Posts Tagged ‘grouper’
Mountain of evidence points to allocation increases for recreational anglers in the Gulf
With the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council set to review allocations for Gulf red snapper and grouper during its meeting this week in Tampa, Coastal Conservation Association has presented a summary of 19 studies going back to 2000 that show the economic benefits of shifting a greater portion of the allocation of these two species to the recreational sector. All of the studies, conducted by private, academic and government scientists, have been presented to the Gulf Council previously and the Council has chosen to take no affirmative action.
“We’re not talking about one or two studies, we’re talking about an overwhelming body of work spanning more than a decade by some of the most respected economists in fisheries management,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “The best available economic science clearly supports increasing the recreational allocation. It is difficult to understand why NOAA Fisheries has not acted on these studies before now to produce the best possible outcome for the economies of the Gulf states and for the nation.”
CCA supports basing allocations on modern economic and demographic criteria that reflect current and future realities for these fisheries rather than outdated catch histories. Management schemes that give away public resources through measures such as sector separation and catch shares lock-in outdated allocations to individual businesses, making those resources subsequently unavailable to respond to economic and demographic changes.
“We urge NOAA Fisheries to use the considerable economic information it has in hand to increase opportunities for the entire recreational sector, comprised of hundreds of thousands of anglers,” said Brewer. “Recreational angling is an economic engine that should be enhanced during these tough economic times that are impacting every sector of our society. These 19 studies indicate that a relatively simple allocation shift would immediately produce economic benefits to anglers and the businesses that depend on them.”
CCA supplied the summary of economic data to Gulf Council members and NOAA staff in a letter to Council Chairman Robert Gill. CCA urged the Council to act on the information and look objectively towards maximizing the benefits generated for the entire nation by these valuable marine resources.
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Tags: grouper, Gulf of Mexico, reallocation, red snapper
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico | No Comments »
CCA’s call for reallocation could provide much-needed relief for recreational anglers
GULFPORT, MS – The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has taken a long-awaited first step toward addressing outdated allocations between the commercial and recreational sectors in the grouper and red snapper fisheries. During its meeting this week in Gulfport, the Council voted to begin an amendment on grouper allocations, and to review red snapper allocations and transferability options at its next meeting in April.
“This is something that Coastal Conservation Association has been working on for a long time, and it is a significant development for recreational anglers,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “Frozen allocations based on ‘realities’ that no longer exist have plagued recreational anglers for decades. Crafting forward-looking allocations for these fisheries based on current and future economic, social and conservation criterion is the foundation of sensible management.”
CCA has maintained that economic data should be a key part of how allocations are determined for important mixed-use fisheries that have both commercial and recreational participation. The posterchild for the problems that exist with outdated allocations is Gulf red snapper, where about 300 commercial boats take 51 percent of the total harvest every year, while hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers are left with the remaining 49 percent.
To emphasize the point on reallocation, CCA commissioned an economic study by Gentner Consulting Group in 2009 that revealed the maximum economic value of the Gulf grouper fishery would be achieved by a significant shift of the allocation to the recreational sector. The study, conducted by Brad Gentner, who ran the recreational economics data collection program for the National Marine Fisheries Service for eight years before starting his own company, showed the fishery would yield far more jobs and economic output from a greater recreational allocation.
“CCA has always advocated that the fishery management councils look at how they want these fisheries to look in the future, instead of reflecting an outdated past based on catch histories,” said Brewer. “There is a lot of hard work still to be done, but this is a very encouraging sign that federal fisheries managers are finally willing to work on a forward-leaning management philosophy. It could be the answer to a lot of the problems anglers are seeing in the Gulf and elsewhere.”
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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: grouper, reallocation, red snapper
Posted in CCA Federal Fisheries, CCA Gulf of Mexico | No Comments »
Another federal fishery illustrates need for shift in allocation, management philosophy
HOUSTON, TX – Recreational anglers will find themselves in a familiar situation in another federal fishery when an interim rule set to go into effect in January will completely close the Gulf recreational fishery for gag grouper, yet still allow commercial boats to land and sell gags.
While the need to reduce the overall catch of gag grouper appears necessary in light of recent science revealing gags as severely overfished, the regulations raise the question that if a public resource is so reduced the public is seriously limited in its access to it, should managers remove it entirely from commercial markets and reserve the sparse availability for the public at large?
