Releases – November 11, 2010
After months of intense debate, the official release of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations’ (NOAA) Catch Share Policy provides recreational anglers with two key elements: a framework to redistribute the benefits of harvesting the nation’s marine resources; and a commitment that catch shares have no place as a management tool for private recreational anglers.
Coordinated input from the angling community significantly altered aspects of the draft policy, particularly the process of allocating fisheries between sectors. However, the system of assigning fixed percentages of various fisheries to commercial interests remains a controversial management tool to recreational anglers.
“It’s clear that NOAA’s leadership was listening at its Recreational Fishing Summit last April when the entire spectrum of the recreational angling community, from guides to tackle manufacturers to charter boat operators, voiced its apprehension regarding this policy,” said Mike Nussman, president and CEO of the American Sportfishing Association. “A number of significant improvements called for by participants at that summit and in subsequent dialogue with the agency are reflected in this document.”
Although catch share systems have been used in federally managed commercial fisheries for decades, the Obama Administration’s creation of the Catch Share Policy Task Force signaled a new intent to force catch share systems widely into federal commercial and recreational fisheries. Many in the recreational community were adamantly opposed to the Administration’s new direction as it was articulated in the draft catch share policy released in December 2009.
“It was never a question of ‘if’ catch shares were going to be a focus for this Administration,” said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Coastal Conservation. “It was simply a matter of ‘how’ and ‘when.’ Although we continue to be opposed to separating the charter and private recreational sectors, by engaging with the Task Force and NOAA’s leadership, the recreational fishing community has helped shift the view of catch shares as a panacea to simply being another tool in the toolbox that managers may elect to use if a series of conditions are met.”
As previously implemented, catch share systems in mixed commercial and recreational fisheries bestowed a percentage of a public fishery resource to a select group of private commercial entities based solely on their catch history, effectively locking in the allocation of that fishery forever while ignoring the growing participation and beneficial economic impacts of recreational fishing. Coastal Conservation Association has challenged just such a plan in federal district court.
However, among the conditions laid out in the policy released today is a requirement for the fishery management councils to address the allocation prior to the implementation of any catch share system using conservation, economic, and social criteria. The policy also requires that every mixed-use fishery allocation be reviewed periodically using the same criteria.
“All of those requirements were put forth at NOAA’s Recreational Fishing Summit as pieces that might make this policy more workable,” said Ellen Peel, president of The Billfish Foundation. “This is a good indication that the agency and Dr. Lubchenco are listening and, as promised at the summit, responding to the expressed concerns of our community. We are committed to working with the Councils and the Administration to ensure the pieces of the policy fit together to benefit recreational angling.”
It’s time to pull out the iron grate and roast oysters over the fire pit. That means it’s time to recycle those shells, as well.
The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries’ Oyster Shell Recycling Program provides 126 drop-off centers for shellfish lovers to chuck their shucks, including new recycling sites opening Oct. 26 in Clinton. Also, 70 restaurants, in various counties, participate in the program. While prominent on the coast, the program includes sites in counties west of Interstate 95 such as Johnston, Wake, Orange, and Durham.
Recycling oyster shells helps reduce waste flow into landfills and benefits the environment.
The Oyster Shell Recycling program returns the oyster, clam, conch, and mussel shells to coastal waters where they serve as essential habitat. The program has collected more than 120,000 bushels of shells since it began in the fall of 2003.
When oysters spawn, the larvae need a hard substrate on which to attach and grow. Oysters will attach to many kinds of surfaces, but they prefer shell material.
Oysters serve as food for humans, birds, and fish. They also clean pollutants from the water. One adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Oyster reefs also provide habitat for fish and other marine life which in return provide great hook-and-line fishing opportunities.
A list of public oyster shell recycling sites and restaurants that participate in the program can be found on the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries website at www.ncfisheries.net/shellfish/recycle1.htm.
