Black sea bass may be off the menu

[Captain Fish]

Black sea bass may be off the menu

By TheSunNews.com

Friday, Jan. 14, 2011

In January the last few years, with the shallow-water grouper and vermilion snapper fisheries shut down, recreational anglers have had the old standby - black sea bass - to turn to in the Atlantic Ocean when most other species were off-limits or gone for the winter.

This winter and spring, even black sea bass may not be available to recreational fishermen along the Carolina coast, leaving anglers very little reason to go bottom fishing in the upcoming months.

Murrells Inlet's Tom Swatzel, a member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, said earlier this week he expects the recreational black sea bass fishery along the South Atlantic coast to be shut down soon because of the recreational annual catch limit (ACL) for the species being reached.

"It will probably be within the next month, sometime in February," Swatzel said.

A quota of 409,000 pounds was set in accordance to Amendment 17B of the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan, which was approved by the SAFMC in December 2009 (8-5 vote) but wasn't put into law until a month ago in December 2010 by the Secretary of Commerce. That quota will soon be met and once the fishery is closed the earliest it would be able to reopen would be June 1.

There is a stipulation in the amendment that compounds the issue. If it is determined the quota (ACL) was exceeded when the fishery is closed there is what Swatzel called a 'payback' provision, meaning the number of pounds caught over the quota - dubbed an overage - would be subtracted from the quota for the following year. In the scenario of an overage, the reopening of the fishery could be delayed past the June 1 start of the fishing season during the height of the summer tourist season. Fishing seasons operate on a calendar year of June 1 to May 31.

As it stands, overages in the recreational black sea bass fishery "could cause some extremely short recreational black sea bass fishing years," said Swatzel.

Swatzel is in favor of reducing the daily bag limit for black sea bass - 15 per person per day (12-inch minimum size limit) - to avoid closures for the species in future fishing seasons. He hopes that process begins at the next formal SAFMC meeting March 1-5 in Jekyll Island, Ga.

"Hopefully the fishery council will initiate some action in March to reduce the bag limit," said Swatzel. "To me the goal would be to determine what the optimum bag limit would be to keep the fishing season open year-round and try to get that in place quickly to protect the (2011-12) fishing year coming up June 1. From my perspective we're much better off with a lesser bag limit in return for the greater possibility of avoiding fishery closures."

Swatzel said the National Marine Fisheries Service is conducting analysis on the effects various black sea bass daily bag limits will have on the annual catch and is hopeful the information will be available soon, before the March meeting.

Meanwhile other bottom fishing staple species are already off-limits for recreational anglers with vermilion snapper (beeliners) closed through March 31 and shallow-water grouper through April 30. Red snapper are closed for the foreseeable future to all anglers.

What's an Atlantic Ocean angler to do once the black sea bass fishery closes? Twiddle his thumbs until pelagic species such as Spanish and king mackerel return in April and May.

SAFMC public hearing

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will have a series of public hearings and scoping meetings in January and February that recreational fishermen in South and North Carolina are sure to be interested in.

The limits and closures placed on reef (bottom-fishing) species of fish have been well-documented in this space, but now NOAA is turning its attention to sportfish such as wahoo, dolphin and cobia.

One of the items on the agenda is the Comprehensive Annual Catch Limit Amendment, which will establish Annual Catch Limits (ACL) and Accountability Measures for species not undergoing overfishing, as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

One of the options being considered could, if eventually approved at a future meeting, lower the wahoo limit to two per boat per day, the cobia limit to one per boat per day combined with a closed season and a slight reduction in the dolphin daily bag limit to nine fish per person.

To be clear, these are information gathering meetings and these are only options being considered. However, concerned fishermen should plan to attend one of the meetings listed below to voice their opinion on the issue.

The controversial Catch Shares amendment (Amendment 21) will also be discussed at the meetings. The meeting schedule follows:

Jan. 24: Hilton New Bern, 100 Middle Street, New Bern, N.C. 29560.

Jan. 26: Crown Plaza Charleston Airport, 4831 Tanger Outlet Blvd., North Charleston, S.C. 29418.

Jan. 27: Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, 175 Bourne Ave., Pooler, Ga., 31322.

Jan. 31: Jacksonville Marriott, 4670 Salisbury Rd., Jacksonville, Fla., 32256.

Feb. 1: International Palms Resort, 1300 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach, Fla., 32931.

Feb. 3: Key Largo Grande, 9700 S. Overseas Hwy., Key Largo, Fla., 33037.



Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/01/14...#ixzz1B9ZolJeJ

Captain Keith Logan
Longs SC/Holden Beach NC
http://www.feedinfrenzycharters.com/...g_Charters.htm