Posts Tagged ‘exempted fishing permit’
Statement of Coastal Conservation Association on the Exempted Fishing Permit presented to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council April 2012
At the April 2012 meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council in Corpus Christi, NOAA Fisheries brought an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) request to the Gulf Council for review. It was submitted by the Gulf Headboat Cooperative and outlined a pilot study whereby “selected headboats” in the Gulf of Mexico will examine the feasibility of an alternative rights-based management strategy (catch shares).
The proposal would allow these few headboats in the study to fish for red snapper and gag grouper, based on allocations given to them, outside the normal recreational fishing seasons. The group selected for the study includes nine headboat owners/captains who operate 13 different vessels. The Gulf Council voted 7-6 on April 19 to endorse this Exempted Fishing Permit.
Coastal Conservation Association rejects the validity of the EFP and questions the propriety of NOAA Fisheries allowing the proposal to be presented to the Council for consideration. By promoting the EFP, NOAA Fisheries has made a farce of every requirement contained in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act for the implementation of catch share programs. Catch share programs are not new and their methods of operation and feasibility in the commercial sector are well documented. The stated purpose of this EFP, to study the feasibility of an alternative rights-based management strategy (IFQs), is a poorly veiled excuse to avoid proper Council process and institute a highly contentious and unpopular catch share program in the recreational sector over the objections of the vast majority of stakeholders.
This incident is just the latest in a string of examples demonstrating how some groups in the environmental community are willing to disregard proper procedures, protocols and laws governing our public marine resources whenever it suits their purposes. By facilitating this proposal and presenting it to the Gulf Council, NOAA Fisheries is complicit in what appears to be an intentional circumvention of the Magnuson Stevens Act.
As a long-time participant in federal fisheries management in general and in this fishery in particular, Coastal Conservation Association urges NOAA to reject this proposal.
Tags: exempted fishing permit, Gulf Headboat Cooperative, sector separation
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico, Catch Shares | No Comments »
Statement of Coastal Conservation Association on the Exempted Fishing Permit presented to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council April 2012
At the April 2012 meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council in Corpus Christi, NOAA Fisheries brought an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) request to the Gulf Council for review. It was submitted by the Gulf Headboat Cooperative and outlined a pilot study whereby “selected headboats” in the Gulf of Mexico will examine the feasibility of an alternative rights-based management strategy (catch shares).
The proposal would allow these few headboats in the study to fish for red snapper and gag grouper, based on allocations given to them, outside the normal recreational fishing seasons. The group selected for the study includes nine headboat owners/captains who operate 13 different vessels. The Gulf Council voted 7-6 on April 19 to endorse this Exempted Fishing Permit.
Coastal Conservation Association rejects the validity of the EFP and questions the propriety of NOAA Fisheries allowing the proposal to be presented to the Council for consideration. By promoting the EFP, NOAA Fisheries has made a farce of every requirement contained in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act for the implementation of catch share programs. Catch share programs are not new and their methods of operation and feasibility in the commercial sector are well documented. The stated purpose of this EFP, to study the feasibility of an alternative rights-based management strategy (IFQs), is a poorly veiled excuse to avoid proper Council process and institute a highly contentious and unpopular catch share program in the recreational sector over the objections of the vast majority of stakeholders.
This incident is just the latest in a string of examples demonstrating the environmental community’s willingness to disregard proper procedures, protocols and laws governing our public marine resources whenever it suits their purposes. By facilitating this proposal and presenting it to the Gulf Council, NOAA Fisheries is complicit in what appears to be an intentional circumvention of the Magnuson Stevens Act.
As a long-time participant in federal fisheries management in general and in this fishery in particular, Coastal Conservation Association urges NOAA to reject this proposal.
Tags: exempted fishing permit, Gulf Headboat Cooperative, sector separation
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico, Catch Shares | No Comments »
Coastal Conservation Association
Comments to NOAA Fisheries Service Opposing
Haugen Exempted Fishing Permit
The Coastal Conservation Association, representing more than 80,000 members in state chapters along the Gulf Coast, has major concerns about several aspects of the one-year exempted fishing permit sought by commercial reef fish fishermen Thomas Haugen that would authorize the applicant to use unauthorized experimental fish traps in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Fish traps were removed from the Gulf of Mexico in 2007 after years of controversy over their destructiveness and have also been outlawed in the Atlantic and state waters. This gear is “invisible” once deployed and ample evidence has been supplied by state and federal law enforcement agents to conclude that it is nearly impossible to observe the gear and enforce any escape gap or panel regulations. Enforcement officers testified before the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council in February 2010 on the extreme difficulty of enforcing any regulations on fish traps. NOAA Regional Administrator Dr. Roy Crabtree stated that the enforcement concerns were very legitimate factors in the Gulf Council’s unanimous vote to remove fish traps from consideration in Amendment 32 to the gag/red grouper management plan. Coastal Conservation Association believes the enforcement issue alone should be a permanent deterrent to the reintroduction of any fish trap gear in the Gulf of Mexico.
Additionally, the permit applicant does not, and in all likelihood cannot, address issues of experimental design or statistical analysis of the proposed “experimental” use of this type of fish trap. CCA does not believe that the applicant, who has publicly stated that he desires to develop an allowance to use his traps which are currently prohibited, can lend an objective eye or voice to develop useful information on the trap and how it functions. For any experimental study of the operational impacts of new gear only objective scientists from state, federal or academic entities operating with clearly defined, randomized experimental constructs can provide the careful scrutiny and analyses that would lead to credible information useful to fisheries managers.
CCA urges NOAA Fisheries Service to reject this application for an exempted fishing permit.
Tags: exempted fishing permit, fish trap, Haugen
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico | No Comments »
