Shark Rebuilding Plan Unfairly Places Most Rebuilding Restrictions on Recreational Fishery

During the December meeting, NOAA briefed the Council on the proposed Highly Migratory Species – Shark Rebuilding Plan. The Proposed Rule was published on November 26, 2012 in the Federal Register and can be found at this link. I was very critical of NOAA’s Preferred Alternative under the proposed plan and strongly recommend that recreational fishermen review the proposed plan and submit comments during the ongoing comment period that ends on February 12, 2013. NOAA’s Preferred Alternative would impose an 8-foot minimum recreational size limit for virtually all managed large sharks. This is a 3.5 foot increase in the minimum size and applies to sharks that NOAA admits never to grow to that size. At the same time, the Preferred Alternative maintains near to status quo management for the commercial fishery and no minimum size limit. A side-by-side comparison highlights the inequity of NOAA’s Preferred Alternative in imposing most of the rebuilding ‘pain’ on the recreational fishery.

My comments highlighted the need for this plan to comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act, Required Provision 14, which requires that any rebuilding plan must allocate “any harvest restrictions or recovery benefits fairly and equitably among the commercial, recreational, and charter fishing sectors in the fishery.” Based on my review, the Preferred Alternative does not meet that requirement. Also, NOAA’s 8-foot minimum size limit is concerning, as it is overly broadly applied to recreational fisheries, but not applied at all to the commercial fishery, and it amounts to a recreational prohibition of retention for all sharks that do not grow to that size. As this rebuilding plan is expected to continue to the year 2070, any final measure may be around for decades, so weigh in now before it is too late.