‘CCA South Atlantic’ Articles
Outlandish catch share proposal draws heated opposition from anglers
SAVANNAH, GA – A request by a commercial fishing group for a “voluntary” catch share program in the South Atlantic snapper-grouper fishery raised hackles at the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting this week. Aside from concerns about the legality of the concept and outrage over the details of the proposal, recreational anglers are questioning why the Council continues to explore catch share programs a year after it voted to terminate all work related to catch share development.
“Labeling it ‘voluntary’ violates even their own definition of catch shares, so what you are left to assume is that this is nothing more than an attempt by catch share proponents to circumvent the will of the Council and keep these unwanted programs in the discussion,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of Coastal Conservation Association’s Government Relations Committee. “Beyond that, the details of this particular proposal should offend everyone, whether they fish or not.”
The South Atlantic Fisherman’s Association (SAFA) made a presentation to the Council’s Catch Shares Committee on a Voluntary Individual Fishing Quota Program for several species in the snapper grouper complex, quite possibly the worst candidate for such a program. This mixed-species fishery has substantial recreational landings and 600-plus permitted commercial fishermen, yet only about 50 fishermen have signed up for the program. In contrast, catch share proponents have tried for years to implement a program in the golden crab fishery, which is purely commercial with roughly half a dozen commercial boats involved, and have not been successful.
Making the proposal even more inappropriate, SAFA’s presentation included a request for the Council to conduct an analysis to determine which of the current regulations, including conservation measures such as size limits, trip limits, area closures and spawning season closures, could be reduced or eliminated for the “voluntary” catch share program. SAFA also asked that the federal government purchase the vessel monitoring system required of commercial vessels and pay for the installation on boats involved in the program.
“Apparently, it is not enough that proponents of catch shares want to hand these commercial fishermen a windfall, but they also want them to be exempted from the conservation measures in place for these species and make the rest of us pay for their equipment, too,” said Brewer. “Exactly what is the benefit of a program like that and why does it merit a presentation to this Council?”
Incredibly, the Catch Share Committee voted 4-4 on a motion to start an amendment to institute the “voluntary” catch share program. The chairman of the committee ultimately voted against it so the motion failed, but the committee did approve a motion to do an analysis of the “voluntary” catch share program.
“It is unbelievable and frightening that such a proposal came to life and was within one vote of passing that committee,” said Brewer. “It was just a year ago that the Council voted to dismiss these programs and yet here is one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen somehow being kept alive in this forum. We urge the Council to reject this proposal outright and stand by its vote to terminate any work that seeks to subsidize the most destructive and unprofitable sectors of our fisheries.”
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Tags: Catch Shares, snapper grouper complex, south atlantic council
Posted in CCA South Atlantic, Catch Shares | No Comments »
Self-imposed restrictions forcing South Atlantic Council to close fishery
In a letter to South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Chairman David Cupka, Coastal Conservation Association is urging the Council to take common-sense steps to remedy an unnecessarily restrictive rebuilding plan for black sea bass. The pending closure on black sea bass, proposed for October to June, compounds an already difficult offshore angling environment still reeling from closures on red snapper, groupers and vermillion snapper.
“We are left with very little for avid bottom fishermen to pursue in the south Atlantic, especially during the winter,” said Bill Bird, chairman of CCA’s South Atlantic Fisheries Committee. “Bottom-fishing trips have been a staple for recreational fishermen and these closures are cascading at a time when coastal communities have fewer tourists and are already reeling from the troubled economy.”
At the heart of the black sea bass debacle is the Council’s adoption of a “constant catch” strategy in 2006 that has restricted all participants with artificially low harvest limits.
“It is now painfully apparent that the Council made a mistake when it approved the constant catch rebuilding strategy in 2006,” wrote Bird. “While that strategy, promoted at the time by the commercial sector and the headboat industry, shielded those sectors from painful harvest reductions early in the rebuilding program, it subsequently shackled all participants with artificially low harvest limits that are locked in for the duration of the program.”
Under the constant catch strategy, the highest harvest levels of the entire rebuilding timeframe occurred in the first two years when arguably the fewest fish were available. After that, allowable harvest levels dropped significantly for the remaining eight years. Meanwhile, the black sea bass stock is behaving exactly as expected – it is responding to management and rapidly rebuilding. As it does, recreational anglers are encountering them more frequently and catching their quota far more quickly, resulting in the current proposal to close the fishery from October to June.
