Posts Tagged ‘Magnuson-Stevens Act’
Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus weighs in for a federal fisheries fix
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oct. 1, 2010 – Support is growing for legislation to address the crisis in federal marine fisheries management as a House version of the Fishery Conservation Transition Act was introduced by Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chairs Representatives Dan Boren (D-Okla.); Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.); Mike Ross (D-Ark.); and Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), along with other Members of Congress. H.R. 6316, which mirrors legislation introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), has the backing of a broad coalition of recreational angling, boating and industry groups that see a critical need to give federal marine fisheries managers the time, resources and direction necessary to address chronic deficiencies in data collection and science that have plagued federal fisheries management.
The Fisheries Conservation Transition Act (FCTA) is hailed by American Sportfishing Association (ASA), The Billfish Foundation (TBF), Center for Coastal Conservation (Center), Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), International Game Fish Association (IGFA) and National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) as a decisive fix for dramatic lapses in fisheries data and science that are occurring in some federal fisheries.
“Those lapses have been highlighted in the South Atlantic red snapper fishery where management failures may ultimately result in a closure of all bottom fishing in a 5,000-square-mile area because of the lack of adequate, timely data,” said ASA President and CEO Mike Nussman. “Similarly sweeping and faulty decisions are imminent with other fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. The total bottom fishing closure tied to South Atlantic red snapper is the first in what will likely be a series of fisheries train wrecks unless Congress takes action.”
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus — the largest bi-partisan, bi-cameral caucus in the U.S. Congress with nearly 300 members representing all 50 states — lent its powerful voice to calls for legislation that will safeguard the strong conservation standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) while addressing fundamental flaws within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries).
“Flaws in marine fisheries management are causing a crisis of faith in the recreational fishing community that is jeopardizing essential conservation initiatives in our fisheries,” said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Coastal Conservation. “In the absence of this legislation that gives NOAA Fisheries the guidance, time and resources to implement the Magnuson-Stevens Act the way Congress intended, we are faced with a looming fisheries management train wreck that will result in important fisheries closed unnecessarily along with severe economic impacts.
“We applaud the vision and leadership of Mr. Boren and the other co-sponsors of FCTA. The bill is a commonsense approach to marine conservation that ends overfishing; saves American jobs, and ensures management decisions are based on sound science,” Angers said.
FCTA has five key areas that will steer NOAA Fisheries back towards the true intentions of the overfishing amendments made to MSA in 2006. (See “2010 FCTA Fact Sheet” for more details.)
- Clarifying MSA regarding management of multi-species fisheries by mandating specific conservation and science-based actions that would be taken, in part, to allow fishing for healthy stocks;
- Allowing reasonable time to transition to a new management framework that will allow for the rebuilding of stocks undergoing overfishing based on scientific data;
- Refining MSA economic assistance programs to insure funding is directed to those most affected by closures after carrying out a full examination of who would be affected by closures;
- Requiring NOAA Fisheries to review alternative fishery management measures to enhance the sustainability of an overfished stock and carry out more frequent stock assessments;
- Directing the agency, along with the National Academy of Science, to conduct a long-needed study on the problems surrounding the management of multi-species fishery complexes and the suitability of attempting to manage all stocks in such a fishery for maximum yield.
The Fishery Conservation Transition Act, S. 3594, is co-sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). The House version, H.R. 6316, was introduced before Congress recessed this week. Other original co-sponsors of H.R. 6316: the bi-partisan leaders of the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife: Chairwoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and Ranking Member Henry Brown (R-S.C.); along with Reps. Rodney Alexander (R-La.); Rob Wittman (R-Va.), and Don Young (R-Alaska).
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Tags: FCTA, Fisheries Conservation Transition Act, Magnuson-Stevens Act
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Legislation introduces measures to address management deficiencies and prevent precipitous, massive fisheries closures
WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 15, 2010 – Today, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) introduced legislation designed to safeguard the strong conservation standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) while addressing a growing crisis within the federal marine fisheries management system. S.3594, the Fishery Conservation Transition Act (FCTA), will give federal marine fisheries managers the time, resources and more specific direction necessary to address the chronic deficiencies in data collection and science. Nowhere are these deficiencies more acute than in the South Atlantic where the lack of proper data exacerbated problems in the red snapper fishery and may ultimately result in a closure of all bottom fishing in a 5,000-square-mile area.
