Highly Migratory Species Report

After January 1, 2010 the USCG has changed their physical report needed to renew your captain’s license from a previous two-page report to a new very detailed 9-page report, CG-719 K.

The USCG new physical report is very detailed and amounts to a total list of all conditions that require a prescription or doctor’s visit going back many years. The report also requires a listing of all over-the-counter products including vitamin and mineral supplements. Anything reported requires an additional explanation. Instructions to your doctor for making the new report are a mere 75 pages long.

You must submit your paperwork at least 3 months or earlier before it is due. The USCG is being very exacting on all paperwork submitted to your regional center. If anything is wrong, your entire package will be returned by mail with a note. USCG licenses are no longer being issued by the regional center but only by the West Virginia office that alone issues your new certificate in a passbook-type booklet.

Another new requirement is a copy of your Transportation Workers Identification Card (TWIC) card, front and back.

In addition, there are extra lines on most previous forms that require additional paperwork or documentation. One example is: if you certify your own sea time, you must send in a copy of your boat’s registration or if a leased boat, a copy of the lease.

Another example is: If you are part of a random drug testing group, new certificates are now mandated that are printed on copy-proof paper.

Those applying for a captain’s license for the first time must pass a New Evaluation of Fitness required for Entry Level Ratings CG-719 K/E. This is much tougher than the renewal physical requirements. It specifies several tough actual physical activities that must be preformed and passed that were never required before. Now a Body Mass Index (BMI) evaluation may be required if the USCG believes you are overweight.

These forms are available from the internet at www.regulations.gov. Insert USCG-2009-0937 in the “Keyword” box and then click “Search.”

NMFS issued their 2010 bluefin quota. It was the same as their 2009, without accounting for 2009 carryovers. Also missing was their estimated angler bluefin tuna landings for school and large school small medium bluefin. There was a request made to NMFS from an environmental group to impose a cities listing on US bluefin tuna. I have not seen an answer from NMFS.

For the fourth consecutive year, US commercial swordfish landings have failed to equal the US ICCAT quota by a major amount. As of October 31, it was one million pounds (DW) short of the US quota. The US domestic quota was always filled before a flood of imported frozen swordfish lowered the dockside price to a point where commercial fishermen cannot afford to swordfish when anything but a good catch was assured. This substantially reduced the US fishing effort. But what government agency cares that NAFTA and GATT have destroyed many domestic businesses, because the domestic business could not compete with foreign workers who are paid only 50 cents per hour.

Most Large Coastal Shark quotas were filled. Small coastal shark quotas were 51.9% filled. Pelagic Sharks other than Porbegale or Blue shark were 17.7% of assigned quota. NMFS assigned Pelagic shark quota of 488 mt. DW has never been filled.

Could it just be the commercials are over fishing this shark complex? Is NMFS’ estimated quota wildly optimistic? NMFS reports they have no documentation for defining overfishing in this complex because of the poor data! But NMFS is currently considering listing Mako shark as overfished even though anglers limit is a single shark per single boat trip. In addition, Mako is the only large shark targeted by anglers!

Surely, NMFS does not desire to address the shark biology issue! Many fishery scientists have often and clearly stated that due to large shark biology it is totally impossible to ever have a sustainable large shark directed commercial fishery! No directed commercial large shark fishery has ever been sustainable world wide. Is this just another violation of the Magnuson Act by NMFS? But who wants to count!