CCA is calling for three remedies for the black sea bass closure: Switch the rebuilding strategy to allow for greater recreational quotas while still achieving the 2016 rebuilding deadline; add any harvest increases allowed by the current benchmark stock assessment as soon as possible, and incorporate fishery independent data to fully corroborate the stock status.
“It is unconscionable that we are still managing high-value recreational fisheries without the fishery independent data necessary to corroborate the catch data,” wrote Bird. “We would urge that the Council demand the resources necessary to incorporate fishery independent data to establish the greatest level of confidence in future stock assessments.”
Click HERE for a copy of the letter to the South Atlantic Council.
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CCA is the largest marine resource conservation group of its kind in the nation. With almost 100,000 members in 17 state chapters, CCA has been active in state, national and international fisheries management issues since 1977. For more information visit the CCA Newsroom at www.JoinCCA.org.
Tags: black sea bass, south atlantic council
Posted in CCA South Atlantic | No Comments »
Anglers applaud decision to terminate catch share development in Amendment 21
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, GA – Recreational anglers are applauding the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s decision today to “terminate all work relative to catch share development in Amendment 21,” the Comprehensive Catch Share Amendment. In a motion by Council member George Geiger of Florida, the Snapper Grouper Committee yesterday voted to remove catch shares from Amendment 21, setting up today’s action by the full Council. The decision is good news for recreational anglers who have been fighting the concept of catch shares as a one-size-fits-all solution to fishery management problems.
“There are so many other things for federal managers to be focusing on other than a controversial management scheme like catch shares,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “This action by the South Atlantic Council signals that NOAA should stop the rush to embrace catch shares and reconsider its priorities.”
Catch share programs set a biologically based annual catch limit for a fish stock and allocate a specific portion of that catch limit to entities, such as commercial fishermen, cooperatives or communities. Unfortunately, in fisheries where there is a large and growing recreational sector, catch shares maximize benefits to the commercial fishing industry while ignoring the participation and beneficial economic impacts of recreational fishing. CCA has engaged in a multi-tiered strategy to lessen the recreational sector’s exposure to the negative impacts of catch share programs.
“Proper management of the recreational sector should be a top priority for the Congress and for NOAA Fisheries – not catch shares,” said Brewer. “We need more frequent stock assessments, development of fishery independent data and improved recreational catch data for federal fisheries. We are very pleased that South Atlantic Council members decided to remove catch shares as a management option in this Amendment and we hope that other Councils will follow their lead.”
The catch share concept has not disappeared entirely from the South Atlantic Council’s menu of options, as work will continue on catch share development for the golden crab and wreckfish fisheries, both exclusively commercial.
“We still have a lot of work to do on catch shares, but this is a step in the right direction,” said Brewer.
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CCA is the largest marine resource conservation group of its kind in the nation. With almost 100,000 members in 17 state chapters, CCA has been active in state, national and international fisheries management issues since 1977. For more information visit the CCA Newsroom at www.JoinCCA.org.
Posted in CCA Federal Fisheries, CCA South Atlantic, Catch Shares | No Comments »
By Ted Venker
Conservation Director
Coastal Conservation Association
This week, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council made the decision to eliminate catch share programs as a viable tool to manage fishermen in most fisheries in the South Atlantic. CCA supports this conclusion, made by the Council after reflecting on the appropriateness of catch shares for the fisheries typical of the South Atlantic.
CCA does not support top-down decision-making on the use of catch shares, and is increasingly concerned about the zeal displayed by this Administration to use this tool in virtually every fishery. The South Atlantic Council should be commended for moving against the tide that has been building for catch shares in federally managed fisheries.
The road to this point has not been simple. Coastal Conservation Association is among the many groups that have been opposed to catch shares, and we have invested a great deal of time and resources on many fronts to lessen the potential for negative impacts of such programs on the recreational angling community.
In September of 2009, CCA filed suit against the federal government against the Gulf grouper catch share program. The Environmental Defense Fund, one of the primary supporters of catch shares, later intervened on behalf of the federal government. The lawsuit, delayed greatly by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer, is ongoing.
In October of 2009, CCA coordinated a joint letter from four Gulf state governors to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke expressing their concern over the negative impacts of catch shares on their recreational fisheries.
