Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:23 am Post subject: I was lying in bed this morning....
To All,
I was lying in bed this morning not able to sleep thinking about fishery management as a whole and how it has transpired over the years. Fishery data collecting even since the eighties has left holes in some sectors and weighed slightly heavier in others. The private recreational sector has basically very little to no data to base ACL’s from, and the lack of it over the years is causing grief. The charter guys up and down the coast I have spoke with recently, very few of them have ever been checked dockside or offshore and a majority have very few records to show landings. The commercial and head/boat fishermen have produced a majority of what’s being used to determine a lot of the factors going into management, including how many fish are in the sea and what is (or) is not sustainable.
I know from experience over the years, fishermen in general have built up a mistrust for the way some fishery management has been implemented and I now believe a lot of fishermen have been cautious or hesitant to cooperate . The bad thing about all of this (in my opinion) is the lack of fishery data is has now become our shortfall. This is what they are using to build and create management. When there’s no data the “Best Available Science” syndrome kicks in and we all suffer.
Another thing came to mind is the down turn in the economy for the recreational sector (charter, head/boat, private) . Since 2008 my personal for-hire business has been off by at least 20-30% and I know many others are in the same boat. Not as many private boats going offshore, not as many people chartering or going on the head boats. The oil spill in the Gulf hurt many fishing families, but it also caused a series gap in fishery data collection for that area. The problem I am seeing with this proposed catch shares program which is being rammed down our throats (with the help of EDF and PEW) is this lack of days at sea some of us don’t have b/c of either the economy, weather, mechanical break-downs, sickness, environmental disasters (oil spill), etc, etc.
We have a lack of fishery data, not only b/c of an incompetent fishery data collection system, but also b/c of a lack of days at sea, (which is out of our control) which is also going to add up to a lack of catch shares. Some people are going to receive very small piece of the pie, some will get a larger portions. There will be a weeding out process and a lot of fishing families across this nation will suffer or will not survive.
I really don’t see anything good coming unless we are able to amend the law. I have spoke to all of the people in the SA region in charge of making these regulations and they are all singing the same tune now, some more vibrantly than others! They all say the law is what is hurting the fishermen (not them) and there’s nothing they can do about it!
Kind of strange though to me how Dr. Roy Crabtree (NMFS) can pull a rabbit out of his hat at times and delay certain actions or extend certain closures if he wants too, or maybe its just b/c I don’t understand his power, and how this is done. Not quite sure!
Even if we don’t like it we have to realize that the regulators are going to use the standards and procedures required of them and the data they have available to determine what is going to be handed down to us and they are going to establish laws whether we like them or not based off of this. We are in a catch twenty-two and the re-authorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries and Conservation Act of 2006 escalated this whole thing to where it is now putting the cart before the horse as such. The laws are being created before there is science to support the law!
Another issue I heard at the semi-annual SEDAR meeting held here in Charleston this past October is that not only is there a lack of government funding for the science, there is a lack of scientists to do the research. Bonnie Pontwith told the committee that when they do find someone qualified to do the studies or scientific research on whatever it is they are usually taken away by the enticement of a better job with more money by another agency leaving just another gap in the process which again hurts us!
The only way we can possibly fight this and I’ll say it again is to contact our legislators and have them support efforts to change or amend this re-authorization of the fishery law of the land the Magnuson-Stevens Act. If we don’t we will be subjected to this at least till 2016 when it is re-authorized again, but I don’t see the environmental groups lying back and letting this happen so easily either. They will fight any changes tooth and nail. They have the noose around our neck and they are tightening it and don’t want to let go.
With each one of these regulation amendments comes just another nail in the coffin for many of us and with more and more on the horizon, I’m not sure how much longer I can even tread water, so we better either jump ship or buck up here soon and work together calling politicians in our local areas and getting their support or the alternatives are real bad!
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