Posted: January 20th, 2012
In response to an editorial in the New York Times today headlined “A Milestone In Fisheries Management,” we have submitted the following letter to the editor:
Dear Editor:
NOAA Fisheries’ proud proclamation to have put catch limits in place for all stocks under management would be wonderful news, if it had any roots in fact or could possibly translate into any good result. Unable to muster the science to manage to the threshold specified by the Magnuson Stevens Act, NOAA Fisheries declared victory without even running the race. It put a catch limit on every stock under management. On paper. And environmentalists cheered.
The agency’s approach to fisheries management is strikingly similar to the one that gave the public Prohibition in the 1920s, and the results are likely to be the same. Prohibition, which made criminals out of ordinary citizens overnight, didn’t work because it was promoted by a small, hardcore group of extremists who didn’t drink alcohol. The idea was to control excessive use of alcohol so they prohibited it completely as if that would do the trick. Here they have claimed to prohibit overfishing by putting in annual catch limits with no data to establish them, determine if they have been exceeded or even what impact they have on the stock or overfishing.
With Prohibition, the country turned itself inside out, spent billions of dollars on a misguided campaign and took more than 10 years to correct its course. By proclaiming the fisheries equivalent of “Mission Accomplished,” NOAA Fisheries has committed itself to similar management by illusion.
Sincerely,
Ted Venker
Conservation Director
Coastal Conservation Association
Posted: December 20th, 2010
- Weatherby Orion D’Italia III O/U 20 Ga. Jeff Wallen
- Browning Abolt II Mountain Titanium 300wsm Jamie Tyler
- CZ Bobwhite 12ga with case hardened receiver. Robbie Freeman
- Browning BPS 12 Ga. 3.5 inch mag. Chandler Street
- Springfield Armory XD 9mm. Karson Corley
- Mossberg Just-in-Case 12 Ga. Marine shotgun. Michael Kennedy
- Kel-tec P 380 Craig Levelle
- Mossberg 500 youth 20 Ga. Thomas Hughes
- New England Firearms Protector 12 Ga. Tactical Shotgun. Pete Loy
- Remington 597 22LR. John Page
Posted: December 11th, 2010
Mark your calendar’s now and plan to join us for a weekend long celebration of 25 years of Marine Conservation!
February 11 & 12, 2011 Omar Shrine Temple, Mt Pleasant, SC
Log in soon for more information
Posted: October 20th, 2008
In my work as the CCA’s Atlantic States and South Atlantic fisheries director, I find myself occasionally reminded of the time I found some old photos of my grandfather waterfowl hunting – grainy black and whites of old boats loaded with ducks and geese. Not knowing he had ever even been a duck hunter, I asked him why he stopped.
“Because they put limits on them,” was the answer.
The limit at the time, the one that was so onerous it drove him from the sport, was 25. Fast forward 80 years and most duck hunters today are happy with a 60-day season and a five or six duck bag limit. My, how times have changed.
We are in similar waters, so to speak, with many marine species today. From a time not so long when there were no closed seasons and few size or bag limits to today, when it seems everywhere you look there is talk of months-long closures and very restrictive bag limits.
It is a hard reality for many anglers and I am often asked the question, how did it ever get to this point?
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? – While part of the answer is simply that more people are moving to the coast and fishing with better technology than ever before, the real answer is that managers dropped the ball rather spectacularly in the past by not making the hard decisions to either recover depleted stocks or prevent depletion. They were more inclined to favor arguments about the short-term economic hardship caused by restrictive regulations and tried to achieve the impossible by crafting regulations that attempted to restore the stock, but not impact anyone’s business or pleasure time too much.
Predictably, they accomplished neither. Half-measures seldom are successful.
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Posted: September 10th, 2007
Comments on Amendment 16 of the SAFMC Snapper Grouper Fishery Management Plan
CCA supports measures that end over fishing within Magnuson – Stevens Act time line and rebuilding schedule as long as the reductions are based on a peer reviewed stock assessment and they occur equitably in both sectors. Both vermillion snapper and gag grouper are undergoing over fishing, gag grouper are projected to become over fished in 2007.
MANAGEMENT MEASURES – If closed seasons are necessary to achieve the required reduction in fishing mortality, we believe they should occur during the spawning season for both sectors at the same time.
ALLOCATION – We are troubled by the use of historic landings as the primary method to set the allocation between the commercial and recreational sectors for a number of reasons:
1. The human population along the Atlantic coast has increased significantly in the past 20 years, presumably causing an increase in the number of anglers wanting access to the marine fishery resource.
2. There are changes in habitat that may have affected populations within the snapper-grouper complex.
3. The primary data used to compare the recreational harvest to the commercial harvest is the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistic Survey data, whose accuracy is unknown.
4. There have been many changes in regulations during the past 20 years, affecting either sectors ability to harvest fish within the complex, the effect of these changes are not reflected the proposed allocations.
5. It does not take into account the economic value of either sector.
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