Fishery management

[eppefour]

I am going to try to make sense of fisheries management. I intend to read As much material as possible and summarize it here. We are being reactive not pro-active in fishery management. We don’t hear about the issue until it is being passed. We need to be more active personally and as a group, but most of us don’t know how. I am going to start with the advice on how to be active. That part is easy. The hard part is learning what you have to know before you can be active. Fisheries management documentation covers thousands of pages of written material. I am going to try to read them all and summarize them here for you.

A couple of ground rules:.
• This material is the Copyright property of Sportfishermen.com. If you post it elsewhere give us credit or just link to it.
• It would be better to have all comment at one place . If people are discussing it in too many places we might not hear some valuable input.
• I realize that politics play a large part of fisheries management. This thread and the threads that follow are for the purpose of learning not complaining. Political bashing posts will be moved from these threads.


Abbreviations used
Definitions

ACL Annual Catch Limit
ASMFC - Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
CITES -Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
EES – Exclusive Economic zone - 3-200 miles offshore
FMP Fisheries management plan
ICCAT- The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
MAFMC - Mid-Atlantic Fisheries management Council
NEFMC- New England Fisheries management council
NMFS - National Marine Fisheries Service
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
SAFMC - South Atlantic Fisheries management Council
SAFE report (stock assessment and fishery evaluation)

[eppefour]

excerpted from Fish or cut bait published by NF Sea Grant. Entire document is at
http://www.njmsc.org/Sea_Grant/Publi...tNJSG09704.pdf

The Magnuson-Stevens Act (Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act) of 1970 was amended in 2006 to speed up the timetable to rebuild fishery stocks.. It specified an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 3 to 200 miles from the U.S. coast, now referred to as Federal waters. States continue to manage fishing out to about three miles but now must coordinate what they do with federal management. The 2006 reauthorization established stronger provisions to prevent overfishing with annual catch limits (ACLs) including a mandate to rebuild stocks by 2010.

Public Participation and Fisheries Management
One of the special and long-standing features of the Magnuson-Stevens Act is that it encourages local-level participation and representative democracy. This is done through eight regional fishery management councils.

New England Fisheries management Council
http://www.nefmc.org/
Mid Atlantic Fisheries management Council
http://www.mafmc.org/
South Atlantic Fisheries management Council
http://www.safmc.net/
Caribbean Fisheries management Council
http://www.caribbeanfmc.com/
Gulf of Mexico Fisheries management Council
http://www.gulfcouncil.org/
West Pacific Regional management Council
http://www.wpcouncil.org/
Pacific Fishery management Council
http://www.pcouncil.org/
North Pacific Fishery Management Council
http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/
This means you have a voice in how fisheries are managed. But this can mean hard work. To be effective, you might have to:

• Read a lot of documents
• Talk to people you may not know
• Go to meetings; speak out in public
• Write letters, send emails, and make a lot of phone calls
• Join or form an association or organization
• Maybe even get appointed to a committee or a management council!

Regulation is becoming stricter on both commercial and recreational interests. Regulations are being made to deal with overfishing.
. Overfishing generally refers to removing fish faster than they can replenish themselves, but definitions of overfished and overfishing are technical and specific to particular fish stocks.
Many fish and shellfish populations are declining for reasons that include overfishing, habitat degradation, and a lot of unknowns.

The lead Federal organizations under the Magnuson act are the regional management councils and the Dept of Commerce thru NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) which is part of NOAA. The regional councils write the plans and submit them to dept of Commerce for final approval.
NMFS supplies the science and reviews plans to ensure they fit the existing laws. Dept of Commerce has the final say. NMFS and the Coast Guard enforce the regulations.
The states are also involved through their membership on the councils, their legislatures, and sometimes in co-operative data collection, research, and enforcement. Commissions like the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission try to coordinate efforts between states.
. Many of the same people are involved in several organizations and, once you are familiar with these people, being involved becomes much easier.

Regional Fishery management councils are made up of
Voting and non-voting council members
Government and citizen members
Council staff including the executive director, secretaries, biologist, economists and a scientific and statistical committee.

Voting members
NMFS regional Administrator
Representatives of state fish and game agencies
Citizens nominated by their governor and then appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. These individuals must have some familiarity with the fishing industry or marine conservation or both and they may be commercial or recreational fishers, fishing industry and community representatives, academics and other scientists or environmentalists or just plain citizens.

Non-voting members of the councils represent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, regional Marine Fisheries Commissions, the U.S. Department of State, and people assigned as liaisons from other regional councils.
The councils develop FMPs , amend them and set quotas intended to carry out the plan. If the plan is accepted then the regulations are enforced by Federal agencies. The FMPs must comply with the terms of several laws.
1. The Magnuson Act
2. The Endangered Species ACT
3. The Marine Mammals Protection Act
4. The Ocean Dumping Act
5. The Coastal Zone Management Act
6. The National Environmental Policy Act

[eppefour]

A scoping document identifies a fishery that needs management. It shows the problem, identifies the objectives and the methods to attain the objectives.

The scoping process is an important step for fishermen involvement. The councils will hold regular meetings which are open to the public. Attendance at these meetings can allow you to meet the members of the commission. This is the time when the problem is defined and the general outlines of the plan are developed.

At this point talking to council members, staff members, and the director is a good idea. If you become known to the council you could try to be appointed to a committee.