In April of 2010, CCA and a number of the leading groups representing marine resource conservation as well as the tackle and boat manufacturing community, engaged a number of prominent environmental groups that were promoting the use of catch shares in federal fisheries. The ultimate goal of that engagement was to make the case why catch shares are completely inappropriate for the recreational sector, and to lay out a set of parameters for their use in the commercial sector of mixed-use fisheries. The result was an “insurance policy” of sorts in the form of a letter that specified that before any catch share program could be put in place for the commercial sector, the fishery had to be reallocated using modern, forward-looking criteria, and the commercial shares had to be made available for transfer to the recreational sector.
Also in April of 2010, the Center for Coastal Conservation testified before the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife Oversight Hearing Committee on Natural Resources during a hearing on catch shares to express “….serious concerns about the potential impact of commercial catch shares on the recreational sector in mixed-use fisheries (in which there are both recreational and commercial components). Our organizations respectfully submit that the Draft Policy Catch Share Policy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under consideration lacks the necessary guidance to protect the recreational sector from adverse impacts associated with the implementation of a catch shares policy in mixed-use fisheries.”
In December of 2010, after a long period of engagement with groups including CCA, the American Sportfishing Association, The Billfish Foundation, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, the Center for Coastal Conservation and the International Game Fish Association, NOAA released its Catch Share Policy. As a result of constant work by those groups, NOAA’s official Catch Shares Policy contains the following language, “NOAA…does not advocate the use of individual private angler catch shares.“
Earlier this week, CCA issued a call for its entire membership to contact their U.S. Senators and urge them to support the Jones Amendment, which would prevent the use of $54 million earmarked for catch shares in NOAA’s FY2011 budget from being used for catch share programs in the Gulf of Mexico or on the East Coast. Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina filed the amendment, which passed the House of Representatives in late February. Though CCA was not involved in the creation of the amendment, we embraced it as a good vehicle to force NOAA to use scarce funds for more frequent stock assessments, development of fishery independent data and improved recreational catch data rather than highly controversial catch share programs.
The catch share issue has been a long-running saga, and while the action by the South Atlantic Council today is a huge step in the right direction, the issue is far from decided. Progress is being made on catch shares, but recreational anglers would be wise to stay engaged on all levels to keep it moving in the right direction.
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Posted in CCA Blogs, CCA Federal Fisheries, CCA South Atlantic, Catch Shares | 1 Comment »
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Snapper Grouper Committee voted today to take catch shares off the table as a management option in Amendment 21. By a vote of 9-4, the Committee motion to remove catch shares as an option now goes before the full Council tomorrow, March 11, for final approval.
During public hearings on this and other South Atlantic issues in January and February 2011, CCA presented the following remarks regarding the Comprehensive Catch Share Amendment (Amendment 21):
- CCA is opposed to catch shares for recreational fisheries. NOAA’s own Catch Share Policy states that catch shares are not an appropriate management option for recreational fisheries;
- CCA acknowledges that catch shares may be a valid management tool in purely commercial, large-scale, industrial fisheries, such as those in the North Pacific and North Atlantic, to reduce overcapacity and address bycatch issues. However, there are no such fisheries in the South Atlantic;
- CCA has grave reservations about the use of catch shares for the commercial sector in mixed-use (recreational and commercial) fisheries. Catch shares systems are not appropriate tools for the recreational sector in mixed-use fisheries;
- Before the implementation of a catch share system for the commercial sector of a fishery, CCA wants managers to reallocate the fishery based on economic, social and conservation parameters as outlined in NOAA’s own Catch Share Policy;
- After reallocation, the catch share system for the commercial sector should be designed so that commercial catch shares are available for transfer by states or other such entities to the recreational sector;
- If a catch share system is installed for the commercial sector of a fishery, then the fishery should be scheduled for regular reevaluation, including reallocation;
- The commercial participants in any catch share program should pay some form of ongoing resource rent to pay the expense of managing the catch share program and repay the public for the exclusive use of a common property natural resource.
CCA is encouraging the South Atlantic Council to formally adopt the Committee’s motion to remove catch shares.
Posted in CCA South Atlantic, Catch Shares | No Comments »
Reallocation glaringly absent from documents on managing fisheries
As part of its ongoing effort to encourage the federal fisheries management system to overhaul the way it views the nation’s marine resources, Coastal Conservation Association is urging the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to break with the failed policies of the past and chart new management plans for a series of important recreational fisheries.
In recent months, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission have all opted to explore reallocation of fisheries using forward-looking criteria rather than outdated catch histories. The South Atlantic Council is noticeably absent from that list.