“This is another situation where federal managers are accommodating the commercial sector while totally closing out the recreational sector. It reinforces the need for managers to take a serious look not only at the allocations of these fisheries, but also at the philosophy that is used to manage them,” said Wiley Horton of the CCA Gulf Fisheries Committee. “After decades of commercial over-exploitation of ducks, geese and trout, state and federal agencies finally realized that the public is better served if those wildlife resources are managed purely as a public resource. It is high time we started looking at our marine resources the same way.”
The rule on gag is particularly irksome to recreational anglers familiar with the recent history of grouper management in the Gulf. In January of 2009, CCA released an economic study by Gentner Consulting Group showing that the maximum economic value of the Gulf grouper fishery would be achieved by allocating 100 percent of the fishery to the recreational sector. However, at its meeting in February 2009, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council chose to ignore the study and opted instead to proceed with an Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) program for Gulf grouper that proposed to permanently lock a significant portion of that fishery into the commercial sector forever. In September of 2009, CCA sued the federal government in federal district court over the Gulf grouper catch share program. The suit is still under consideration by the federal district court in Fort Myers, Florida.
“We have many challenges in federal fisheries, and most of them are connected to the need to take a serious look at reallocating fisheries based on factors like economics and changing demographics,” said Russell Nelson, CCA Gulf Fisheries consultant. “CCA has long called on federal fisheries managers to embrace the conservation ethic that has governed terrestrial resources since the 19th century and apply it to marine resource management. The Gulf grouper fishery would be an excellent place to start.”
Tags: gag grouper, grouper, Gulf fisheries
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico | No Comments »
The Coastal Conservation Association, representing more than 80,000 members in state chapters along the Gulf Coast, has major concerns about several aspects of Amendment 32 dealing with new regulations to end overfishing for gag grouper.
According to the results of last year’s stock assessment developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), it appears that reductions in harvest on the order of 75 percent may be considered for this fishery. Additionally, at the last meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, the issue of allowing fish traps to be reintroduced into the commercial grouper fishery was added to the current round of public hearings as an alternative gear to reduce sea turtle mortality associated with bottom longline gear. CCA wants the fish trap issue removed from the amendment and destructive longline gear eliminated from the grouper fisheries
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. The traps have a high rate of loss and, once lost, they become ghost traps, filling with fish that die and attract other fish in a long-lasting cycle. The traps fish 24 hours a day and can out-compete other gears.
Further, the traps are not needed in the commercial fishery as a substitute for longline gear as ample effort exists in the vertical line (bandit or hook-and-line gear) sector to take the allowable catch. Allowing any use of fish traps in the Gulf will create conflicts and make it difficult to enforce their prohibition from state waters, the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary and South Atlantic waters.
There exists ample evidence of the destructive and uncontrollable nature of fish traps in the record of the Gulf Council’s previous deliberations that resulted in the banning of this gear. Nothing has changed since that time and the use of this gear should not even be considered.
CCA urges the Council and the NMFS to focus on alternatives that effectively reduce destructive commercial fishing effort to the greatest extent possible rather than searching for ways to perpetuate a marginal commercial fishery.
Regarding any proposed regulations to end overfishing of gag grouper, CCA requested five years ago that the Gulf Council develop formal allocations for grouper based on maximizing the value and benefits of this common property resource. The Council began an amendment to do this and formed action has been taken. Given the apparent necessity of future restrictions on gag harvest, we believe that it is absolutely necessary for the Council to finally include allocation of this resource in Amendment 32. The Gulf Council’s Grouper IFQ program allocates and grants exclusive right of access to more than 65 percent of all the Gulf red and gag grouper to a limited number of commercial interests. The magnitude of this giveaway of a public fishery is unprecedented. NMFS must stop enacting programs which subsidize marginal commercial fisheries while strangling the much more valuable recreational grouper fisheries.
CCA will develop a formal position on new quotas, size limits, bag limits and seasons for gag in the coming months and will bring these ideas back to the public hearings on this amendment. In the meantime, CCA urges the Council to act responsibly and not risk destroying the very valuable economic benefits that flow into the Gulf states and this nation from recreational fishing for grouper and other reef fish.