A coalition of marine recreational fishing, boating, and conservation organizations and businesses, including the American Sportfishing Association (ASA), The Billfish Foundation (TBF), the Center for Coastal Conservation (Center), the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) and the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) lauds the introduction of the FCTA and strongly supports the new bill. The coalition will continue to advocate with Members of Congress for their support of the bill and to seek additional sponsors.
While the Obama administration’s outreach to the recreational fishing and conservation community has been encouraging, the need to address the current fisheries management crisis is urgent given 2010 and 2011 MSA deadlines. After working to find solutions outside the legislative arena to address the unintended consequences of the 2006 MSA reauthorization, the coalition has determined that a legislative remedy such as the FCTA is the only option given the lack of feasible solutions outside the legislative arena.
After the 2006 MSA reauthorization, it became apparent that NOAA Fisheries was ill-prepared to implement new provisions to end overfishing by 2010 and 2011 without resorting to abrupt and precipitous fishery closures. Throughout its history, NOAA Fisheries has virtually ignored the recreational fishing sector, its $82 billion annual impact on the nation’s economy, its support of 533,000 jobs and its critical contributions to marine resource conservation. Under the current administration, NOAA is taking steps to improve their understanding and appreciation of recreational fishing and the wide array of associated boating and fishing industries. The FCTA establishes a logical transition time for NOAA Fisheries to make improvements to data collection that will lead to science-based management decisions instead of hasty closures by default.
FCTA has five key areas that will steer NOAA Fisheries back towards the true intentions of the overfishing amendments made to MSA in 2006. (See FCTA Fact Sheet for more details.)
- Filling gaps in MSA regarding multispecies fisheries by mandating specific conservation and science-based actions that would be taken in part to allow fishing for healthy stocks;
- Allowing reasonable time to transition to a new management framework that will deal more rationally and scientifically with rebuilding of stocks undergoing overfishing;
- Sharpening MSA economic assistance programs to insure funding is directed to those most affected by closures after carrying out full examination of who would be affected by closure;
- Requiring the agency to look at alternative fishery management measures to enhance the sustainability of an overfished stock and carry out more frequent stock assessments;
- Directing the agency, along with the National Academy of Science, to conduct a long-needed study on questions surrounding multispecies complexes and how all stocks in such a fishery can be managed for maximum yield.
Below are comments made today by the coalition’s group leaders:
American Sportfishing Association
Mike Nussman, President and CEO
“The sportfishing industry applauds Senator Nelson’s effort to re-inject balance and common-sense in our federal marine fisheries management system. The amendments in the Fishery Conservation Transition Act are a way to maintain and improve the conservation principles of the Magnuson-Stevens Act while addressing the current marine fisheries management crisis. NOAA Fisheries is being forced to make draconian fishing management decisions, such as the proposed closure on bottom fishing in large parts of the South Atlantic, based on inadequate data, including angler catch data, stock assessments and economic data. We support healthy fisheries and good fisheries management, but unnecessarily closing businesses and putting people out of work is unacceptable.”
The Billfish Foundation
Ellen Peel, President
“Our sincere thanks goes to Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida — the state with the most recreational fishing and boating constituents in the nation — for introducing this important piece of legislation. The Fishery Conservation Transition Act provides a fair, rational and competent rebuilding of marine fish stocks while avoiding massive, abrupt and unnecessary closures of important recreational saltwater fisheries. Nelson is a leader who all in our recreational fishing and boating community should appreciate.”
Center for Coastal Conservation
Jeff Angers, President
“This visionary legislation sets NOAA Fisheries on a path to ensure sound conservation of America’s marine resources. It is the path Congress intended when it reauthorized MSA in 2006, and it is the path to the kind of management that our fishery resources deserve.”
Coastal Conservation Association
Patrick Murray, President
“Recreational anglers have historically been the best conservationists and stewards of the resource. We need the federal government to recognize the value and importance of the angling community and for managers to take the necessary steps in data collection, stock assessments, and reallocation to implement the Magnuson-Stevens Act the way it was originally envisioned. We look forward to working with Sen. Nelson to begin building a new future for recreational anglers and our shared marine resources.”
Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation
Jeff Crane, President
“CSF and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus are working on behalf of the 13 million saltwater anglers and the businesses and jobs that depend on them in this effort to properly implement the true objectives of the reauthorized 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Act. This legislation is intended to give federal marine fisheries managers the time and resources necessary to address the chronic deficiencies in data collection and science that are resulting in massive and abrupt closures of popular recreational saltwater fishing areas.”
International Game Fish Association
Rob Kramer, President
“While it was our sincere hope that a solution to the current fisheries management crisis could be achieved without amending the Magnuson-Stevens Act, we are grateful for Sen. Bill Nelson’s efforts to craft legislation that retains the important conservation provisions within the Act. It is time to give NOAA Fisheries the necessary tools to properly implement MSA in the manner in which it was originally envisioned by Congress in 2006.”
National Marine Manufacturers Association
Thomas J. Dammrich, President
“Once again, Sen. Bill Nelson is offering common-sense, practical legislation that will help protect the great American tradition of boating and fishing while enhancing the ability for federal agencies to properly manage and conserve fisheries based on adequate and meaningful scientific data. Healthy and abundant fisheries and recreational access are the key to a strong boating and fishing industry, and we applaud Sen. Nelson for his leadership.”
Tags: Magnuson-Stevens Act, MSA, Nelson, S 3594
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Overwhelmed agency incapable of properly implementing law
Passage of the 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Act, the overarching law that manages America’s marine fisheries, revealed crippling deficiencies within the agency charged with implementing the law. Recently, a coalition of marine angling and industry groups launched an effort to improve the National Marine Fisheries Service’s efforts to manage the nation’s marine resources and the 13 million saltwater anglers who depend on healthy fisheries.
“We have the most conservation-oriented law we have ever had governing our marine resources, and the agency does not have the data, assessments, science or, frankly, the attitude, to adequately implement it,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “The result is that the agency has been reduced to managing fisheries by closure which was not the intent of the law when it was passed by Congress.”
In addition to requiring an end to all overfishing by 2011, the Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have a determination on the overfished status of every species under management, and have annual catch limits and accountability measures in place for them by a time certain as well.
“For far too many species, there is not any science at all to do that and to develop it will take one to three years for every single species,” said Brewer. “With its startling lack of data, there is no way NMFS can catch up on decades of work and the agency will be crushed by its lack of science. The entire federal management system will be forced to ignore real conservation and management issues, and simply manage by closure. The coalition is seeking a way to fulfill the conservation tenets of the law without driving the entire process into a train wreck.”
Current efforts to revise the Magnuson-Stevens Act, including the so-called “flexibility” legislation (H.R.1584 and S.1255) do not address the shortcomings of NMFS that are negatively impacting anglers and, in fact, jeopardize a number of the true conservation gains in the Act.
“H.R.1584 and S.1255 do not provide for better data-gathering or prevent the imposition of in-season closures when NMFS believes there is a danger of overfishing, nor do they improve recreational data and the way it is used. It just delays rebuilding,” said Brewer. “That is not where the problem lies.”
Among other administrative and appropriations requests, the coalition is urging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to convene a blue ribbon panel to identify the long-term data, statistical, research and funding needs of the regional fishery science centers. The outcomes of this panel will help to inform the appropriation needs related to recreational fishing data and statistics for NMFS and coastal state fishery agencies.
“There is a great deal of frustration among recreational anglers, much of it attributable to an agency that doesn’t have the ability to properly manage us,” said Pat Murray, president of CCA. “The shortcomings of NMFS have to be fixed, either administratively or by Congress. Recreational anglers deserve both a meaningful law, and an agency capably of implementing it.”
Tags: Magnuson-Stevens Act, MSA coalition
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Immediate administrative action needed to avoid significant problems with fisheries management
Today, a coalition of marine recreational fishing, boating, and conservation organizations and businesses called on the Obama administration to take immediate action to address a crisis within the federal fisheries management system.In a letter to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the American Sportfishing Association (ASA), The Billfish Foundation (TBF), the Center for Coastal Conservation (CCC), the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), and the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) laid out an initial framework to immediately address serious and escalating problems resulting from inadequate implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens FisheryConservation and Management Act and the chronic problems that exist within the federal marine fisheries management system.