For more information, contact N.C. Oyster Shell Recycling Coordinator Sabrina Varnam at (252)726-7021 or (800) 682-2632 or Sabrina.Varnam@ncdenr.gov.
The American Sportfishing Association reports that on October 13, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a 50 percent increase in the allowable ethanol content in gasoline for automobiles built after 2006. Gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol, commonly referred to as E15, could damage recreational marine engines and other small gasoline-powered engines because they are designed, calibrated, and certified to run on not more than 10 volume percent ethanol. This increase also raises issues about emissions, performance, durability, and warranty coverage. In addition, increased corn production to meet the new standard could result in increases in the runoff of nutrients and other pollutants into watersheds. Any further EPA decision on the use of E15 has been delayed until testing on vehicles built before 2006 is complete.
The sportfishing community commends the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for its decision to reject a sweeping petition to ban lead in all fishing tackle. The petition, which was submitted on August 3, 2010, by the Center for Biological Diversity and four other groups, requested that EPA ban all lead in all fishing tackle on all U.S. waters. The petition also included a request to ban the use of lead ammunition in the hunting and shooting sports. That part was denied on August 27 because EPA does not have the legal authority to regulate ammunition under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Opposition from anglers was strong; over 43,000 anglers sent comments requesting dismissal of the petition to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson through www.KeepAmericaFishing.org.
In dismissing the petition, EPA indicated that the “petitioners have not demonstrated that the requested rule is necessary to protect against an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, as required by the TSCA.” EPA also cited state-specific actions and the increasing education and outreach activities being undertaken, stating that those actions “…call into question whether a national ban on lead in fishing gear would be the least burdensome, adequately protective approach to address the concern, as called for under TSCA.”
The sportfishing community’s objection to the ban was based on:
The data does not support a federal ban on lead sinkers used for fishing. In general, bird populations, including loons and other waterfowl species, are subject to many more substantial threats such as habitat loss through shoreline development. Any lead restrictions on fishing tackle need to be based on sound science that supports the appropriate action for a particular water body or species.
A federal ban of the use of lead in fishing tackle will have a significant negative impact on recreational anglers and fisheries resources, but a negligible impact on waterfowl populations.
Depending on the alternative metal and current prevailing raw material costs, non-lead fishing tackle products can cost from ten to twenty times more than lead products. Non-lead products may not be as available and most do not perform as well. Mandatory transitioning to non-lead fishing tackle would require significant and costly changes from both the industry and anglers.
To help boost the striped bass fishery in the Cape Fear River, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission just conducted the first of two stockings of this popular game fish at the Castle Street boat landing in Wilmington.
The first stocking consisted of approximately 10,000 striped bass, ranging in length from 4 to 6 inches. A second stocking of more than 100,000 fish will occur in early December. The fish were produced at the Commission’s Watha State Fish Hatchery in Pender County.
The Commission has stocked striped bass of various sizes in the Cape Fear River on an annual basis since 1998; however, this is the first stocking of fish that were produced using brood fish collected exclusively from the Cape Fear River. All previous stockings were from brood fish collected from the Roanoke River.
“The hope is that by stocking fish raised from parents collected from the Cape Fear, the fish will imprint to the system and return years later as adults to spawn,” said Keith Ashley, a fisheries biologist with the Commission.
Striped bass migrate into the Cape Fear River from the Atlantic Ocean each spring. Beginning in 2003, the Commission initiated an annual survey of the Cape Fear River striped bass stock. The objective was to obtain up-to-date information on the abundance, distribution, length, age, and sex composition of striped bass collected from the Cape Fear River.
Survey results continue to document low numbers of spawning adults and poor recruitment. In an attempt to promote recovery of the fishery, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) and the Commission implemented a moratorium on recreational and commercial striped bass harvest in the Cape Fear River system in 2008.
“We hope that the harvest moratorium, in conjunction with this new stocking program, will ultimately result in the restoration of this important fishery on the Cape Fear River,” Ashley said.
For more information on fishing in public, inland waters, visit www.ncwildlife.org/fishing.
