Fishermen/Fisherwomen to hold Rally protesting Recent Fishing Regulations
Published Thursday, February 24, 2011 2:00 am
by Merab-Micha


ST. PETERSBURG – Thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen are predicted to attend a "Fishing Matters to Me" rally Friday, February 25, 2011 in St. Petersburg to protest the recent emergency closure of the Gulf of Mexico's grouper fishery. They will congregate outside of the Southeast Regional Headquarters of the National Marine Fisheries Service at 9 a.m. The following Monday, Fishing Rights Alliance directors, who organized the event, plan to take the message to Congress.


"We have people coming from all over the East Coast, including Massachusetts and North Carolina, and as far west as Texas and California," said FRA organizer Dennis O'Hern. "This is going to be the Woodstock of fishing rallies and people will be talking about it for years to come."




This flyer advertises the "Fishing Matters to Me" rally taking place on Friday. Fisherman are protesting what they feel are unfair fishing regualtions. For more information,

visit the FRA website.

The recent fishing closure has raised anglers’ concerns since NOAA took drastic measures by temporarily closing the gag grouper fishery. The act put many commercial fishermen/fisherwomen out of business. The closure singled out offshore anglers, because the state opted not to enact such drastic regulation and asked that NOAA reassess Gulf fish stock before they made a decision to comply. This allowed recreational harvesters fishing inshore in state waters to be able keep gags. The result led to “unfair” competition because 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.

Anglers that fish for a living are upset they aren’t included in determining the stock of fish. They feel that government-run organizations like NOAA have inaccurate data that doesn’t comprise enough information about commercial catches.

"People's livelihoods are being ruined by the government’s reliance on flawed data and outdated science," O'Hern said. "These are real people with families to feed, not just numbers on spreadsheets."

NOAA claims to use modern technology, including scientific studies from Universities, to determine stock assessment. They say that things like limited access fishing permits, trip limits, closed seasons, and a quota are necessary management tools needed to constrain commercial harvest.



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 for gag grouper. When findings like this are discovered, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act requires stocks to be rebuilt and overfishing to be halted.

The stock assessment also found that red snapper are also being overfished in the South Atlantic Region, so the NMFS issued a final rule on Dec. 9, 2010 implementing Amendment 17A to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the region -- the rule established an annual catch limit of zero for red snapper.

Just a year before NMFS implemented Amendment 17A, a 2009 Individual Quota Report found that “rebuilding progress was also made in 2009” for red snapper. It also said updated red snapper stock assessment concluded that “overfishing was projected to end in 2009”, allowing the Gulf Council and NMFS to increase the quota in 2010 -- not decrease it.

“While talking to NMFS has proven largely ineffective and counter-productive, Congress writes NMFS' checks and will certainly pay attention to the estimated five thousand people who intend to show up at this event,” said O’Hern. “We have had enough of NMFS mismanagement. They are out of control, but will have a tough time running when Congress takes their budget away.”

According to the FRA, The grouper shutdown, and the measure governing red snapper in the South Atlantic, will cost the economies of the Southeast an estimated $5 billion per year in lost revenue which is the primary reason for the protest. Angers are now demanding that congress take action to protect them from what they consider unnecessary regulations.

"Recreational saltwater fishing is worth $32 billion to Florida's economy." O'Hern said. "On the average year, more than 6 million residents and visitors fish Florida waters and support more than 100,000 jobs."

Amendment 17A implemented a 35-year plan to replenish declining fisheries. The shortest possible rebuilding schedule would require most or all of the EEZ and State waters be closed to fishing over the 15-year period to eliminate all incidental mortality of red snapper. Because of the significant and irreversible socioeconomic impacts of such an action, NOAA acknowledged that a 15-year rebuilding schedule was impractical.

“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.”



The FRA is asking for all fishing advocates to show up “by land or by sea”, at 310 13th Avenue, South, St. Petersburg, to attend the event. The Harborage Marina has dedicated their transient dock for participating anglers. They will be allowing boaters to begin tying up on Thursday evening February 24, and departing on Sat morning, February, 26.

Merab is a writer at the Bradenton Times. She can be reached at merab.favorite@thebradentontimes.com