The coalition emphasizes that there are available administrative actions that can be taken right away to address the concerns of the sportfishing and boating industries and the nation’s 13 million saltwater anglers who depend on well-managed, healthy marine fisheries. Read the full letter sent to Dr. Lubchenco HERE.
Given NOAA’s recent ban on recreational fishing for red snapper from North Carolina through Florida and the potential for additional bans on key recreational saltwater fisheries, much of the frustration that exists in the grassroots recreational fishing community over these management decisions has boiled over into organized protests including, one being held Wednesday, February 24, in Washington, D.C.
With today’s letter, the coalition called upon the administration to:
• Take decisive, immediate action to improve recreational fisheries data by redirecting existing funds and personnel to focus on real-time management data.
• Collect socio-economic data on recreational fishing in the communities most likely to be impacted by near-term or expected fisheries closures.
• Provide federal level direction to the fishery management councils to use common-sense in their management approaches while the administration collects the requisite data to make sound management decisions.
• Develop a recreational fishing program and staff within NMFS commensurate with the national economic contribution of recreational saltwater fishing.
The coalition’s groups look forward to working closely with the Obama administration and NOAA to implement solutions to effectively deal with our nation’s marine fisheries resources.
Below are comments made today by the coalition’s group leaders:
American Sportfishing Association
Mike Nussman, President and CEO
“We support healthy fisheries and good fishery management. It’s good for anglers, our business and our economy. We’ve developed common-sense administrative and appropriations proposals that address the need for timely, accurate data while preserving efforts to rebuild our marine fisheries. We see these as a starting point for actions that must be implemented to address the short and long term problems.”
“Unfortunately, what we are seeing now is crisis management rather than fisheries management and this must stop before more jobs are lost and more of the nation’s recreational anglers are unnecessarily shut out.”
The Billfish Foundation
Ellen Peel, President
“Stock assessments for recreationally important species have been a lower priority for NMFS than is justified by the economic contribution of the recreational fishing community. Recreational fishing accounts for only three percent of the marine finfish harvested by weight, yet it produces 56 percent of the jobs from all saltwater fisheries.”
The Center for Coastal Conservation
Jeff Angers, President
“The groups represented in this effort are demanding conservation-oriented measures that deliver the best possible opportunity not only for America’s anglers and the businesses that depend on them, but also for America’s marine resources to achieve their fullest potential. We expect to see the same commitment from NMFS. Their failure to do so has led to the current crisis of confidence and is threatening to bring the entire system to a standstill.”
The Coastal Conservation Association
Pat Murray, President
“There is a great deal of frustration among recreational anglers, much of it attributable to an agency that doesn’t have the data, the science or the will to properly manage us. Recreational anglers have always been willing to do what is right to maintain healthy marine resources, but it is hard to have faith in many of the management measures we are seeing out of NMFS right now. There is a better path than the one they are on.”
International Game Fish Association
Rob Kramer, President
“We must deal with the unintended consequences of the 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization. We hope that our recommendations will help to get this agency, on which 13 million recreational saltwater anglers depend, back on track.”
National Marine Manufacturers Association
Thomas J. Dammrich, President
“NOAA Fisheries’ severe restrictions on recreational fishing are a direct result of the agency’s failure to collect important data on these fisheries, including the impacts of recreational fishing and boating. Unless NOAA takes quick and decisive action to improve its data and management of recreational fisheries, these large-scale closures will drive down boat sales and negatively impact U.S. marine industry jobs.”
Tags: crisis, federal fisheries, Magnuson-Stevens Act, MSA coalition, train wreck
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By Ted Venker
TIDE
Jan/Feb 2010
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is the overarching law that manages America’s marine fisheries. It was first passed in 1976 and was reauthorized in 1996 and again in 2006.
Throughout its 30-plus-year history MSA has been dogged by a persistent problem that affected both recreational and commercial fisheries – its inability to end overfishing. Federal fisheries were allowed to limp along from one year to the next, under management plans that had only very small chances of actually recovering overfished populations. While the fishery management plans generated under earlier versions of MSA were short on delivering results, they did allow managers to avoid making any difficult decision that might raise the ire of users of the resource. It was an all-too-common occurrence for fisheries managers to knowingly adopt management regimes that allowed gross overfishing to continue and base all hopes for the future health of the resource on a confluence of factors that almost never materialized.