South Atlantic Council staff recently concluded a series of public hearings and scoping meetings on a wide variety of marine resource issues. Nowhere in the hundreds of pages of documents that accompanied dozens of controversial management measures was there any reference to reallocating the nation’s fisheries to better reflect modern shifts in demographics, economics and conservation ethics. Federal fisheries have historically been allocated using backward-looking catch histories, many of them locked into time frames that were selected to favor high commercial allocations.
“We understand that we are dealing with an agency that has not been sympathetic to recreational interests. However, evidence is mounting that not only are recreational anglers usually the best stewards of the resource, we are the best economic engine in many of these fisheries, too,” said Bill Bird, CCA National Board member from Florida. “In many cases, it is not even a close call. Instead of finding new and sometimes baffling ways to preserve an outdated commercial fishery, we believe managers have an obligation to begin managing these fisheries for the future, instead of simply repeating the past.”
Economist Brad Gentner recently analyzed the South Atlantic red snapper fishery and found recreational fishing generates significantly greater economic impact than the commercial sector.
“We’re not saying every fishery has to be 100 percent recreational, but many of the current allocations border on the absurd when you look objectively at the economics,” said Chester Brewer, CCA National Government Relations Committee chairman. “We recognize that economics should be just one of the guiding principles to manage these fisheries, but even a cursory glance at terrestrial wildlife management shows what can be done with a forward-leaning approach. There is no reason marine resource management should remain stuck in a bygone era.”
In testifying on Snapper Grouper Amendment 24 during the recent public hearings, CCA asked the Council to examine the red snapper allocation based on social, economic and conservation factors.
“We believe that the greatest economic benefits to the country can be achieved by having the South Atlantic red snapper fishery reopen as a recreational-only fishery,” said Bird. “The snapshot report by Gentner indicates that the South Atlantic Council should follow the lead of other councils and take this opportunity to order a complete economic analysis as part of an overall effort to chart a new path for this fishery.”
Click HERE for the economic snapshot of South Atlantic red snapper.
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Tags: reallocation, South Atlantic red snapper
Posted in CCA South Atlantic | No Comments »
Anglers frustrated with unrealistic implementation of Magnuson-Stevens Act
SILVER SPRINGS, MD – A three-day workshop on annual catch limits (ACLs) sponsored by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that concludes this week leaves very little hope that the recreational sector will find a way to mitigate the negative impacts of ACLs without a legislative fix to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the overarching federal law governing the nation’s fisheries. Rather than addressing problems with the ACL provision, NMFS staff, Council members and stock assessment scientists at the workshop were focused solely on how to more fully implement the ACL requirement in the future.
“This was not an adversarial gathering, but it is clear that NMFS is moving ahead with ACLs with very little concern for the vast differences between commercial fisheries and recreational ones,” said Richen Brame, CCA’s Atlantic States Fisheries director. “Not all fisheries are the same, but clearly the agency does not see any need to modify what has become a one-size-fits-all implementation of annual catch limits, no matter how irrational the results may be.”
The ACL provision was inserted into the 2006 reauthorization of the MSA almost exclusively to put an end to serial commercial overfishing allowed in some fisheries, most notably the New England groundfish fishery. Based on that provision, however, NMFS is putting in place strict measures to end overfishing for all fisheries in all regions, despite overwhelming evidence that they are not compatible or even defensible given the lack of information the agency has for recreational fisheries.
“No one would argue that ending overfishing is necessary, but the agency is closing down fisheries like black sea bass where an update assessment was last done in 2005 and the last full assessment was done in 2001. There has never even been a modern assessment on cobia, dolphin or wahoo in the South Atlantic, nor are there indications of trouble, but there are ultra-conservative options in play to prevent overfishing on those stocks that would slash recreational catch limits,” said Brame. “This is a system that is designed to fail, and NMFS will likely find it very difficult to rebuild any sense of trust or cooperation with the recreational fishing community if it continues down this path.”
Marine industry leaders will have another chance to engage federal managers on implementation problems the Magnuson-Stevens Act when Dr. Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and senior NMFS officials meet with boat manufacturers and tackle companies at the Miami International Boat Show this weekend.
“The agency does not have to implement this provision in this manner, and that is something we continue to convey to NOAA’s leadership,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “The agency should make a deeper commitment to more frequent stock assessments using fishery independent data and improved recreational catch data. That is certainly a better use for the $36 million that is currently set aside for catch share programs in the NMFS budget. Barring that, a legislative fix is likely the only realistic option to inject some sanity into fisheries management.”
