After three years of consideration, West Coast federal fisheries managers on Tuesday unanimously adopted their first ecosystem approach to decisions on fishing seasons and catch quotas.
Meeting in Portland, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted the Fishery Ecosystem Plan, whose first initiative will be to consider how to make sure enough little forage fish remain in the ocean for bigger fish to eat.
“Clearly, federal managers have gotten the message that the days of crisis-based management, managing for a single species, and how to maximize catches are over,” said Ben Enticknapp of the conservation group Oceana.
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