 |
 |
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||
by John T. Koegler
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association March 2004 Newsletter)
Fishery management under Magnuson/Stevens Sustainable Fishery Management Act was created and written by Congress to provide sustainable fisheries for all users. However, the NMFS, Councils and Commission have consistently and deliberately provided the commercial sector with a quota advantage in every regulated fishery. NMFS did this despite the National Standards, which require that fish allocations (quotas) must be fair and equitable. Is it legal for these managers to continue to ignore this mandate of the Magnuson/Stevens act?
The NMFS illegal bias in commercial rules was clearly demonstrated when they approved the new fishery management rules for Dolphin and Wahoo. In approving this new management regulation NMFS unilaterally changed key commercial rules.
The first item was the removal of the commercial dolphin trip limit from the plan. The Second item was the removal of sargassum seaweed designation as essential fish habitat.
The howls of protest were long and loud. CCA government committee chairman Fred Miller said; “With the stroke of a pen, NMFS has essentially told the entire Council system that it should not pursue precautionary measures in fisheries management and should, instead, try to salvage a stock after it’s too late.” This is a joint plan of the Mid-Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean councils and the South Atlantic Council that has primary authority for the creation of the plan. This plan has been rejected twice previously by NMFS for reasons such as no landing quota for sargassum weed. This seaweed was called fish by NMFS , since they had unclear management authority over seaweed.
To remove the key commercial trip limit control makes the plan too weak to honestly manage the commercial sector of this fishery. Will NMFS then override the commercial quota limit and transfer uncaught recreational quota to the commercial sector? Just like bluefish? Surely such choices by the managers will destroy the recreational fishery for dolphin fish.
The big problem locally is a new dolphin minimum size of 20 inches imposed on the recreational anglers. Late summer anglers often find small 15” to 24 “dolphin collect around buoys, markers and weed lines in big numbers. Offshore tuna trips sometimes catch few or no tuna. Dolphin then becomes the only fish available. Now many of these dolphin fish will be catch and release only, since in northern waters there is not a major body of fish over the new 20inch fork length limit.