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Tags: ACLs, Annual catch limits, Magnuson-Stevens Act, MSA, NOAA Fisheries
Posted in CCA Atlantic States, CCA Federal Fisheries, CCA Gulf of Mexico, CCA South Atlantic, Magnuson-Stevens Act | No Comments »
Much has been made about the catch share issue in recent months. Catch shares are a poorly understood issue that has been made more complicated by an absolute avalanche of mistruths, half-truths, and outright lies swirling about it in fishing chatrooms and blogs across the country.
Almost every facet of the past, present and future of catch shares has been grossly distorted. A glance at the average chatroom would lead casual readers to believe that there is a vast, strange conspiracy linking all-powerful environmental groups with oil companies with “double-agents” posing as anglers to rid the world of fishermen. One recurring theme is that the goal is to empty the oceans of all people so the oil companies can pillage at will. Another, green theme says the goal is to empty the oceans of all people so that the fish and whales are left alone to prosper. There are long, fantastical charts linking this group to that group, to prove the conspiracy of anti-fishers exists. Everyone is on Pew’s payroll, or Environmental Defense’s or Exxon’s.
The only thing missing is a good 007 character to save the day.
None of it is true, but it makes good reading. And nothing spoils a good tale like a few cold facts, but in the interest of setting at least some of the record straight, this column attempts to splash a little reality on the catch share mystery.
- Catch share programs have been used sporadically in commercial fisheries for decades. They were created to address a fundamental problem in some commercial fisheries – too many boats chasing too few fish, resulting in dangerous, wasteful derbies. If you have ever watched the early seasons of Deadliest Catch on The Discovery Channel, that was a derby fishery. The whistle blew, all the boats went to catch king crab no matter what the weather was, no one slept and they fished until someone, somewhere, calculated the quota had been caught and then the season ended. Some made a fortune, some went broke, and everyone fished in a manner to catch as much as possible as fast as possible regardless of the danger or bycatch involved. The fact that no one sleeps for 4 or 5 days at a time is the reason it’s called Deadliest Catch.
- Staying with the Deadliest Catch theme, catch shares took the whole quota for king crab and divided it up among boats based on their past catch history. Each boat’s percentage effectively became “theirs” to harvest, however and whenever they liked during the season. The Northwestern, the Cornelia Marie, the Wizard, the Time Bandit and others all now “own” shares of the king crab fishery.
- The goal of catch shares in that scenario is to eliminate the derbies and reduce bycatch. A by-product of catch shares is that inevitably, some boats will sell out or lease their share to other boats. The overall number of boats drops, until a relatively few big boats are left fishing. Ideally, the dangerous derbies are eliminated, bycatch is reduced and the economics improve. That is the goal of a catch share system in a purely commercial fishery.
- Some environmental groups, Environmental Defense Fund foremost among them, became enamored, somewhat naively, with the prospects of applying catch shares to all fisheries, including recreational ones, based on their use, implementation and success in purely commercial fisheries. The critical disconnect is that no one at EDF understood or appreciated the vast differences between recreational fisheries and commercial fisheries. In EDF’s mind, catch shares were a solution to all fisheries problems.
Now, in order to set the stage for what comes next, you have to understand a separate but connected issue, and that is how allocations are set in mixed-use fisheries – fisheries that have both commercial and recreational participation. Allocations between recreational and commercial sectors have historically been based on catch history, often using time frames as short as selected three-year segments. Given federal managers’ history of promoting commercial fisheries, the time frames were often not favorable to the recreational sector.
Those allocations are essentially frozen, despite the growth of recreational angling and the growing economic contribution of the recreational sector. They are frozen because the reallocation process is a political nightmare for a Fishery Management Council. It is long, convoluted and tortuous, with lots of emotion thrown in for good measure. No Council member or staffer willingly endures it if he or she can possibly avoid it.
As a result, allocations that were set 20 or 30 years ago are completely out of whack with the demographics, population and public demand that exists today. When a stagnant recreational allocation combines with the constant migration to the nation’s coasts, the end result is that more and more recreational anglers are trapped chasing a fixed allotment of fish, resulting in shorter seasons and greater restrictions for everyone. The red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico is a prime example. About 300 commercial boats currently chase 51 percent of the entire harvest of red snapper in the Gulf under a catch share system. Hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers get the other 49 percent.
And no one in NOAA Fisheries has been interested in cracking the egg on reallocation.
