Capt_Keith
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Joined: Apr 02, 2009
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Location: Myrtle Beach SC
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 Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:53 pm Post subject: Debate over fishing quotas heats up again |
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WASHINGTON — A long-simmering debate over federal fishing quotas and their economic impact on Florida and other coastal states could reach a boiling point this year as Congress considers changes to a landmark marine conservation law.
The fishing industry is pressuring Congress to ease annual catch limits for summer flounder, red snapper, and other species, saying quotas are squeezing commercial and recreational fishing businesses and depriving coastal communities of billions in revenue.
The issue is particularly emotional along the Gulf Coast of Florida, where catch limits on grouper and red snapper and other federally managed fish have ravaged industry-dependent businesses, including restaurants, hotels and charter boat operations.
Ron Crum, a former commercial fisherman who owns a bait and tackle shop in Panacea, said the local fishing industry is disappearing because of high fuel costs and federal restrictions.
“People come by my door (who have) been with me 10 or 15 years … and they’re going back to Tennessee, North Georgia and to other places,” he said. “We’re creatures of habit. You manipulate these people around (by cutting) the season, and they will quit.”
Critics like Crum accuse the government of using outdated science to set the catch limits under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. They can’t understand why such severe restrictions are in effect when they see so many snapper and other fish swimming under their boats.
And, they say, the Obama administration has not properly implemented the law because economic consequences such as the effect on coastal businesses are not being taken into consideration. Crum said recently imposed limits on gag grouper will sting the Gulf Coast this year.
The administration and environmentalists are pushing back, saying catch limits must remain in place to prevent overfishing of species that were decimated before Congress adopted the law in 1976 and began to rebound only in the past 15 years or so.
Federal officials imposed the ban on red snapper in 2010 based on two peer-reviewed studies, said Holly Binns, director of the Southeast and U.S. Caribbean Fish Conservation Campaign for the Pew Environment Group in Tallahassee.
The first study, conducted in 2008, found the snapper population at 3 percent of healthy levels, she said. The second, done in 2010 after fishermen raised concerns about the validity of the first study, found stocks between 11 and 14 percent of healthy levels.
“All of the studies that have been conducted come back with the same general storyline: red snapper over-fished,” Binns said. “They’re being caught much more quickly than they can reproduce, and there are nowhere near enough of the older, better breeders in the population that you need to keep the population healthy over the long term. They’ve got to have a break.”
The debate comes as the government expands its efforts to prevent overfishing and prepares to issue a host of new fishing quotas.
In the coming months, the Obama administration will finish issuing catch limits covering all 528 federally managed marine species found within 200 miles off U.S. coasts, something scientists say no other country has done. President George W. Bush signed the limits into law in 2006.
Eric Schwaab, an acting assistant Commerce secretary, said lifting catch limits even temporarily could decimate many marine species that are slowly rebuilding. He dismissed criticisms that the administration is bowing to pressure from the environmental community with little regard for commercial or recreational fishermen.
“Addressing overfishing is as much about protecting the economic opportunities of current and future generations of fishermen as it is about protecting the integrity of ocean ecosystems,” said Schwaab, who headed the National Marine Fisheries Service until recently. “Even though we have a lot more fish out there … catch limits are necessary to ensure that we sustain that success.”
But Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, said assessments from the National Marine Fisheries Service show that many previously threatened species such as summer flounder are no longer overfished. He said that proves it’s safe to let fishermen catch more of the rebounding fish stocks.
Catch-limit proponents “have no dog in the fight other than they have an agenda to get us off the water,” Donofrio said. “What we need now is a quick-fix amendment to allow access to rebuilt and rebuilding stocks. And I mean healthily rebuilding stocks, not stocks that are down at the bottom of the rebuilding scale.”
Legislators representing East Coast states have introduced at least eight bills in this Congress to retool the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Authors or co-sponsors from Florida include Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, and Steve Southerland, R-Panama City. Southerland who has hammered federal officials about catch limits in Gulf Coast waters.
“This thing about just totally shutting down a fishery with bad science and bad data is ludicrous,” Southerland said.
He said the new regulations are akin to “turning off the life support for these small businesses that are struggling to survive.”
Southerland said federal officials based decisions on improper data, such as how many boats are registered in an area.
“I’ve had boats that I own that didn’t see the water for three years,” he said.
New Jersey Republican Rep. Jon Runyan wants to require outside groups to review the science used to set catch limits. He’s also got a bill permitting fishermen to catch species whose numbers are rebounding ahead of the 10-year rebuilding timeframe Congress approved in 1996.
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