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.”