Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission

Building a Smarter, Faster, and More Accessible Site

ASMFC’s work sits at the intersection of science, policy, and public trust. They publish interstate management plans, compliance documentation, meeting materials, and years of archival resources—often under tight deadlines and with high public visibility.

Their previous site made that work harder than it needed to be. Key resources were difficult to find. Navigation grew organically over time. And publishing new materials required too much manual effort.

We partnered with ASMFC to rebuild their site on Amplify, our WordPress-based design system—creating a platform that’s faster to manage, easier to navigate, and built to support transparency at scale.

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Starting with a Modular Foundation

From day one, we treated ASMFC’s website like what it is: a living public record. The team needed a system that could support repeatable publishing workflows—without flattening complexity or forcing everything into a one-size-fits-all page.

We began by defining a clear content structure for the site’s core information types: management plans, species and program pages, meetings and materials, news, and long-form documents. Then we built a modular set of Gutenberg patterns that let ASMFC publish consistently—while still choosing the right layout for the job.

Every key page type is built from reusable blocks. That means ASMFC can launch new plan pages, post updates, and publish meeting materials quickly—without breaking design, accessibility, or navigation conventions.

Powered by Amplify

ASMFC’s site runs on Amplify, Unrelated’s WordPress product designed for performance, accessibility, and editorial flexibility—especially for organizations that publish a lot, update often, and need structure to stay sane.

With Amplify, ASMFC gets:

• A custom design system built around clarity and dense information
• Gutenberg patterns that support repeatable publishing for complex content
• Performance optimizations baked into the stack—from images to caching
• Accessibility-first components that support inclusive public access

In short, Amplify gives ASMFC the speed of a modern publishing platform—with the stability and control of a custom build.

Events Built for Complex, Public Work

ASMFC’s work depends on meetings—technical sessions, board hearings, and public forums that span species, programs, and states. Off-the-shelf event tools couldn’t handle that complexity.

Working with ASMFC, we built a custom Events plugin designed for public, policy-driven organizations. It supports virtual and in-person meetings, structured metadata, and flexible filtering—so upcoming and past meetings can surface consistently across the site.

Events now surface in the context that matters most—appearing alongside relevant species pages, recent actions, and program areas—so audiences can quickly understand what’s happening and staff can manage everything through a single, unified system.

What began as a solution for ASMFC is now powering events for other research and advocacy networks using Amplify.

Designed for the Long Game

ASMFC’s work is long-term by definition. Their platform should be, too.

This rebuild gives ASMFC a system that supports the day-to-day realities of public publishing: new meetings, new documents, evolving policies, and an archive that grows every year. It brings order to complex content without oversimplifying it—and it helps the team publish with confidence.

By pairing a purpose-built content structure with the technical foundation of Amplify, we didn’t just redesign a website. We built a platform ASMFC can grow into.