- Jumping back to catch shares, Dr. Jane Lubchenco was appointed to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2008. Dr. Lubchenco is a marine scientist with deep ties to EDF, including a stint on its board.
- Not long after that appointment, the Obama Administration created the Catch Share Policy Task Force, signaling a new focus to broadly impose catch share systems on federal fisheries, including those enjoyed by recreational anglers. Compounding the complexity of this issue is the fact that the Obama Administration is filled with people from places like San Francisco and Chicago who do not exactly understand or appreciate saltwater recreational angling.
- Promoted by a former board member of EDF – which doesn’t understand or appreciate recreational angling – in an Administration that doesn’t understand or appreciate recreational angling, the danger of a Catch Shares Policy Task Force was immediately clear. There was NOTHING to prevent catch shares from proceeding as a one-size-fits-all solution for the commercial and recreational sectors in every fishery.
- A coalition of marine industry and fishery conservation groups, recognizing the need to become involved in the process of shaping the new policy, engaged the Administration on the issue of catch shares. At the same time, the coalition engaged with environmental groups that were heavily promoting catch share systems, including Environmental Defense Fund. The goal of that engagement was to educate them on the problems catch shares present for recreational anglers and shape the policy so that at the very least it was not detrimental to recreational angling.
- That engagement is the source of a lot of confusion on the Internet. In the eyes of some conspiracy-theorist bloggers, by engaging the Administration and the environmental community on catch shares, the angling groups involved (CCA, CCC, TBF, IGFA, ASA, NMMA) were somehow “negotiating with the Devil,” “selling anglers out,” “getting on the EDF payroll,” etc. That line of thinking completely ignores the consequences of non-engagement. An outcome driven by an EDF-driven Catch Share Policy Task Force, in an Administration that has no interest in recreational angling, could only be bad for sport fishermen. The belief that anyone can achieve a favorable outcome merely by turning their back on this issue and “just saying No” is pure political fantasy.
- The coalition created a list of points to pursue in discussions with the administration, most of which are now included in the NOAA Catch Share Policy released in late 2010, such as:
- The coalition is and always has been firmly against catch shares for recreational anglers. The coalition does not believe they are an appropriate tool to manage recreational anglers under any circumstances.
- The coalition is firmly against separating the recreational sector into for-hire/charter and private boat designations.
- In mixed-use fisheries, those that have a quota for both recreational and commercial fishers, it may be determined that catch shares are an appropriate tool for the commercial sector. However, before implementing a commercial catch share system, the allocation must be redefined and updated using economic, social and conservation criteria.
- Once set, the new allocation must be reviewed periodically using those same criteria.
- In mixed-use fisheries that employ a catch share system for the commercial sector, the commercial shares must be made available for transfer to the recreational sector to allow for the growth of the recreational sector. The mechanism for transferring commercial shares could include state agencies, but is as yet undefined.
- The coalition’s engagement effectively changed the Catch Share Policy from one that was initially poised to work against recreational anglers, to a tool that may be used to address the persistent allocation problems that have short-changed anglers for decades. Would this be the case if the coalition had not engaged? Absolutely not. We would certainly have a catch share policy, but there would be very little in it that might work FOR anglers.
- Ideally, applying the current catch share policy in the Gulf of Mexico for red snapper, for example, could result in a 70% or 80% recreational share, with the potential to shift more commercial quota to the recreational side if economic, conservation and social factors determine it is warranted. Unfortunately, the policy does not apply to Gulf red snapper since a catch share system was implemented for that fishery in 2006. The outdated allocation for Gulf red snapper remains a stubborn problem seeking a solution. However, CCA is currently pursuing reallocation and transferability of commercial red snapper shares at the Gulf Council.
The coalition of groups that engaged with the Administration and the environmental community on catch shares stepped in to prevent a disaster for recreational anglers. Perhaps that is not as interesting as a good spy novel, full of intrigue, deception and betrayal, but this is not some daytime soap opera. This is a real-life fisheries debate, with real political consequences that must be confronted and dealt with.
When it comes to the Internet, it is good to remember that often the simplest explanation is correct. If it starts to sound like something Ian Fleming wrote, then maybe it has been written for entertainment purposes only. In fact, you should be suspicious of everything you read in chatrooms and online forums, which means you should even take this article with a grain of salt. At the very least, go see the complete text of CCA’s documents and testimony before Congress and letters to the Administration, and check out information about our lawsuit against the federal government and Environmental Defense Fund over the Gulf grouper catch share program. It’s all on the Catch Shares page in the Newsroom section of www.JoinCCA.org. Do some research and, by all means, decide for yourself.
