Terry Lacoss
With a declining coastal economy and a multitude of fishing restrictions facing both recreational and commercial fishermen, NOAA recently held a recreational fishing summit to find answers.
Donna Kalez, a long time deep sea party boat operator out of California’s Dana Point Warf, has a major problem facing her party boat captains: The overpopulation of sea lions are eating all of their fish!
“There are no restrictions on what sea lions can, and cannot eat,” Donna Kalez said. “We are faced with two hurtles: first, the sea lions eating all of our fish and, second, more and more restrictions by NOAA on our fishery.”
Yulee, Florida’s Kenny Crawford is both a recreational and commercial fishermen, also an accomplished Southern Kingfish Association competitor.
“A major problem with obtaining accurate red snapper data concludes that each commercial catch slip that I fill out does not ask for the size of the red snapper that I have caught, just the weight,” Crawford said. “I have noticed the size of the red snapper that I have been catching has increased dramatically each year. This is a good sign that the red snapper fishery is not only getting better, but we have all sizes of red snapper, particularly the large adult red snapper that spawn new generations of red snapper. I have actually been releasing the larger red snapper so that they will have the opportunity to spawn new generations of red snapper and filling my fish boxes and quota with smaller red snapper that are in more demand by seafood markets and seafood lovers too.”
“When the NOAA shut down our red snapper fishing on the East Coast, many of the commercial red snapper fishermen began targeting king mackerel. Soon, commercially caught king mackerel began to flood the commercial market and brought the price of king mackerel down from $3.00 per pound to $1.00 per pound. It also put undue fishing pressure on a healthy stock of game fish.”
Alexandria, Virginia was the site of the recently held Saltwater Recreational Fishing Summit, April 16-17, 2010. The Summit was held by the National Ocean Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) to gather knowledge from a wide and diversified group of recreational fishermen who came to the meeting from all parts of coastal USA. NOAA also appointed twenty individuals from a variety of coastal USA areas to their new Marine Fishery Advisory Committee (Working Group). I have personally been appointed to the MFAC working group representing the Southeast.
Several factors led to the meeting and are driven to begin a better working relationship with the recreational fishing community and NOAA. While President Obama has made a strong commitment to decrease the national deficit, coastal communities will need extra attention because of recent fish closures. The Magnuson-Stevens Act calls for keeping levels of saltwater game fish at a level that prevents over-fishing, which has currently led to closing red snapper fishing in the South Atlantic Fishery. A main topic of discussion was “Data.” Many saltwater fishermen are questioning the recent methods used to collect data on economically important game fish, such as red snapper.
Ultimately, the closing of red snapper fishing in the South Atlantic Fishery led to a demonstration of fishermen at the footsteps of the Washington Capital including 5,000 fishermen on February 24th.
Newly appointed Administrator of NOAA, Dr. Jane Lubchenco addressed the meeting. Dr. Lubchenco is the first woman and the first marine ecologist to lead NOAA.
“NOAA is committed to the recreational fishing community” Dr. Lubchenco said. “You want to be heard and I will make you no “hollow promises.” I totally understand that recreational fishing is good for our nation’s economy. Your passion is my passion. We strive for better alternatives than long time closures while partnership between NOAA and the recreational fishing community brings huge benefits. Time’s a wasting, let’s get to work”!
Assistant Administrator for NOAA, Eric Schwaab, also pointed out that extra monies have been budgeted from NOAA for the Southeast. Recent fish closures in the Southeast have caused controversy and a poor coastal economy.
The big bombshell was Amendment 17-A that could close red snapper fishing in the South Atlantic Fishery for many years to come. Fishermen along this fishy coastline are wondering why their red snapper fishery has been closed when red snapper fishing has been steadily improving during recent years.
“Five fishing seasons ago, it was actually very difficult to catch a legal snapper,” Amelia Island’s Gary Palmer said. “We were catching a lot of undersize red snapper, measuring less than the 20-inch legal size limit. During the past few fishing seasons, red snapper fishing has really come on. Before the recent red snapper closure, we seldom went bottom fishing without catching two legal red snapper per angler. The current red snapper regulations are working, I just can’t see why they justified closing one of our most cherished fisheries, red snapper fishing.”
Craig Severence, University of Hawaii, reminded the 170 attendees of the recently held Saltwater Recreational Fishing Summit, that native Hawaii fishermen don’t have any fishing regulations.
“We live on an open island surrounded by lots of water and fish too,” Severance said. “We eat the whole fish, including the head!”
I have personally witnessed a huge change in our saltwater fishery since taking up a career in charter fishing in 1978. During my early days of saltwater fishing you could keep just about everything that our charter clients caught. When passing navigating the Northeast Florida’s St. Mary’s inlet, a fleet of over a hundred shrimp boats could be seen fishing both in Florida and Georgia waters. Their by-catch collected in tide rips where a variety of game fish could be seen feeding on the surface. We simply scooped up floating fish, barbed them and cast them to nearby sharks, cobia, king mackerel, and tarpon. It was non-stop action and new clients lined up on the charter docks waiting for the next available charter boat.
Today there are only a handful of shrimp boats and to be a successful charter boat captain, you will need to run to deep water to find fish for your clients.
Obviously, a major problem that has caused a decline in near shore fishing includes pollution from increased coastal development. Pollution has affected a variety of game fish, particularly sea trout and baitfish. With a lack of near shore baitfish schools, a variety of game fish have now relocated out into deep water where bait fish schools are more plentiful and water quality is ideal. Here, a major trend in king mackerel tournaments finds most of the winning king mackerel coming from deep water structure instead of inlet mouths and from along the beaches.
The effects of coastal pollution by industry and increased waterfront communities results in loss of sea grasses and oyster beds that both filter impurities from saltwater.
There is still plenty of shrimp to be caught, which seem to survive in a variety of water conditions, however most shrimp boats have been forced out of business because of rising fuel and insurance costs, foreign shrimp imports, and farm raised shrimp.
On the East Coast, Billy Burbank of Burbank Nets remembers back in the 1970s when there were close to 10,000 shrimp boats harvesting shrimp in Florida. Back then his company manufactured some 3,000 shrimp nets per year. This year Burbank Nets manufactured 20 shrimp nets and have switched their production to baseball backstop nets during past years.
On the West Coast, Pam Anderson operates one of Florida’s largest charter fishing ports, Panama City’s Anderson’s Marina.
“I believe our government went to sleep at the wheel,” Anderson said. “We wish to keep working, which is in the best interest of our country’s economy. Our business has fallen off 50% - 70% from what it was back in 2001. We can’t fish 75 days each year and make a living, which is our current season for red snapper. Our family run business has been in operation since 1955, believe me there are more red snapper in our waters today than there were in 1955! A major problem has come with 75% of the direction for recreational and commercial fishing coming from environmental groups of individuals and only 25% from recreational.”
Recreational and commercial fishermen may also be faced with new regulations including NOAA’s proposed “catch shares.” Many recreational fishermen strongly appose “catch shares” and are unwilling to stop fishing when a recreational quota has been filled. Simply said, current recreational fishing limits and regulations are working!
I believe NOAA is headed in the right direction by creating a major communication line with the recreational community. The economics of recreational fishing in 2006 found, 82-billion dollars in sales, 24-billion dollars income and 533,817 recreational fishing jobs. For more information visit http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov
Angler magazine, June 2010
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