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(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association May 1999 Newsletter)
High seas piracy is alive and well. Not the kind pictured in the movies, where the theme is "hand over your money or your life". This is a high-tech 20th century brand of piracy, as the ever-escalating demand for resources is pillaging our planet's oceans. The world's oceans are open frontiers. Those who posses the ships and technology to extract the fish, krill, plankton, seaweed, seals, whales and oil are the winners.
The current status of international law allows countries to choose to disregard any law, even if they have agreed in writing to abide by it. What we accept as international law is merely a collection of agreements by countries without binding force to back up their implementation. Are laws without enforcement worth the paper they are written on?
ICCAT is a classic example of how poorly international regulation's function if they have no enforcement mechanisms. ICCAT was created as an international organization in 1973 to control the Atlantic Ocean harvest of bluefin tuna. By 1973, Scientists had documented Bluefin tuna were at risk ocean-wide because of commercial overfishing. However despite the knowledge that massive commercial overfishing had collapsed the fishery, the first US rules were imposed on anglers. The gear least responsible for the problem was regulated first! Anglers were restricted to 4 bluefin tuna per person per boat. This was the US standard until 1993 when even stricter rules were applied. These new rules restricted angler's bluefin school tuna landings to 8% by weight of the United States bluefin quota. This was a massive 100% reduction from previous limit of 15% of the entire Western Atlantic quota. One excuse given for the draconian unilateral regulations was "the US must lead by example"! If this is true why are the recreational fishermen alone targeted for major reductions in landings in the United States new HMS and Billfish regulations?
ICCAT and our US commissions have permitted the illegal harvest of undersized fish to increase to 50% of the Atlantic Ocean yellowfin tuna landings. This is not a minor issue. In 1996 the reported undersized landings were over 55,000 MT. At 3.2 kg or 7 pounds per fish this represents over 17,000,000 illegal sized baby yellowfin tuna. Observance of the bigeye minimum size is even worse. Over 70% of the reported landings are under the ICCAT mandated legal minimum size of 3.2 kg. Bigeye illegal landings are in the 75,000 Mt. range. This is 22 million baby Bigeye tuna per year. Such irresponsible management is unacceptable to all US fishing interests. ICCAT management problems must be corrected before any additional regulations are imposed on ANY US fishermen.
These illegal landing numbers represent resource piracy on a grand scale. 22 million illegal tuna a year will soon collapse the fishery for everyone. Meanwhile, NMFS-HMS proposes a 3 Yellowfin tuna bag limit on recreational fishermen alone in their new HMS plan. NO commercial Yellowfin tuna restrictions were proposed. This is totally contrary to the Magnuson Acts National Standards. Imposing a recreational bag limit of any size while not imposing commercial limits and restrictions is not only unfair but also illegal.
At the 1999 ICCAT Advisors March spring meeting, the BAYS (Bigeye, Albacore, Yellowfin & Skipjack tunas) working group once again for the sixth year in a row, challenged the US preliminary 1997 ICCAT recreational yellowfin tuna landing of 4,800 Mt. North Carolina reported their 1997 landings were 3,000 Mt. If adopted, this data would require 16 other states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to share a tiny quota of 1,800 Mt. In good fishing years, New York and New Jersey each had landing that exceed 1,000 Mt. Everyone, except NMFS agreed that the proposed recreational numbers were too low. After a long discussion on the data issue, No agreement was found. Finally, the BAYS advisory panel voted to request that the US official report to ICCAT for 1997 to list recreational numbers as "to be determined". Bad angler data is a very important issue. Incorrect and bad data allowed NMFS to allocate anglers out of their actual, traditional or historic Bluefin tuna fishery. The result was the school bluefin tuna fiasco. Bad angler data allowed commercial fisheries to be allocated over 80% of the US bluefin tuna quota. This continues commercial overfishing in a decimated fishery. The new proposed HMS and Billfish plans continue this same biased unacceptable NMFS management plan, only this time what has been proposed is illegal under Magnuson.
A paragraph from Ocean Wildlife Campaign's 40 page HMS comment letter on this issue sums it up best: "The international issue has for years been used by NMFS as an excuse to minimize or avoid altogether needed domestic action to rebuild and protect HMS. The result is a plan that fails to achieve rebuilding and bycatch reduction mandates within the Magnuson-Stevens Act or to meet the objectives of the draft plan itself, while highlighting a serious credibility gap between NMFS's stated plan and its actions".
Are NMFS and their HMS division capable of legal management of angler's and commercial fisheries as required by law? A lack of answers clearly indicates the ONLY route to preserving angler's fisheries lies with the federal courts, not NMFS. Having a federal judge compel NMFS to follow the 10 National Standards of Magnuson-Stevens's and other key parts of the law as Congress wrote it, is the only way to guarantee a future for recreational offshore fishing.
CMC president, Roger E. McManus demands for a major NOAA/NMFS reorganization was outlined in CMC's Marine Conservation News, winter edition.
"The roots of NOAA, go back to the 19th century when Congress established a new government agency to stop the decline of the cod fisheries off the coast of New England. As the Year of the Ocean drew to a close, the government declared that same cod fishery all but destroyed. As we prepare to enter a new century, it is clear NOAA either must transform itself into a effective lead agency for marine protection and conservation, or we must reorganize the government to better ensure that the nation's marine resources are restored. Through the Agenda and other action, CMC is committed to that change".
What more can be said.
Final rules are expected May 1 and become law one month later on June 1.
Winter flounder and tog are biting, stripers are hungry and it's time to fish.
Welcome spring with tight lines and a fresh fish dinner.