Tags: Catch Shares, EDF, NOAA Catch Share Policy
Posted in CCA Atlantic States, CCA Blogs, CCA Gulf of Mexico, CCA South Atlantic, Catch Shares | 8 Comments »
By Ted Venker
Conservation Director
Coastal Conservation Association
They say that fishing is the world’s second oldest occupation, so it is likely there have been more ironic events in its long, storied history, but the recent letter from Massachusetts’s Governor Deval Patrick to President Obama must rank near the top of the list.
For those of you who missed it, Gov. Patrick expressed his “extraordinary frustration” with the lack of responsiveness the Commonwealth has experienced with the U.S. Department of Commerce and its agencies on the challenges facing commercial fishermen in Massachusetts. The Governor is upset with the severe regulations that have been placed on his hard-working commercial fishing community and the effect it is having on the state’s economy.
To back up his arguments, Gov. Patrick cited economic statistics to demonstrate commercial fishing’s vital role in Massachusetts’s history and economy. The industry, he said, employs approximately 80,000 people in fisheries and related shore side businesses, and generates $4.4 billion in sales. Those figures are slightly suspect – using the federal economic impact model puts the commercial fishery economic impact of Massachusetts at $416.9 million in landed value, producing $1.9 billion in total sales and 35,609 jobs. The additional jobs and dollars come from the retail sector involved with importing seafood that is not even from the State of Massachusetts. But let’s play along.
There is no doubt that commercial fishing is a huge part of Massachusetts’s culture. Anyone who has read “Cod” by Mark Kurlansky will appreciate how fishermen essentially built the state. There is a reason a wooden replica of a cod has hung in the Massachusetts’s statehouse.
Conversely, anyone who has read “Cod” will also be familiar with the ironic part of this story. In “building” the state of Massachusetts, commercial fishing also proceeded to essentially destroy what was once some of the most prolific, profitable fishing grounds in the world. Serial, rampant commercial overfishing reduced stocks to mere shadows of their former productivity, and there are doubts whether cod will ever return to its former abundance. Among other hurdles, many of the nooks and crannies in the rocks of the ocean bottom that served as cod habitat have been smashed flat by decades of rock-hopper trawls, creating the possibility that cod simply can’t come back.
The signs that groundfish stocks were in serious trouble have been apparent for decades, but every time anyone attempted to rein in commercial fishing, the howl and cry from the fishing industry was enough to beat it back. Management plans that had no real chance of success were adopted again and again in response to enormous political pressure. Pressure not unlike the current letter from Gov. Patrick to President Obama.
It became apparent to powerful groups in the environmental community that managers were in an impossible situation when it came to Northeast fisheries. There was no way to effectively manage those stocks if it meant impinging on such a vital and revered cog in the region’s economy. So in 2006, those groups acted. In an effort to directly address the chronic problems in the Northeast, certain provisions were incorporated into the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the overarching federal law that manages the nation’s fisheries.
Those provisions required Annual Catch Limits (ACLs), Accountability Measures (AMs), and an end to all overfishing by a date certain (2010). They were heavily promoted by environmental groups, some of which are expending enormous amounts of time and resources on oceans programs. Those provisions were directly aimed at installing some backbone to manage New England’s disastrous commercial groundfish fisheries.
Any attempt to end overfishing is generally appealing to a conservationist, but the ramifications of those provisions on the recreational sector were not truly appreciated or even understood at the time. Over the past few years, it has become painfully apparent to anyone associated with marine recreational fisheries that the federal agency in charge of managing those fisheries – NOAA Fisheries (formerly the National Marine Fisheries Service, formerly the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries) – has not the science or data or even the interest to properly manage recreational fisheries to the requirements of those provisions. The terrestrial model of wildlife management that has been applied so successfully to ducks, geese, turkey, deer, elk, bass, etc, is nowhere to be found in the nation’s oceans.
Because NOAA Fisheries has failed to collect the required data and science, it has a very limited ability to properly manage recreational fisheries. Nonetheless, the provisions that were aimed directly at New England’s commercial groundfish disaster are now being applied to ALL fisheries in ALL other regions, including highly valuable recreational fisheries. The most dramatic examples can be found in the South Atlantic where fishery after fishery is being impacted to comply with the letter of the law. In one case, black sea bass, which hasn’t had a full assessment in 10 years, is being closed down. Dolphin, wahoo and cobia have never even had an assessment and there are no indications of trouble, but dramatic reductions are on the table as an ultra-conservative way to comply with the provision to end overfishing.
