Fret over New Gag Grouper Regulations by Commercial Offshore Anglers
BRADENTON – NOAA Fisheries Service recently approved temporary regulations that prohibit the recreational harvest of gag grouper in Gulf of Mexico federal waters. The closure has singled out offshore anglers and left many of them without customers. The act was a result of latest stock assessment which indicated that gag grouper in the Gulf of Mexico are overfished – but some anglers feel that the increased number of regulations is slowing putting the industry out of business.The interim rule that was established January 1, 2011 will be in effect for 180 days and could be extended for another 186 days until long-term management measures for the fish can be developed. The state never enacted the regulation, so other recreational harvesters fishing inshore in state waters can still keep gags. However, offshore fishermen with federal commercial or charter/headboat permit for the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish fishery are legally bound to federal regulation no matter where they fish.For federally licensed Scott Greer, with Stray Dog Charters, the new regulations have stalled business.
“Basically the hand-full of guys that have the legal permit to do this, we’re the only ones that can’t keep grouper in state waters,” he said. “For gag grouper, right now is the key time because during their pre-spawn gathering is generally when we catch them.”
The 2009 assessment indicated that a huge decrease in commercial quota needed to be reduced from one and a half million pounds to just 390,000 pounds a year. When the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management council discovered such shocking results, they asked for NOAA to re-examine the assessment. According to the FWC, the organization will address potential rule changes for gag grouper in state waters following final action by NOAA Fisheries Service.
Statistically speaking, not only is the population abundance of the species too low, but the rate of removal is too high. When findings like this are discovered, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act requires stocks to be rebuilt and overfishing to be halted.
“The economic impacts on all the fisherman is certainly of concern,” said Roy Crabtree, the southeast regional administrator of NOAA fisheries. “The council will do its best to balance those economic impacts with the legal mandates that we’re under to end overfishing and replenish these stocks. We’ll have to do reductions, but we’ll try to minimize the impacts as best we can.”
“I’m all for some type of tighter restrictions, but to just completely close a fishery puts us out of business,” said Greer. “They could have gone down to one fish per person and put a slot limit on it where we at least had an opportunity to keep one. If that happened, a lot of our customers would keep going, but when you tell them they can’t keep anything – it shuts us down.”
According to Greer, the media has played detrimental role in the industry by repeating inaccurate information and grouping all species of grouper, and commercial captains into one category. When tourists think they won’t be able to keep their any grouper they catch at the expense of $350 a charter, they are less likely to purchase a trip on an offshore vessel.
This is having a devastating effect on offshore charter boats. They want the industry to be converted to catch and release, which I’m all for. But I’m not seeing that. The majority of our clientele want to keep their catch -- that is how the business has always worked,” said Greer.
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council intended for there to be a recreational harvest of gag in 2011. If supported by science, this season will be developed by the Council as part of long-term management measures to end overfishing and rebuild the Gulf gag grouper stock. They will meet in February to determine the rehabilitation plan and final gag grouper rule will be officially passed later this year.
“We have yet to determine if the long-term management plan for gag will be as severe. I don’t exactly know what is going to happen right now,” said Roy Crabtree. “That is what the council will be working on over the next couple of meetings. There will be opportunities for public input and public comment.”
Greer blames agenda-driven government policies for the misconception. He feels that government agencies should incorporate scientific assessments done by private entities, like the charter industry, into their total evaluation.
“It’s all based on inaccurate science. The gag fish dock assessment came back at low levels, which is based on a mathematical formula done by telephone and boat ramp services. There is no fish actually counted,” said Greer. “The scientists determine that the gags are overfished, and National Marine Fisheries has to act on it.”
Crabtree on the other hand said that stock assessments are put together by several entities. University biologists, state biologists and federal biologists go through “all available information” on species and use computers to model recommendations of what they believe the status of the stock is. NOAA records indicate that one method of information does in fact come from commercial and recreational catch and biological sampling.Greer argues that the contributors shouldn’t be backed by government.
“We all want our fish to be conserved. Most anyone who is anybody in the charter industry is a conversationalist, but they’ve just taken it over the top. They want to replenish the fish stock to a level that they don’t have any proof it ever was. The data is based on the inaccurate numbers and then they’re trying to replenish the fish stock to another inaccurate number – it’s all very frustrating,” said Greer.Read More ...
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