For anyone seeking to create sustainable, healthy marine resources, the shortcomings of MSA were frustrating.
As a result, when MSA was reauthorized in 2006 it put in place the strictest legal mandates ever seen in fisheries management in an effort to finally put an end to the intractable problem of overfishing. Among the unprecedented requirements was the cessation of all overfishing in U.S. waters by 2011 and the rebuilding of overfished species within a time certain. For the first time ever, ending overfishing had a firm deadline. In the quest for the robust, sustainable resources sought by recreational anglers, the new provisions of MSA seemed like the recipe, at last, for proper conservation of our marine resources.
Instead, those provisions cast a harsh light on the real root of the problem with federal fisheries: the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the very agency charged with managing them in the first place.
The case of red snapper in the South Atlantic is a good example. South Atlantic red snapper has been ignored by NMFS for the past 50 years or so. Federal managers had no idea what condition the stock was in until they conducted the first full, modern stock assessment and released the results almost on the same day that the new MSA was signed into law in 2007. At nearly the same instant the strictest legal mandates ever put into federal fisheries management were enacted, the agency in charge of managing this nation’s marine resources “discovered” that a popular species was at 3 percent of what is considered a healthy biomass. Under the new law, management of this species evolved in the blink of an eye from blissful ignorance to harsh proposals to close vast swaths of the South Atlantic to all bottom fishing – for any fish.
The new MSA mandates may be the recipe for good conservation, but in combination with an agency that has utterly failed to properly manage our marine resources they are going to cause some real short-term hardship. Users of the resource are rightfully irate at the prospect of closures for popular species, but have misdirected their ire at the new provisions of MSA, rather than at the agency which has failed to competently discharge its duties under the law. The recent edition of MSA is the most conservation-oriented fisheries management law we have ever had in this country, and its mandates are clearly needed to force managers to impose needed measures to rebuild our fisheries. But nothing in MSA requires the agency to shut down fisheries such as black sea bass or Gulf amberjack in order to address transient problems. Those recent examples of managing by closure are the result of failing to properly manage those fisheries in the first place, and that fault lies firmly with NMFS.
The new MSA assumed that the agency in charge of the nation’s fisheries had been regularly collecting the data and taking the necessary steps to properly manage our fisheries, if not to perfect health then at least to some semblance of sustainability. With the recent flurry of bad news in some fisheries, it seems clear that the agency has not made proper management either a policy priority or a budget priority, and now recreational anglers are paying the price.
Managing by closure is not what Congress had in mind when it reauthorized MSA in 2006, but that is little comfort to the hundreds of thousands of anglers that stand to be impacted by closures in the South Atlantic and elsewhere.
The reality that we are now facing makes it clear that NMFS simply was not ready for a law that mandates our marine resources be managed to sustainability, and that is a stunning revelation. The challenge now is to upgrade both NMFS’ capabilities and its attitudes, so that it is capable of upholding the law while avoiding massive, abrupt and unnecessary closures of important fisheries. NMFS must be compelled to meet its statutory responsibilities by doing all the things it has neglected to do in the past, which have paved the way to the present morass. It must improve data collection on recreational anglers and develop fishery independent data to model accurate stock assessments. It must prove to the public that its science truly is the best available science. It must win back the public trust.
MSA was reauthorized with sweeping reforms expressly designed to end overfishing and rebuild fisheries. It would be tragic to jeopardize all the positive elements contained in the law today because of heavy-handed federal management measures that are the result of serious and continuing managerial shortcomings. Amid all the controversy and debate surrounding some federal fisheries, it is important to remember that with the 2006 reauthorization of MSA, Congress intended to end overfishing, not end fishing.
Tags: Magnuson-Stevens Act, MSA, NMFS, overfished
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Unlikely combination of groups takes a stand for recreational angling
An impressive array of the major marine industry, recreational angling and environmental groups co-signed an October 22 letter to Dr. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Atmospheric and Ocean Administration (NOAA), calling for reform of recreational angling data collection by the federal government.
