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NEWS
| Rec fishermen say MFC members voted to ignore federal weakfish rules out of financial interests |
Reprint from Jeffrey Weeks, Examiner.com
Recreational fishing advocates are charging that two members of the state NC Marine Fisheries Committee (MFC) voted to go out of compliance with federal rules designed to save weakfish stocks due to personal financial interest in catching weakfish.
"I'm angry that the MFC would take this action on weakfish because I made an effort to talk to commercial fishermen and most were fine with the federal weakfish rules," said Bill Mandulak, who is a NC recreational angler on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) weakfish advisory committee. "There’s just a handful of commercial fishing operations affected by this limit and a couple happen to be on the MFC. MFC members Bradley Stryon and Mikey Daniels seem to have voted for this out of self-interest."
The ASMFC mandated that all member states on the Atlantic Coast stop overfishing weakfish stocks by limiting the recreational catch to 1 fish a day and making commercial trip limits 100 lbs per day. By federal law, NC must enact the requirements of ASMFC Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) or risk federal sanctions against NC fisheries.
Weakfish are also known as gray trout and were once a numerous saltwater fish in NC. But overall, weakfish landings are down to 3% of what they once were in all Atlantic Coast states, with NC commercial landings only 1.5% of previous historical landings.
That drop has resulted in federal attempts to somehow salvage the depleted stock. NC harvests almost 30% of the Atlantic Coast landings, and Mandulak believes ignoring the conservation measures for weakfish can have a very detrimental effect on the future of the fish.
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| 5 Apr 2010 - 14:30 by CCA North Carolina |
XNews
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| CCA attacks MFC decision to ignore federal weakfish rules |
Reprinted from Jeffrey Weeks, Examiner.com
The North Carolina Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) is complaining loudly about the decision by the state last week to intentionally go out of compliance with federal mandates to stop the overfishing of weakfish (also known as gray trout).
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has told NC to stop overfishing of weakfish by limiting the recreational catch to 1 fish a day and commercial trip limits to 100 lbs per day. By federal law, NC must enact the requirements of ASMFC Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) or risk federal sanctions against NC fisheries.
At issue is the number of weakfish commercial netters would have to throw back under the new rules. The CCA claims that the Marine Fisheries Committee (MFC) decision is irresponsible and sets up NC for a potential total closure of all fishing for weakfish, while the MFC says that going out of compliance with federal rules is a necessary evil to prevent the waste of a lot of dead discards.
"We have regressed back to the bad old days," said Dick Brame, the Atlantic States Fisheries Director of the CCA. "This is a stock that has for all intents and purposes collapsed from both fishing mortality and an unknown but rising natural mortality. The (feds) should have closed the fishery but instead elected to allow a small by-catch fishery. The MFC's intent, I believe, is to work the non-compliance process until the last minute, then have (the NC fisheries director) use proclamation authority to put them back in compliance at the last minute. They believe the process will take months, which allows them to fish unhindered in the meantime."
But MFC chairman Robert Bizzell says going out of compliance was the right decision, even though it violates the ASMFC rules.
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| 5 Apr 2010 - 14:06 by CCA North Carolina |
XNews
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| North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission Again Ignores the Science and Goes Commercial |
Recreational fishermen should be up in arms over the latest North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) decision. In another of its surprising moves, the MFC voted to increase the commercial trip limit of red drum by over 40% and remove virtually all restrictions required to keep this an "incidental" fishery.
With this vote, the MFC ignored the advice and direction of the Red Drum Advisory Committee by raising the trip limit for commercial fishermen to 10 fish per day. The advisory committee had recommended keeping the limit at 7 fish per day, in part, based on information provided by the commercial fishing industry, which shows only 5% of the trip tickets reported caught the previous maximum of 7 fish allowed. As such, this only reinforces that any increase in the daily trip limit is unnecessary, unless red drum are to be targeted directly.
In addition, the Red drum Committee identified only three species that might result in an incidental or "bycatch" of red drum; flounder, speckled trout and striped mullet. Currently, in order to sell red drum, commercial fishermen are required to have an equal weight of these fish, however with the new regulations, everything from spot and croakers to pinfish, with the exception being only menhaden, will count toward the weight needed. As red drum school in shallow water, it makes them especially susceptible to targeting by netters. This has substantial potential to lead to overfishing, harm the stock, and set back years of work to recover our state fish.
The major "bycatch" or incidental catch of red drum has typically occurred in the past as a result of the gill net fishery for flounder. However, as the red drum stock continues to recover from previous overfishing, commercial fishermen now see fit to once again target them. With the increase in the trip limit, the temptation to target red drum by commercial fishermen will become overwhelming, as was evident two years ago by commercial fishermen in northeastern North Carolina.
While there are new safeguards in place, the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina is very concerned by the biased action of the MFC and fears a recurrence of a directed commercial fishery on red drum as a result.
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| 1 Apr 2010 - 14:44 by CCA North Carolina |
XNews
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