News Release

Coastal Conservation Association South Carolina
      3037-B McNaughton Dr., Columbia, SC 29223

  Email: ccasc@bellsouth.net   Website: www.ccasouthcarolina.com

 

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 23, 2008                                        CONTACT: Scott Whitaker, 1-803-865-4164

                                                                                                                       

FEDS CITE “RESEARCH” FOR ALLOWING SWORDFISH LONGLINE BOATS IN CHARLESTON BUMP PROTECTED AREA

 

Columbia, S.C. – Over objections from the recreational fishing community, state fisheries committees, and federal regional management councils, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has issued Exempted Fishing Permits (EFP) for three commercial longlining boats to fish for “research purposes” in the Florida East Coast and the Charleston Bump closed areas.

       

“Even after hearing overwhelming objections from the public and private sectors including the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Governor’s Cup Billfish Series Board, the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, and the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), NMFS decided to issue the permits” said Mike Able, CCA South Carolina Government Relations Committee Chairman. “Clearly the written and spoken comments they received in opposition to such an action in 2007 were disregarded.”

 

In 2000, as a result of a lawsuit filed by conservation groups, NMFS was forced to set up the protected areas in which the use of pelagic longlines was prohibited. The area known as the Charleston Bump is included in the protected areas and is highly popular destination for South Carolina recreational anglers. The 2000 ruling has been heralded by many as a success in helping rebuild many pelagic fisheries such as swordfish. The EFP permit issued by NMFS is the third such proposal to put the longline boats back into the Protected Areas. As new proposals appeared over the last seven years, the stated need for the research has changed. One of the new reasons, as outlined in the permit approval, is to determine whether the protected areas are actually working to restore pelagic fisheries.

 

“The 2000 ruling has been heralded by many as a success in helping rebuild many important pelagic fisheries such as swordfish as well increasing the abundance of wahoo, sailfish, and dolphin” said CCA South Carolina Executive Director Scott Whitaker. “The idea that longlining for a year in these protected areas is the best practice for determining their effectiveness in rebuilding pelagic fisheries is, quite frankly, absurd. Their fishing practices research could be done outside of the protected areas.”

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CCA South Carolina’s sister chapter, CCA Florida, also noted in its opposition to the permits examples of inequitable allocations of fisheries to small numbers of commercial longline boats. In the Gulf of Mexico, the federal process has determined that as much as 81 percent of red grouper harvest should be taken by commercial interests. Recreational fishers have been continuously reduced to the point where the recreational bag limit is only one fish, with the addition of another one-month closure. CCA filed a lawsuit in 2005 against NMFS when it attempted to enact Interim Rules to close the entire Gulf of Mexico to all recreational take, for all groupers, for three months. CCA won the lawsuit and only red grouper was limited. During the battle, it was shown that commercial longline boats take the majority of the commercial allocation of red grouper. It was also shown that just 25 commercial longline boats took more red grouper than what was allocated to all the recreational fishers in the entire Gulf of Mexico.

 

CCA South Carolina will continue to oppose such actions to put commercial longline boats back into protected areas were longlining has been determined to be detrimental in the overfishing and exploitation of marine fisheries.

 

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