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Feature Articles
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Longliners create educational, research institute
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This article is reprinted with permission of Commercial Fisheries News, the Northeast's fishing newspaper for over 30 years, ©2003 Compass Publications Inc. Commercial Fisheries News is published monthly; annual subscriptions are $21.95. To subscribe or request a sample issue: call (877) 263-4496; fax (207) 367-2490; e-mail (cfoster@fish-news.com); or click on the hot link.
BARNEGAT LIGHT, NJ - East Coast longline industry
people have created a new organization called the Fisheries Research
Institute to give the public, elected officials, and the media
“another view of fisheries issues.”
Supported by US fishermen and dealers in the swordfish, tuna,
shark, mahi mahi, and other highly migratory species (HMS) fisheries,
the institute is now providing information on the ongoing progress
longliners have made in bycatch reduction, the health aspects
of seafood consumption, and where the fishery is and where it’s
headed in terms of sustainable management.
“Ocean issues in general and living marine resource management
issues in particular tend to be very complex,” the institute
said in its premier newsletter. “With increasing media exposure,
there has been a tendency to simplify — in many cases oversimplify
— and to sensationalize anything dealing with the oceans
and with anthropomorphic (manmade) impacts on them.”
The Fisheries Research Institute was formed to “counter
these misperceptions and to sponsor, encourage, and facilitate
research that will allow the continued sustainable harvest in
the longline and other HMS fisheries while having the least possible
effect on the ocean environment.”
Among other things, the institute is working with reputable scientists
to document the actual conditions of fish stocks and fisheries,
hosting a web site, and widely distributing an e-mail newsletter
on current issues affecting the industry.
The web site includes articles from scientific journals and other
publications on fisheries issues, National Marine Fisheries Service
press releases, at-sea photos, links to other fisheries web sites,
and rebuttals to erroneous and misleading news stories.
At the helm are two individuals familiar to many people in the
industry. Nelson Beideman, executive director of Blue Water Fisheries
Association, is the institute’s president, and Nils Stolpe,
communications director for the Garden State Seafood Association,
is the institute’s communications director as well.
Both can be reached via e-mail. Beideman’s address is bwfa@usa.netand
Stolpe’s is nstolpe@fishingnj.org.
The institute’s web site is at www.fisheriesresearch.org.
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