The painfully ironic part to this whole sordid tale is that while Gov. Patrick tries to roll back the New England provisions to preserve New England commercial fishermen, those same provisions are wreaking havoc in Florida, for example, where recreational fishing expenditures dwarf the vaunted economic might of the Massachusetts commercial sector. In Florida, recreational expenditures are calculated at $17.6 billion and support $15.1 billion in sales and 138,754 jobs. Even in Massachusetts, recreational anglers are not an insignificant part of the economic picture, spending $817.6 million dollars on trip and annual expenditures, supporting $850.5 million in sales and supporting 6,446 jobs.
There is a chance that Gov. Patrick, in order to preserve the commercial sector that decimated the stocks in the first place, will find some success. Like so many before him, he may actually be able to apply the same political pressure that provoked those provisions in Magnuson so that his fishing industry can keep fishing. That would be truly ironic, since recreational fisheries that are far more valuable to the country are being penalized and discouraged by the laws that were created to correct the sins of the commercial sector.
Sadly, there are not many indications that anyone in federal fisheries management is serious about changing the way this country elects to manage its marine resources either.
Gov. Patrick is right to express his “extraordinary frustration” with federal fisheries management. Ironically enough, I’m frustrated, too.
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Tags: Magnuson-Stevens Act, MSA
Posted in CCA Atlantic States, CCA Blogs, CCA Federal Fisheries, CCA Gulf of Mexico, CCA Pacific Northwest, CCA South Atlantic, Magnuson-Stevens Act | No Comments »
CCA calls on managers to seek reasonable interim measures regarding black sea bass pending new assessment
Federal fisheries managers are set to close another popular recreational fishery in the South Atlantic in the latest example of how chronic lapses in science and data-collection are wreaking havoc on the recreational angling sector. Less than two months after narrowly avoiding a massive closure of all bottom fishing in the South Atlantic to recover red snapper, federal managers have announced that black sea bass are set to become off-limits from February to June due to circumstances that sound frustratingly familiar to anglers.
“When Congress strengthened the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 2006 in an effort to end overfishing, it did not intend NOAA Fisheries to achieve that goal simply by ending all fishing,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of Coastal Conservation Association’s National Government Relations Committee. “We need to end overfishing, but we have to have better data and more timely assessments before such harsh restrictions are imposed.”
The last full benchmark assessment for black sea bass was conducted in 2001, and was simply updated in 2005. Based on those reports, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council adopted a management plan in 2006 that used a constant catch strategy despite strong objections from CCA. The strategy allows for a slightly higher catch limit for the first three years of the plan, but locks in a lower limit until at least 2015. As the stock rebuilds, anglers are encountering black sea bass more often and, according to the government’s notoriously suspect recreational catch data, anglers are over their quota by up to 30 percent.
Managers are once again left with using the most draconian management measure available to fix a problem that may not even exist anymore. Black sea bass were scheduled to undergo another full benchmark assessment in 2010, but the furor over red snapper delayed it until 2011.
“This is painfully like red snapper,” said Mike Able, CCA South Carolina board member. “Managers are using a sledge hammer to enforce the findings of an assessment that is essentially 10 years old. We are urging the federal government to wait for the new assessment before taking such drastic action and examine conservation alternatives in the meantime, such as lower bag limits, to address overfishing. We have to find ways to achieve conservation that don’t simply ban fishing.”
Black sea bass are the latest demonstration of how unprepared NOAA Fisheries was to implement the ambitious goals of the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 2006 to end rampant, serial overfishing.
“This is further confirmation that the Agency does not have the underpinnings to support the goals of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and it is vital that we continue to explore legislation that provides a bridge to the time when federal managers have the tools and the will to dedicate the funding to do their job the way Congress envisioned,” said Jeff Angers, president of Center for Coastal Conservation, a coalition of leading advocates for marine recreational fishing and boating.
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CCA is the largest marine resource conservation group of its kind in the nation. With almost 100,000 members in 17 state chapters, CCA has been active in state, national and international fisheries management issues since 1977. For more information visit the CCA Newsroom at www.JoinCCA.org.
Tags: black sea bass, MSA, South Atlantic fisheries
Posted in CCA South Atlantic | No Comments »