After deciding on a preferred course of action, the council will hold public hearings for 45 days. You can speak at these meetings and can submit written comments. All comments must be considered before deciding on an FMP.

The FMP is then sent to the Secretary of Commerce. A new 45 day comment period begins 15 days after the FMP is received. The Secretary must approve, disapprove or amend the FMP by the 95th day.

The period from the start of scoping through the comment period is where we should be involved. After approval the FMP is law and we are stuck with it.

[eppefour]

1 Call the council staff -

• Check the website to decide what to say and who to talk to.
• keep the call short- less than 10 minutes
• prepare an outline first so you can be brief
• tell them who you are, what your issues or questions are and ask for help understanding the problem
• ask to be put on mailing lists for meeting notices and minutes

Contact council members

• Know your members. take advantage of mutual friends
• be aware of who is on what committee
• council members expect to hear from you

Call your state and federal representatives

1. find the staffer who deals with fisheries and marine environment

.

Learn about the laws
Learn the key terms involved
Learn about stock asssessment, fisheries impact and regulator impact analysis
Be aware of th stage the FMP is in, so that your comments fit the situation
Learn the positions of the various members
Ask others where they get their info so you can understand all of the positions

Terms to understand. I will deal with them 1 by 1

• Overfishing
• Maximum sustainable yield
• Optimum yield
• Catch per unit effort
• Acceptable biological catch
• SAFE report (stock assessment and fishery evaluation)
• Limited access privileges
• Market based fishery management
• Best available science


Write letters

• When you call the council ask for recommendation for your letters
• You may want to write to individual members, the chairman or director, or possibly NOAA or NMFS officials
• write letters to the editor - especially to fishing magazines and newspapers that cover fisheries.
• NMFS reads the national journals

Attend committee meetings. There is a scientifific and statistic committee in all councils.They also have commitees dealing with individual species under their control. At committe meetings you get an early chance to shape the discussion before it reachs the full council.

Attend council meetings. They are more formal than committee meetings. usually there is a speakers list that speakers have to sign up on.

Speak at public hearings. get there early. Sign up on speakers list. Be sure that you give a written copy of your remarks for the council to consider

Wherever possible try to talk informally with council members. they usually have a hospitality room at the meetings. use it.

Join a group, start a group and build a consensus. If you are speaking for a group your comments have more weight.

[jackdaniels]

This information was developed by SeaGrant by talking to council members,

Identify yourself and your experience
Give some background on the issue
Give your work history and experience in the fishery
Use notes , don't ramble
Submit written comments- Speaking is the most effective but the written material helps them remember.
Be brief and to the point. Long speeches cause people to lose interest.
Offer constructive advice, provide alternative solutions.
Don't give hysterical "end of the world speeches" They will get you nowhere,
Read the plan expecially the objectives and summary. Tell them why the plan won't meet it's objctives.
Respect the science, managers are forced by law to accept it.
Telling them you see more fish now than before is no good.Your detailed logbooks are credible. You can also offer scientific reports from other sources.
Don't lie or stretch the truth. If caught you have lost all credibility.
Avoid emotional outbursts like " you're going to put me out of business" While it may be true they hear it all the time and have strong predjudices against it.
Avoid saying "you guys" or "you peiple up there"
Politeness is effective.
Don't open with antagonistic statements. This turns the members against you.

[seapower]

Not trying to be a pessimist here, but I was involved in the "process" for year's. You got a better chance goin out to the pasture and talking to the ass-end of a horse. Just my experience, biggest waste of time I've ever been involved in. Common sense does not prevail, period. Get used to talking to the most arrogant, no-it-all, untouchable bunch of folk's you can imagine. I'd rather go to a mother-in-law convention, than get wrapped up with that crowd again, I mean it. Government institution's at their finest!!! Frank

[Big Fish Billy]

Ditto that....funny....good luck....we can't even get the CG to keep fishermen out of the channel in the Merrimac River, when Rule 9 strictly prohibits it.......

[eppefour]

Maybe that's true, but I am retiring and have some time on my hands. I would like to take a look at the problem, but first I want to understand the mechanics of the regulatory process. Can't solve anything if you don't completely understand it. I see one of the problems already. You can't fight if you don't understand the science they are following. There are probably alternative studies that can be used, just like global warming. You can find studies that support yes and no.

[eppefour]

The National Standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act Conservation and management measures shall:
1. Prevent overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery
2. Be based upon the best scientific information available.
3. Manage individual stocks as a unit throughout their range, to the extent practicable; interrelated
stocks shall be managed as a unit or in close coordination.
4. Not discriminate between residents of different states; any allocation of privileges must be fair and
equitable.
5. Where practicable, promote efficiency, except that no such measure shall have economic allocation
as its sole purpose.
6. Take into account and allow for variations among and contingencies in fisheries, fishery resources,
and catches.
7. Minimize costs and avoid duplications, where practicable.
8. Take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities to provide for the
sustained participation of, and minimize adverse impacts to, such communities (consistent with
conservation requirements).
9. Minimize bycatch or mortality from bycatch.
10. Promote safety of human life at sea.

[Reel Sharp]

As other noted it may be a tough shell to crack, but somebody has to speak up for what they believe in. It is power in numbers. And the number may be small now but it is up to the people to crack the shell, get in and be a voice/voices. Good luck with your extra time.