Atlantic
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) became the major fishery management organization on the Atlantic Coast. In 1998, it became clear that CCA – the largest marine fishery conservation organization in the U.S. – would need to work with the ASMFC to affect the management of critically important Atlantic species. CCA created the Atlantic States Fisheries Committee as a subcommittee of the National Government Relations Committee. It is comprised of dedicated CCA volunteers working within the ASMFC system for better Atlantic fisheries management.
The CCA Atlantic States Fisheries Committee decides annually which species under ASMFC management are priorities. Representatives from the committee attend management board meetings and technical committee meetings. Attendance in this meeting process is critical to fully understand the biology and management of each particular species. The CCA Atlantic States Fisheries Committee then formulates goals for each species FMP and works with the ASMFC to implement them through state organizations and agencies.
Charles A. Witek III of New York, is the CCA Atlantic States Fisheries Committee Chairman. Richen Brame serves as the CCA Atlantic States Fisheries Director and staff member for the committee.
CCA Atlantic Fisheries Director
Richen Brame
Brame is a member of the Operations Team for the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) developing the nuts and bolts of the new data gathering program. He is also the liaison between the Operations Team and the Registry Team that is defining what the angler registry must encompass and what the states must do to comply with it.
Brame holds BS and MS degrees in Fisheries and Wildlife Science from North Carolina State University and worked for several conservation groups before coming to CCA. He served as the first executive director for CCA in North Carolina, from 1989 to 2000 and achieved notable fisheries management goals including passage of the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997. Under his watch CCA NC also successfully banned the use of fly-net trawls in the Atlantic to conserve dwindling gray trout stocks, banned shrimp trawling on weekends in inside waters, and outlawed the use of gill nets in a dozen high-use recreational fishing areas.
Click HERE to see the latest Atlantic fisheries news from CCA
and be sure to follow CCA on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/CCANational
Every recreational striper captain from NC to Main needs to read this email. Please forward to your peers and state representatives. This has to stop and apparently we here in
North Carolina don’t have the power to stop it without the help of the New England States. It’s your fishery as much as it ours.
I just wanted to spread the word on just what is going on down here in North Carolina.
We have a corrupt marine fisheries commission (MFC) and the information in the second link below comes from a charter captain who was at the emergency MFC meeting on 2/11/1011.
He witnessed this absolute disregard of a resource that New Englanders depend on as much as we do. The recreational interest from Carolina to Main depends
stripers at some time during the year. NC’s MFC seems to think the resource belongs entirely to a small group of NC commercial fishermen.
These trawlers have been culling stripers by throwing back the dead smaller ones so as to carry their former trip limit of 50 fish to the dock that weigh maximum poundage.
This was a strategy to maximize profit even though it wasted 1000’s of discarded fish.
We have pictures of 1000’s of dead stripers floating behind these trawlers and eventually washing up on the beach. This was going on during
the month of January. See the first link below.
Personally, I would like to see the New England States file suit against the NC MFC!!!
Check out the links below.
http://www.examiner.com/fish-and-wildlife-policy-in-charlotte/dmf-appears-to-be-covering-up-striped-bass-trawlers-massive-fish-kill?cid=parsely#parsely#ixzz1Bg1DoVbp
2/11/2011 MFC Meeting link:
http://reelbuzz.com/fishreports/caton/read_post.cfm?pid=1209&reply=1209