“This is the first time in history that the five largest ocean environmental groups and the seven most significant marine recreational groups have come together to push a solution to a fisheries problem. All these groups deserve credit for seeing the significance of the issue and agreeing to work toward fixing it,” said Robert G. Hayes, general counsel for Coastal Conservation Association (CCA).
The issue of recreational angling data collection has taken on greater significance due to the requirements of the revised Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). Those revisions require an end to overfishing by a time certain through the establishment of annual catch limits and the development of enforceable accountability measures. However, current data collection efforts fail to provide the data necessary to effectively implement those requirements and the result on the water has been shortened seasons, reduced bag limits and increased size limits.
“Closing down fishery after fishery for recreational anglers was not what Congress had in mind when it reauthorized the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 2006,” said Matt Paxton, CCA federal lobbyist. “There were many critically important conservation measures included in the reauthorization of MSA, but they are all dependent on a functioning, timely data collection system to work as intended. Without it, there is great risk that calls by some sectors to gut MSA will gain traction, and no one with a long-term commitment to healthy marine resources wants that.”
The 12 groups signed on the letter agreed that recreational anglers are not at fault for exceeding fishing quotas in some fisheries and acknowledged that anglers generally adhere to bag, season and size limits. The problem lies with the tools the federal government is using to monitor recreational catch.
“One way to avoid this never-ending spiral of further restrictions is to put in place a data collection system that makes the timely collection and analysis of recreational catch data a priority so that managers are able to take action before quotas are exceeded,” the letter states.
“The groups that signed on this letter do not always see eye-to-eye, but the fact that we are able to come together on recreational data collection shows the significance of this problem and the need for a real solution,” said Patrick Murray, president of CCA.
The groups urge NOAA to develop and fund a system to manage the recreational sector in compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and that such an effort be included in the President’s 2011 budget.
Click here to see the Letter to Dr. Jane Lubchenco
Tags: angling data, data, Magnuson-Stevens Act, recreational data
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Unprecedented fisheries disaster in South Atlantic needs calculated response
In late 2006, Congress passed a significantly strengthened Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management and Conservation Act, the overriding piece of legislation that guides federal fisheries management. Among other progressive provisions, the new law required managers to end overfishing by 2010. Only a year later, a stock assessment for South Atlantic red snapper, the first modern stock assessment ever done on the species, was released and proclaimed red snapper undergoing severe overfishing and so grossly overfished that it was instantly a full-blown crisis discovered right under managers’ noses.
Now those two events are colliding and recreational anglers from North Carolina to Florida are caught squarely in the middle.
“This is a perfect storm for fisheries management, and the system is clearly not designed to handle this type of unforeseen and unforeseeable situation,” said Richen Brame, Atlantic States Fisheries Director for Coastal Conservation Association (CCA). “If the science on red snapper is correct, then managers need to act. However, we believe that the measures that would be implemented for a stock that had been willfully mismanaged for 40 years should not be the same as those implemented for a stock such as this that has been ignored for 40 years and suddenly appears on the radar in a critically depressed condition.”
As a result, CCA is calling on the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to take a calculated approach to red snapper to mitigate the impact on recreational angling to the greatest extent possible, including:
· Further review of the existing science on red snapper to confirm the status of the stock;
· Additional research to fill critical gaps in researchers’ knowledge of the species for management;
· While complete closure of any fishery should be the means of a last resort for any species, if upon further review and research it appears necessary for red snapper, then the fisheries for all other bottom species should remain open;
· Additional federal funding for the development of better release practices to reduce red snapper release mortality;
· When the stock is recovered, it should be managed as a purely recreational fishery;
· Any proposal to close all bottom fishing will be opposed by CCA unless all other options have been thoroughly exhausted and such closures comply with specific criteria outlined in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, including timelines for reopening, periodic research and assessment requirements, and minimum size designations that are no larger than that needed to achieve the rebuilding objectives for red snapper.
“We need a scalpel, not a sledge hammer to manage this species. Massive bottom closures just do not fit the unique circumstances of this extraordinary case,” said Brame. “Anglers are willing to do their part and accept extensive regulations to keep marine resources healthy whenever necessary, but any proposals to close all bottom fishing should be the management tool of absolute last resort.”
Tags: Magnuson-Stevens Act, South Atlantic red snapper
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