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

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Comments on Amendment 16 of the SAFMC Snapper Grouper Fishery Management Plan

CCA Comprehensive Finfish Plan  - a Conservation Victory 
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Local News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 28, 2008

Bluefin on the Brink

HOUSTON, TX – The Coastal Conservation Association Board of Directors is calling for Atlantic harvest levels of bluefin tuna to be reduced to levels supported by science and is urging the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to require all member nations to adopt such quotas by emergency action. 

If ICCAT refuses to do so, CCA believes that the only alternative is a complete closure of the Atlantic  bluefin tuna fishery and an international curtailment of trade. The call to action was outlined in a letter from CCA National Chairman Walter W. Fondren III to Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne.

“Many marine scientists believe bluefin are on the verge of a stock collapse, and there are indications here in the US that the stock has already crashed,” said Robert G. Hayes, CCA general counsel.  “Sometimes all you are left with is the truth, and the painful truth now is that nothing less than emergency action can reverse the years of overfishing that resulted from exceeding quotas that in themselves were set too high.”

Tuna range throughout the Atlantic from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Mexico. As one of the most valuable fish in the sea, bluefin tuna are targeted throughout their range by the fishing fleets of many nations while fishery managers on either side of the Atlantic have been unable or unwilling to agree on an effective recovery plan. Catches from the eastern stock of bluefin, spawned in the Mediterranean, have exceeded scientific advice by almost 400 percent for at least the last five years. Rebuilding plans for the western stock, spawned in the Gulf of Mexico, have also been a complete failure, with the U.S. unable to catch its quota for the past three years.

“The focus has been on the business side of this fishery for far too long and greed has been the driving force in its management,” said Charles Witek, vice chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “CCA has long known that focusing on anything other than the health of the resource is the first step to ensuring its demise. Bluefin are another tragic example of what happens when you put business and fishermen first.”

The moratorium would have to be adopted by the member nations of ICCAT, a United Nations chartered fishery organization responsible for the conservation of such recreationally and commercially important species as tuna, swordfish and marlin in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. The organization was established by treaty in 1969 and is the only organization that can undertake the range of work required for the study and management of tunas and other key migratory species in the Atlantic. 

 “As is so often the case, the American fisherman is not responsible for driving bluefin tuna to the brink of collapse, but they are going to have to be a part of the solution to salvage what is left,” said Dr. Russell Nelson, CCA’s Gulf fisheries consultant.

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Press Release 08/02/06

A coalition of coastal counties (Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Georgetown and Horry Counties) is conducting studies of county boat ramps to assess site conditions, user satisfaction, safety issues and economic impact. Zande-Jon Guerry Taylor, P.E. Inc., has been selected to conduct the studies. The firm is located in Mt. Pleasant and specializes in waterfront structures planning, permitting and design. Over the summer, interviewers will be stationed at various public boat ramps to conduct surveys of boat ramp users. Additionally a mail out survey will be sent to a list of boat registrants in the selected counties. A web page (www.sccoastalboatramps.com) has also been set up with an on line survey to receive comments and to keep the public informed of the progress of the project. Boat ramp users in the target counties are invited to provide information to the study even if you do not live in the same county where the boat ramp is located.

Please call Guerry Taylor or Craig Pawlyk (843-884-6415) if there are any further questions on this press release or the study.

CCA SC’s Proactive Position to Fisheries Management in South Carolina

Late 2005, the Government Relations Committee of CCA South Carolina began to work on strategy for the coming 2006 legislative secession concerning issues that were of importance to CCA SC’s membership; namely following up on the “limited Authority” bill. During that period of time it was debated that an alternative plan containing conservation benefits to our marine resources may be in order given the reluctance by the House of Representatives to “Limited Authority”. It was decided to formulate an aggressive proposal consisting of several recreational important species, all of which were found in “Limited Authority”, and present it to the General Assembly and request that they act on the plan as a whole and not on a species by species basis as has been the traditional manner in South Carolina. It also emphasized a new PROACTIVE approach to fisheries management by the DNR and South Carolina by attempting to get out in front of potential fisheries problem instead of simply reacting to them. “Given the current and future pressures, we must be more proactive in our vigilance if we are going to enjoy the relative abundance of our marine resources we now experience in South Carolina” said Mike Able, CCA SC Government Relations Committee Chairman. Given the nature of the proposal, it was decided to present this to the General Assembly first before taking it to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in an attempt to gauge the response of the legislators, since after all, they make the marine regulatory decisions in South Carolina not the DNR. To our surprise, there appeared to be an open mindedness concerning this initiative. CCA was requested to present this to the DNR for further consideration. That is where the proposal seems to have been slowed. After several discussions and meetings with DNR’s top Administrators, and including a public meeting of the Marine Advisory Committee (MAC) which voted unanimously in favor of the proposal, it was decided that this issue has merit but should be taken through a public scoping/hearings stage. It is our understanding that this should be done in order to discover the public’s support of the DNR moving their policy towards a more proactive approach as well finding out if additional species should be added to the proposed list in CCA’s comprehensive management plan. Included in this issue is the final version of CCA South Carolina’s management plan that has been presented to the General Assembly, the DNR, and the MAC. Currently any action to the plan is being postponed until such time as the DNR can conduct these public scoping/hearings and gain support for moving forward with this approach. Meetings are slated to begin in mid June and be finished by July 31st for presentation to the MAC and full DNR board on the findings no later than August & September. CCA will no doubt be aggressively involved with these proceedings and will call upon the grassroots machinery to be present and vocal at these meetings. A table of the meetings is listed on page 11 regarding dates and locations around the state. Please mark your schedule accordingly. Unless mentioned otherwise, all times will be 7 o’clock through 9 o’clock p.m. This process will only be effective if it has participation form the recreational fishing community. “If we can not change the system in which we currently operate, then we must require more from that system for proactive fisheries management practices” said Tombo Milliken, CCA SC State Chairman. “It is our belief that CCA’s comprehensive finfish plan and proactive position, along with strong public outcry, will be the catalyst that could lead to just that” he added. For more information on the events that have transpired with this proposal, or to follow up on meeting schedules in your area, contact the CCA state office at (803) 865-4164.