CCA National news...fish trap proposal rejected

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News Release

Coastal Conservation Association
6919 Portwest, Suite 100, Houston, TX 77024
Website: www.joincca.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 4, 2010 CONTACT: Ted Venker, 1-800-201-FISH

Fish trap proposal rejected by Gulf Council

Unanimous vote ends misguided effort to reintroduce destructive gear

Like a bad penny, a proposal to re-introduce fish traps as an alternative to longline gear in the Gulf grouper fishery turned up before the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council in December, outraging conservationists and fisheries management veterans who had fought to banish the destructive gear from the Gulf back in the 1990s. Fortunately for the fish and the anglers who care about them, the proposal died a quick death this week when the Council voted unanimously to remove the proposal from Amendment 32 to the gag/red grouper management plan that is going forward this year.
“This was truly an alarming detour into the scrap heap of failed fishery management schemes, but thankfully there are enough people who remember how much time, effort and money it took to finally get fish traps out of the Gulf to make sure they are never used again,” said Jeff Allen, chairman of CCA Florida. “However, if the environmental community is working with longliners to propose fish traps, we all need to remain vigilant because there is no telling what might come next.”

An unusual alliance of environmental groups and commercial longliners had originally explored the use of fish traps as a trade-off for the removal of equally destructive longline gear which is killing excessive numbers of threatened loggerhead sea turtles. One by one, other environmental groups in the effort came to oppose the use of the traps as more information on their destructiveness came to light. However, Environmental Defense Fund and several commercial fishing organizations such as the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance and the Gulf Fishermen’s Association continued to press for the use of fish traps in return for reducing the longline fishing effort.

“Substituting one harmful gear for another harmful gear that has already been banned in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic is completely unacceptable,” said Russell Nelson, CCA’s Gulf Fisheries consultant. “Dr. Roy Crabtree, NOAA regional administrator, noted enforcement officers’ testimony on the extreme difficulty of enforcing any regulations on fish traps and stated that those concerns were very legitimate factors in the Council’s decision.”

An army of CCA members and other concerned conservationists turned out at public hearings across the Gulf Coast in January to testify against the proposal and left no doubt that recreational anglers are committed to preventing the gear from ever being reintroduced back into the Gulf.
“The Council should be commended for slamming the door on this ill-conceived effort,” said Allen. “We hope this signals that future discussions will focus on finding ways to reduce destructive commercial fishing effort to the greatest extent possible.”

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More red snapper can be caught in Gulf of Mexico, regulators decide
By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
February 15, 2010, 4:20AM

Susan Poag / The Times-Picayune archiveKirk Fitzgerald of Venice pulls in a line of red snapper in April 2008.
As red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico show signs of a rebound after stringent limits on fishing for more than two years, fisheries regulators have voted to increase the amount of snapper that can be caught each year by commercial and sport fishers in the Gulf.

Fisheries managers and some environmental groups say the move signals a positive first step in what will be a decades-long task to rebuild the beleaguered red snapper species, a signature Gulf fish that has enjoyed nationwide culinary popularity but has also been pushed to the brink by overfishing.

"We see this as a major success story," said Chris Dorsett, director of fish conservation and management with the Ocean Conservancy, one of three groups that sued the federal government in 2005 because of problems with a previous snapper management plan. "We're finally on an upward trajectory in this fishery, and this is what we expected when we put this rebuilding plan in place."

But in a strange twist, the vote to increase the overall snapper catch will likely mean shorter snapper fishing seasons for recreational anglers and charter boat captains this year.

That's because data collected by the National Marine Fisheries Service last year showed that the recreational fishing sector exceeded its snapper quota by more than 1.5 million pounds. Gulf fisheries managers this year voted to increase the recreational quota by about 900,000 pounds, but based on last year's fishing trends the season will likely be shortened by more than two weeks to keep the catch within the adjusted limits.

Because commercial snapper fishers kept within their quota, their share will increase this year by about 1 million pounds.

The difference between the commercial and recreational catches has to do with the way each sector is managed, and has become a source of contention for charter captains and anglers who continue to see dwindling fishing opportunities.

The commercial snapper fishery is managed by a tightly monitored individual quota system, where every fish brought to shore is tallied and then deducted from each fisher's allotment for the year. The recreational fishery, by contrast, is managed largely by estimates of how many fish will be brought in, based on bag limits for each trip and season lengths.

Last year the recreational snapper season went from June 1 to Aug. 15. This year's season could be 15 to 25 days shorter, based on early estimates, due to last year's excesses.

The overages have been a source of frustration for many recreational fishing groups, who complain that the government data don't provide real-time information that could allow fishers to better monitor how much they are catching throughout the season. For example, the data on the recreational catch from last year's snapper season are only now being finalized across the Gulf.

Because of the shorter season last year, more anglers simply crammed into the compressed timeframe, negating the intended result of having fewer fish caught.

"That system almost guarantees overfishing, because by shortening the season you concentrate the effort," said Gary Jarvis, a charter boat captain who operates out of Destin, Fla., and Port Fourchon. "Guys are now taking entire weeks off of work to go fishing, which they never did before."

Jarvis and other charter captains have started a group called Save Our Sector, aimed at setting up a real-time red snapper monitoring system for charter boats like the one for commercial snapper fishers.

Biologically, the strict limits during the past two years have led to a greater abundance of red snapper, driving more anglers to fish during the shorter season.

"The reason for the overharvest is because snapper have come back. They're doing great," said Myron Fischer, director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries marine fisheries research lab on Grand Isle. Fischer is a state delegate to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, which voted to increase the snapper catch earlier this month. "Everybody can catch them, and they did. It's the problem you have for a recovering fishery just after it opens up: as the fish are recovering, they're easier to catch, so the quota goes over."

The Gulf council and the Fisheries Service are looking at ways to get the sport fishing sector to become more accountable, including suggestions of a snapper tagging system that would require anglers to get tags before they fish. But despite the initial rebound in the snapper stock, it will likely be decades before the species ages to a point where it is considered completely rebuilt.

"We've reduced the mortality rates on the fish, and they're on average going to be bigger," said Roy Crabtree, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service and a member of the Gulf Fishery Management Council. "But the stock is not recovered yet. If we allow the catches to go up too much too quickly, we can wind up right back where we started."

The new snapper quotas must still be approved by the Fisheries Service. The exact season lengths will be determined in the next few months.


Chris Kirkham can be reached at ckirkham@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.
© 2010 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.

[speckdaddy]

Great news

[LaAngler]

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edit: wrong article