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Interior Secretary Zinke Testifies on Proposed Fiscal Year 2018 Budget

Newly appointed Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, testified before the House Committee on Appropriations’ Interior Subcommittee on June 8 regarding the agency’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018. That proposal prioritizes maintenance of National Parks infrastructure and energy development and may include increased oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf while offering cuts in... Read More

Chris Oliver Appointed NOAA Assistant Administrator

Today, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, with concurrence from the White House, named Chris Oliver Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. The Texas native assumed his new position on June 19. As Assistant Administrator, Oliver will oversee the federal agency responsible for recreational and commercial fisheries. In addition to managing productive and sustainable domestic fisheries, including some... Read More

Capitol Hill Ocean Week’s Congressional Roundtable

This week, AFS staff attended Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW), an annual conference convened by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.  Each year, CHOW brings together more than 600 national and global policymakers, scientists, scholars, businesses and conservation leaders to address pressing science, conservation, and management issues facing our oceans and Great Lakes. A Congressional Roundtable... Read More

President Trump’s FY18 Budget Proposal

This week, President Trump released “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” $4.1 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2018 (FY18) to Congress which largely mirrors the Administration’s Budget Blueprint released earlier this year. The proposal calls for sharp cuts to several agencies that would significantly impact fisheries conservation, research, and management in exchange for increased... Read More

New NOAA Economics and Status of Stocks Reports

May 9, 2017 — U.S. commercial and recreational fishing generated $208 billion in sales, contributed $97 billion to the gross domestic product and supported 1.6 million full- and part-time jobs in 2015 — above the five-year average — according to NOAA’s Fisheries Economics of the United States report released today. Also out today, the Annual Report to... Read More

Policy Update April 2017

As part of our new AFS approach to policy work, the Society recently spent a day in the halls of Congress. In response to on-going efforts to modernize the Endangered Species Act, Tom Bigford and Patrick Shirey met with Legal Counsel and the Marine Policy Fellow in Sen. Booker’s (D-NJ) office and with the Senior... Read More

March for Science

Science is foundational to the American Fisheries Society (AFS) and we strongly support scientific research, science application to management and policy, and the science education of our members and of society. The March for Science, set for April 22, in Washington, D.C., and in various locations around the world, is a non-political event that will... Read More