries data improvement initiative, marine recreational fisheries management issues, efforts to engage marine recreational anglers in the management process, U.S. Fish and Wild Service Policy for funding marine artificial reefs to enhance recreational fisheries, and recent marine recreational fishing economic studies.   

This symposium supports the theme of the AFS Annual meeting and has value to AFS members and participants in that it reviews the U. S. major marine fisheries management system, it coves a number of current issues that affect science and management of priority marine recreational fisheries, and identifies recent scientific findings and improvements to programs that will lead the way in helping fisheries resources managers meet many of the current challenges facing marine recreational fisheries.