Highly Migratory Species Report

by John T. Koegler

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association March 2000 Newsletter)

A new President has taken office. He has a new cabinet. This normally means a change at the top administrative position in fisheries management. Sometimes there is a change in policies with new leadership. At this time there is a critical need for important changes internationally with regards to Highly Migratory Species (HMS). There is a crying need for both changes in policy and international management at ICCAT (International Commission to Conserve Atlantic Tuna). This international Atlantic Ocean management organization has allowed all commercially important HMS fisheries to be overfished. Several of these HMS species are considered by knowing scientists as being in a decimated state.

ICCAT's own statistics strongly support a change in the US position. ICCAT papers report that the bluefin tuna population has dropped sharply.Some statistical tables indicate the Western Atlantic Stocks of bluefin tuna have dropped by 95% from their estimated unfished status. Marlins are close behind with a 90% drop for White Marlin and an 80% drop for Blue Marlin stocks. Atlantic bigeye stocks have dropped by 72% and North Atlantic Swordfish by 64%. All represent major decreases in population numbers from when ICCAT first began management.

halt the sharp decline of bluefin tuna throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The US joined in 1976 when Congress approved the Atlantic Tuna Consevation Act. We are represented at ICCAT by a State Department Commissioner with two assistant commissioners, one recreational and one commercial. The US position was to lead the conservation of all HMS species, "leading by our conservation example." The US was first to impose major reductions in bluefin tuna landings. We were first on insisting that Marlin be conserved by eliminating the commercial sale of Marlin by US Atlantic Ocean commercial fishermen. The US led in restricting recreational landings of all billfish.

The US proposed and supported ICCAT's International Management of Swordfish. Again, the US led with reduced commercial quotas of swordfish from the North Atlantic. At one time there was a good recreational fishery for swordfish. However, the swordfish population numbers have been so reduced in US waters that angler landings are rare.

Last fall, a beginning was made in ICCAT's Atlantic Billfish conservation. All live billfish were to be released by both purse seiners and longliners ocean-wide. There was to be major reductions in the level of permitted landings of Marlin. However, everything was specified in terms of percentages from a country’s 1999 landings.Past experience with ICCAT and percentage reductions in either landings or releases has been poor.As far as I have been able to determine, percentage reductions required by ICCAT are rarely observed by other countries.

Unfortunately, what this means is that the US and their Western Atlantic partners are leading by example and strongly conserving HMS species. The US has imposed tough recreational and commercial rules for swordfish and bluefin tuna. So far as can be determined, both the Europeans and African members of ICCAT have ignored international management of bluefin.

Swordfish appears to be making some progress toward conservation. The European and African countries’ observance of ICCAT's swordfish rules are questionable. Countries who do not belong to ICCAT have greatly increased their exports of swordfish to the US. Most are exporting more swordfish to the US than their official ICCAT quota allocation without a quota. This is not conservation, nor is it management of any kind.

International overfishing of swordfish has sharply reduced the dollar value of US caught swordfish at US docks. It means that the strong conservation required of US commercial fishermen is not rewarded. In one of the worst examples of conservation gone wrong the conserved US swordfish are being caught and exported back into the US by other countries, in many cases above their ICCAT quotas.

Bluefin tuna, the main reason for ICCAT creation, appears to be an international management failure. New reports for the pop-up satellite tags have outlined bluefin cross-ocean migration routes. These now confirmed migration routes indicate that most, if not all, US conserved bluefin travel to the other side of the Atlantic during their lifetime. Since ICCAT quotas are not being honestly observed by the European and African members of ICCAT, the strong US conservation rules have not rebuilt our Western Atlantic bluefin stocks. In fact, our conservation has supported the over harvest of bluefin in the European Atlantic and Mediterranean.In effect, the US is practicing unilateral conservation in an ocean crossing species. This policy can never rebuild the bluefin stocks. The US conservation is supplying the Europeans with our conserved fish.

How anyone can believe this is the "right thing" to do regardless of international management failure is beyond my ability to understand. However, words like dumb, stupid and absurd are printable. As the new administration takes over a major change in international fishery management policy is required. The US must change their ICCAT management policies and direction of continued unquestioned support for ICCAT's failed management.

