Bass could be next BYE BYE Groupers
RED SNAPPER BAN APPROVED BY SAFMC
RFA Sees More "Nickel and Diming" From Administration
(6/10/2010) Orlando, FL - Despite significant protest from the fishing community, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) this week voted 9-4 in favor of closing nearly 5,000 square miles of fishing grounds to all forms of bottom fishing. The wide scale ban was deemed necessary in order to protect red snapper being caught as bycatch by recreational fishermen while targeted other snapper and grouper species in the area which stretches from northern Florida to the Carolinas, encompassing depths of anywhere from 98 to 240 feet, extending out from approximately 3-1/2 miles to upwards of 230 miles.
Scripps Outdoors writer Ed Killer reported today in the TCPalm.com that the moratorium was widely criticized by fishermen in attendance for the SAMFC meeting in Orlando, particularly party and charter boat operators, as well as other local business owners who depend on recreational fishing in coastal economies and are "already on their last legs due to a lagging economy." According to the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), anglers throughout the South Atlantic region are bombarding their national headquarters in opposition to the closure.
"The SAFMC has ignored their sworn duty to follow the law (to use best available science) and passed this unwarranted regulation," said David Heil a representative of RFA Florida and RFA's legal counsel in an ongoing suit against the Secretary of Commerce on behalf of red snapper anglers. "They based this regulation on SEDAR 15 which has been "thrown in the trash" and is being replaced by SEDAR 24 coming out this fall. It was totally irresponsible for the SAFMC to request this regulation when they clearly knew that it was based on bad science. Our calls for the council to wait until the new data was available fell on deaf ears."
Heil is currently leading a legal challenge in opposition to the continued red snapper closures in the South Atlantic, and vowed to continue the fight until "this baseless regulation is overturned."
Council members voting to approve the ban said they were required to do so because of mandates within the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), the nation's primary federal fisheries law. Reauthorized by act of Congress in 2006, new language inserted into the law at that time dictated that fishery management plans must be put in place to end overfishing, within one-year, for any species deemed "overfished." Just one year after the restrictive new language was memorialized by the president's signature, a new stock report was issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that showed that red snapper was still considered an "overfished" stock.
According to RFA Executive Director Jim Donofrio, it's the statutory definitions of overfishing that have helped create much of the confusion within the community. "The statistical data is seriously flawed; we know that through the report of the National Academy of Sciences and the congressional mandate that NMFS fix the science." Donofrio explained that while councils have been reacting specifically to the federal mandates, NMFS has not. "SAFMC is meeting the statutory requirements of Magnuson, yet our federal fisheries service has failed to uphold their own required deadlines to roll out new statistical methodologies within the recreational sector, and that's killing our industry," Donofrio said.
"Undeniably, historic rebuilding efforts are occurring within the red snapper fishery, yet at the same time the Council is forced to take drastic measures to deal with the alleged overfishing now taking place," Donofrio said. "It's impossible for fishermen to go fishing and meet these ridiculous, arbitrary deadlines."
The council's decision this week will result in a long-term ban on both commercial and recreational fishing for all 73 managed snapper and grouper species, including common fish such as sheepshead. By preventing anglers from fishing for those species, SAFMC believes it will protect accidental harm from occurring to red snapper caught in those waters as bycatch. "Our administration is nickel and diming our fishing communities by shutting down access to these healthy and rebuilding fisheries," Donofrio said. "In light of what's happening in the Gulf right now, NMFS should've instituted a moratorium on these types of closures and restrictions based on flawed data and ideological rhetoric. This is not the change we had hoped for from this administration."
As early as 2004, RFA exposed blatant inaccuracies in the recreational data collection methods used by NMFS. Recent studies show the methodology currently being used is overestimating angler effort and harvest by up to 400%, which in turn has led to much of the questionable findings in the South Atlantic stock assessments. RFA also cited the far-reaching problems with the federal statutory definition of "overfishing" and during the reauthorization debate the political action organization clearly warned of the impending management problems if the statutory definitions weren't addressed. In a 2007 memo, then NOAA Assistant Administrator Dr. William Hogarth wrote "Based on the language included in the most recent reauthorization, 2010 will be a train wreck."
"Closing down fisheries is not fisheries management, it's punitive, pure and simple," Donofrio said. "The council could've thumbed their nose at these restrictive measures and sent a message back to NMFS that our fishing communities do not support these measures, and that would've been well within their right as representative of our fishing community. Regrettably, some of these council members seem to forget they were put there to represent the people, but they've become so councilized they're rubberstamping the will of NMFS, not of the people."
"They seem to forget who put them there in the first place," Donofrio said.
Florida Today reported that George Geiger, a council member and fly fisherman from Sebastian, suggested the SAFMC take this conservative approach, in case the next stock assessment isn't as "rosy" as fishermen hope. "We have actionable science that mandates that we move forward," Geiger said in support of his vote in favor of the ban. According to RFA Florida chapter member Dave Heil however, Geiger's decision to vote against the interests of Florida fishermen reflects poorly on Governor Charlie Crist who appointed Geiger to act as his representative to the SAFMC for the state of Florida.
"It is irresponsible of Governor Crist to put so many Floridians out of work based on known bad information in the present economy." Heil told Florida Today. "Our Governor is going to catch hell for the vote by our state rep on the council to close," Heil said later.
"When you look at this situation with red snapper, it's perfectly clear to us that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act needs to be reformed, and those conservation groups who continue to stand in the way of these efforts to fix the law are showing total disregard for the sad state of our coastal communities and hiding behind economic studies and flawed data, they're certainly not helping recreational fishermen," Donofrio said.
RFA is seeking legislative help in reforming the federal fisheries law, and is actively lobbying on behalf of HR1584 and S1255, the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act. On June 10th, a bipartisan coalition of Senators signed off on a letter to Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), formerly requesting a hearing in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to examine management of fisheries and its impact on coastal economies suffering from the recession. The cosigners have asked Sen. Rockefeller as Chairman to post the bill for review in the Committee in order "to consider possible policy responses, such as the one represented in S. 1255."
Click here to download a PDF version of the letter to Sen. Rockefeller.
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Originally Posted by finchaser