Tags: allocation, Amendment 32, fish traps, grouper, Gulf of Mexico
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico | No Comments »
The Coastal Conservation Association, representing more than 80,000 members in state chapters along the Gulf Coast, has been concerned over the use of bottom longline gear in the commercial Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish fishery for well over a decade.
Bottom longline gear is exceptionally destructive. It destroys bottom habitat and has a serious finfish bycatch problem. Its devastating impact was most recently highlighted by the loss of as much as 800,000 pounds of red snapper discarded dead annually by the longline fleet operating off the west coast of Florida. The gear has been prohibited from use inside of 50 fathoms in the western Gulf since 1990.
Recent research has revealed that bottom longline gear, along with longline gear set for sharks, is taking more than 20 times the number of sea turtles anticipated by the 2005 biological opinion required by the Endangered Species Act. The loss of more than 900 sea turtles a year to bottom longline gear is the most egregious affront to U.S. efforts to protect endangered sea turtles since the shrimp trawl mortalities were addressed more than 20 years ago with the implementation of turtle excluder devices (TEDs).
This mortality of sea turtles should be a source of serious concern to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Gulf Council, and all those involved in the management of this country’s marine resources.
None of the preferred options currently listed in the DEIS are likely to reduce turtle interactions to levels identified as acceptable by the most recent biological opinion. Additionally, recent discussions to evaluate the reintroduction of fish traps, which were banned as excessively destructive gear by the Gulf Council in 1996, as a substitute to longline gear are simply alarming. Rather than searching for ways to perpetuate a marginal commercial fishery, CCA urges the Council and the NMFS to focus on alternatives that effectively reduce destructive commercial fishing effort to the greatest extent possible.
Toward that end, it remains CCA’s position that bottom longline gear should be prohibited inside 50 fathoms as a permanent resolution to this problem. Such an action would achieve a 94 percent reduction from current levels of turtle takes to about 220 per three-year period.
There is no reasonable or rational argument for allowing the loss of endangered sea turtles to continue under the watch of these institutions charged with managing the valuable marine resources of the Gulf of Mexico.
Tags: grouper, Gulf of Mexico, longline gear, sea turtles
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico | No Comments »
Anglers cite lack of faith in federal catch share management of red snapper, grouper
Faced with the unwelcome reality of having two popular recreational fisheries managed by a fundamentally flawed catch share system in the Gulf of Mexico, Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) has taken the rare step of not supporting Gulf state compliance with federal regulations for red snapper and grouper. The decision to support “non-concurrence” with federal regulations is a sign of growing dissatisfaction with federal management policies.
“We did not make this decision lightly, because concurrent regulations are clearly a positive for the proper conservation of most fisheries,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations committee. “I cannot recall many times when we have supported non-concurrence, but this is a sign of how little faith anglers have today in the federal government’s management of these fisheries.”
Catch share systems bestow a percentage of a public fishery resource to a select group of commercial fishermen, based on their catch history, to harvest for their own personal gain. CCA has acknowledged that such programs can be effective in purely commercial fisheries, but present serious problems for recreational anglers when applied to fisheries that have both commercial and recreational participation.
“We have seen the problems in the Gulf red snapper fishery that have developed since catch shares were implemented in 2005, and the lack of any effort to fix those issues,” said Brewer. “How can we ask the states to comply with federal regulations that are the product of a dysfunctional management scheme? In fact, CCA has filed a lawsuit to prevent a similar program from being implemented for Gulf grouper. We feel that we have to draw the line somewhere until the government addresses the concerns of recreational anglers.”
In a recent joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, the governors of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama joined CCA in its concern over the catch shares concept. In a powerful statement of the states’ apprehension in following a flawed federal program, the governors letter states, “Recreational fishing is an important activity in all of our states, and one that we would like to see continue to grow as a healthy activity for the public. However, we are concerned that NOAA policies could frustrate our ability to do that.”
“We see a major train wreck coming in the Gulf, and not just in these two fisheries,” said Brewer. “We don’t think the states should jump on board.”
Tags: catch share, grouper, Gulf of Mexico, non-concurrence, red snapper
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico | No Comments »