NMFS has made minor changes in their longline closure bill. Minor errors in the final plan delayed the imposition of the plan until April. NMFS is going forward with their closure of the Florida US EEZ from Key West to the Georgia border.

NOAA Fisheries Released their US National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks. A Copy of the plan is on their web site at www. nmfs. noaa. Gov Save this web site since NMFS is positing all their latest fishery decisions at this location.

Marine Fish Conservation Network released on 2-16-2001 the following quotes and comments.

Last year in the Department of Commerce report to Congress about the status of the nation’s fish stocks reported that the number of overfished species has risen to a new high of 107 species.

Network official Lee Crockett said; ”The NMFS has a four-year-old mandate from Congress to halt overfishing and rebuild America’s fisheries. The number of fish stocks in trouble should be going down, not up. “ Our nation’s fisheries laws must be strengthened and vigorously enforced. NMFS and the eight regional fishery management councils have failed to prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, minimize the incidental killing of non-target species and protect essential fish habitat in accordance with the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996. A network study concluded the NMFS has approved most council management plans even though the majority of them didn’t require overfished stocks to be rebuilt as quickly as required by law.

Few of the management plans included any new measures to reduce incidental takes of non-target fisher and other species. The councils have identified essential fish habitat. The commercial fishing regulations needed to protect those areas have not been adopted.

Consequently, the Network has developed its own national agenda that recommends new regulations to stop overfishing of all fish species, reduce bycatch and restrict fishing activities that would harm essential fish habitat. The group calls for establishing fisheries observer programs, implementing precautionary management principles and shifting toward ecosystem- based management strategies. Organization officials say those recommendations are incorporated into HR 4046 the Fisheries Recovery Act introduced by Rep. Wayne Gilcrest (R-Md.) last year. The Network is working to reintroduce the bill and have it included in the Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization debate.

Understand, that politically unable to control commercial fishing, the NMFS and Councils have pounded the recreational sector with continually smaller bag limits and increased size limits. This makes it look that they are making real progress. All species we consider important will recover if the commercial rules are tough enough and enforceable.

Sad to say instead, we, the recreational fishermen, can expect continued destruction of our ability to keep fish as our bag limits become too low and absurd. A perfect example is the recent changes in fluke to a 3 fish bag limit, a 25 fish bag limit on sea bass and a 50 fish bag limit on Scup/Porgies. At the same time controls to control huge discards of the same species of small fish by the commercial small mesh fisheries were bypassed or eliminated.  As a result, the real fishery problems were ignored. The recreational fishermen, especially the charter and headboat fleets, will be put out of business without the planned recovery ever being achieved.

All Fishery managers understand that commercial excesses and overfishing created the overfished conditions.  NMFS cannot solve this problem without much better commercial rules and regulations that are both enforceable and reasonably enforced with meaningful fines and terms.

At the council meeting the success of undercover work exposed many Virginia and Maryland dealers, buyers and sellers that were hugely exceeding the rules. Many were convicted and fined. The fines reported were $4,000.A $4,000 fine is a terrible price for a recreational angler taking a few too many fish or undersized fish. However, a company selling over $100,000 of fishery product a month, a $4,000 fine is merely the cost of doing business and means nothing. Sadly it is a total waste of law enforcement time and effort.

Currently NMFS has strung out for a long time the critically needed reduction of commercial fishing efforts. The number of boats and the number of fishermen that can make a living from commercial fishing must be sharply reduced. Their fishing efforts must be tightly controlled for any management to work. However, politics has been very successfully used by the commercial industry for a very long time to shift the management focus from themselves to recreational fishermen.

A perfect example of how government managers have been politically pressured to NOT make the mandated and required reductions of Magnuson was discussed at the February Mid-Atlantic meeting. At issue was the Squid, Mackerel and butterfish plan changes. The species being discussed was Illex squid. A plan for this species was first passed three years ago by Mid-Atlantic Council. The rules for a directed Illex commercial permit
were high. It was believed the new plan was tough enough to reduce fishing pressure on this species of squid. NMFS rejected the council’s original illex plan as too tough more than once. Each time the criteria to get an illex permit were lowered by NMFS, not the council.