Peter Baker, director of U.S. oceans, Northeast, spoke recently to fisheries experts from around the country about ways to improve the way we manage populations of forage fish—the small prey species with an important role in the ocean food web.

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Most fisheries in the United States are regulated one species at a time. But regional councils and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are moving toward a strategy that takes into account the marine ecosystem as a whole—one called ecosystem-based fishery management. Managing the nation’s forage fish—small, schooling prey species—in a more precautionary way can be a useful tool in this transition.

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A generation of determined, farsighted commercial and recreational fishermen, marine scientists, and legislators have shaped the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the law that governs American fisheries.

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