Managing our fisheries sustainably is imperative to support a healthy ocean, safeguard our coastal economy, and preserve a cornerstone of our region’s culture.
New England’s fisheries once inspired tales of cod schools so thick that you could walk across the water on their backs. But decades of overfishing and mismanagement have depleted those legendary fish populations, creating a crisis that threatens to destroy this essential piece of our heritage – and the future livelihoods of fishing families up and down New England’s coast.
Fishery managers have focused on the short-term interests of fisheries at the expense of the long-term interests of coastal fishing communities that depend on sustainable fisheries to thrive. Rapidly warming waters due to climate change make the need to strengthen our region’s fisheries even more urgent.
CLF is pushing for science-based management policies while standing up to regional fishery managers and holding them accountable for the policies that put our fisheries at continued risk.
