Posts Tagged ‘Gulf grouper’
Errors in stock assessment cast doubt on need for total recreational closure
Coastal Conservation Association is calling on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to halt implementation of a temporary rule closing the recreational gag grouper fishery in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico until significant errors discovered in the stock assessment have been corrected. The six-month closure, announced by NOAA this week, is set to go into effect January 1, 2011.
“The stock assessment on which this rule is based has been shown to have errors, by an order of magnitude, in the amount of commercial discards, and additional errors in estimates of recreational discards,” said Chester Brewer, chairman CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “A revision of the assessment is already in the works, so the entire picture for the outlook of gag grouper could change just in the next few weeks. There is no need to cause this kind of uproar when managers know there are errors in the science. It only adds to the general feeling of distrust between NOAA and the recreational angling community.”
In addition to the uncertainty in the stock assessment, recreational anglers are also frustrated that the proposed rule closes the recreational fishery entirely, yet allows the commercial sector to land 100,000 pounds of gag grouper. The commercial quota is to allow “the retention of some accidentally caught gag that would otherwise be discarded dead at sea.”
“In the recent history of this particular fishery, federal managers have run roughshod over the interests of recreational anglers, and a total closure of gags based on known faulty science while allowing commercial boats to keep 100,000 pounds is just an another unnecessary slap in the face,” said Brewer.
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 the long-term solution for many of them is for NOAA to take a serious look at reallocating fisheries based on factors like economics and changing demographics,” said Brewer. “In the short term, however, NOAA can demonstrate a willingness to be reasonable and at least wait for the errors in the assessment to be corrected before deciding on a course of action for this fishery.”
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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. Visit www.JoinCCA.org for more information.
Tags: gag grouper, Gulf grouper
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico | 1 Comment »
“Fundamentally flawed” catch share program a threat to angling
HOUSTON, TX – Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) has filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Fort Myers, Florida, challenging the adoption and implementation of Amendment 29 to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Management Plan approved by United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke on August 30. Amendment 29 gives away a majority share of Gulf grouper to the commercial fishing industry through a catch share program.
“CCA has stated from the beginning that this management action is fundamentally flawed,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of the CCA National Government Relations Committee. “In moving forward with Amendment 29, the federal government has disregarded the multiple provisions in the Magnuson Stevens Act designed to govern the impacts of such action on other participants in the fishery. The only ones considered in this amendment are the commercial fishermen.”
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. The commercial entities pay nothing back to the public for the permanent property right to harvest a public resource, but catch share systems are nonetheless being emphasized in federal fisheries as a way to reduce overcapacity and improve economic efficiency in the commercial sector. CCA has contended that in fisheries where there is a large and growing recreational sector, exclusive fishing rights proposals maximize benefits to the commercial fishing industry while ignoring the participation and beneficial economic impacts of recreational fishing.
“In more than 30 years of practice in fisheries law, I have not seen a more arbitrary action than this one,” said Robert G. Hayes, CCA general counsel. CCA has asked for an expedited hearing and expects the government to answer the lawsuit within the next 60 days. “We are going to proceed as quickly as the court will allow to prevent the implementation of this egregious decision.”
Click HERE to see official comments CCA submitted to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council on Amendment 29 in June 2009.
Tags: Amendment 29, catch share, Gulf grouper
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Approval of grouper giveaway pushes recreational anglers to the brink
United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke has approved Amendment 29 to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Management Plan, giving away a majority share of Gulf grouper to the commercial fishing industry in spite of vigorous opposition from Coastal Conservation Association (CCA). CCA had delineated several fatal flaws contained within Amendment 29, including its failure to comply with federal law, its myopic focus on the commercial sector and the complete exclusion of recreational concerns, and its disregard for recent critical developments within the commercial sector itself.
“This Amendment fails first and foremost because there is no consideration of any component of the fishery other than the directed commercial fishermen and their related infrastructure,” said Matthew Paxton, CCA federal lobbyist. “The entire process assumes participation only by the commercial industry without any basis for such determination.”
CCA cited three specific recent developments that cast considerable doubt on the decision process leading up to this amendment and its future viability: the discovery of a high bycatch of listed sea turtles by bottom longliners in the grouper fishery; a new gag grouper assessment which could trigger a significant reduction in the allowed harvest in the fishery, and the emerging economic analyses on the contribution of the recreational angling sector to the economies of Gulf states.
“This amendment should have been rejected by the Secretary and returned to the Gulf Council for further consideration. The interim allocation in Amendment 29 was developed without supplying the economic impact analysis that is required by federal law,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “By allowing this amendment to proceed, federal managers have all but declared that recreational angling is not relevant to them and that sets a dangerous precedent for this new Administration. This failure to adhere to commonly accepted practices of good policy formation leaves us no choice but to pursue every means available to reverse this decision.”
Click here for CCA’s official comments submitted on Amendment 29 to the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Management Plan.
Tags: Amendment 29, catch share, Gulf grouper
Posted in CCA Gulf of Mexico, Catch Shares | No Comments »
