March 17, 2015 — The following was released by the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance:
In a shot across the bow of commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, state managers announced Friday that they have devised a plan to take over red snapper management and eliminate the commercial quota system that has helped rebuild the once-decimated red snapper stock.
“There is now no question in our minds that our state directors do not represent the best interests of commercial fishermen,” said Buddy Guindon, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance based in Galveston, TX. “They fight us at every turn, trying to destabilize our business plans and promote half-baked ideas that hurt conservation and undermine sustainability. This scam will hurt hardworking commercial fishermen and the American public that wants to eat fresh, sustainably harvested red snapper.”
According to a recent announcement, representatives from the five Gulf States met in a closed-door off-the-books meeting in New Orleans where they developed a plan to take over management of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and eliminate the commercial individual fishing quota (IFQ) system. The management responsibility, currently held by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Gulf Council) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would be turned it over to a yet-to-be-developed group called the Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority, and would consist of 5 individuals, one from each Gulf State, that propose to operate outside of U.S. federal fisheries laws and sustainability policies. Each Gulf State would be responsible for management of their own waters out to 200 nautical miles, and would be in charge of creating the science and data to use for their management. Funding for this program would be siphoned from existing federal programs.
“This so-called-plan is going to eliminate the commercial IFQ that has been working well for more than half a decade,” said KP Burnett from Galveston, Texas. “It’s going to destroy my business as well as the hundreds of other red snapper businesses in the Gulf of Mexico that rely on a stable IFQ program. We’ve invested millions of dollars into building something sustainable, and we deliver tens of millions of dollars’ worth of red snapper to the American seafood consumer each year.”
Many commercial fishermen are irate that this scheme was covertly developed without their input for the sole benefit of one group of stakeholders, unlike the Gulf Council system where meetings are scheduled up to a year in advance, the public is notified of the agenda, and anyone can come and give their opinion directly to the Gulf Council. “Why was this decision made in secret behind closed doors and without any fishermen in the room? Where was the transparency and the public process?” and asked Bill Tucker, commercial fisherman from Dunedin, Florida. “When did the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commissioners give the ok to sign off on this plan? Did the State Governors know that the people put in charge of managing the state’s fisheries were meeting in secret and intentionally excluding the public?”
Still others questioned why this plan will work when others haven’t. “It sounds to me like the states want to build a rogue, redundant management system that wants to operate outside the federal fishery laws of the United States,” said Jim Clements, commercial fisherman from Carrabelle, Florida. “These five state directors that claim they can now manage this fishery as the Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority are the same 5 people that are part of the Gulf Council and the same 5 people are also part of the Gulf States Commission. Since they failed to manage this fishery at the Council, and since they failed to manage this fishery at the Commission, what makes us think they won’t fail to manage it now?”