Alabama Archives - Page 9 of 10

Red snapper anger directed at Obama, but Trump could solve fishing frustrations

May 15, 2017 — President Donald Trump has stressed the need to make states the “laboratories of democracy.” He calls for fewer burdensome federal regulations, and declares that it’s past time to “drain the swamp.”

All of that could be quickly coming to a head in the coastal states where he secured some of his highest vote totals during last year’s election. State and local leaders are boiling mad over what they say are excessive federal regulations when it comes to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Specifically, the frustration is directed at an all-time shortened season – three days — for recreational red snapper fishing within federal waters.

The Orange Beach City Council, on Tuesday, voted unanimously to forward its concerns in a written letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. In it, the city asks for an immediate lengthening of the recreational season to 46 days, spread over a series of three-day weekends.

The Baldwin County Commission is expected to take similar action on Tuesday.

If nothing happens between now and the first of June, city leaders and the anglers are poised to protest on June 4, the day after this year’s three-day season expires. Boaters are being encouraged to show up at scenic Perdido Pass, filling its waters, in a show of unity.

Read the full story at AL.com

ALABAMA: Orange Beach blasts red snapper restrictions: ‘Detrimental to our economic interest’

May 10, 2017 — The Orange Beach City Council endorsed a plea to federal officials on Tuesday for an immediate lengthening of the 2017 red snapper season that’s presently capped at a shortest-ever three days.

The council’s vote took place during a special meeting and after two city leaders — City Councilman Jeff Boyd and Mayor Tony Kennon – criticized the federal involvement in limiting a recreational activity that they claim is responsible for “hundreds of millions of dollars” in annual economic activity in coastal Alabama.

“This is detrimental to our economic interest and well-being of our citizens,” said Kennon.

Added Boyd: “Guests are canceling reservations, people are not purchasing boats, not buying second homes … they see no hope in the future of Gulf of Mexico fishing.”

Read the full story at AL.com

3-Day Red Snapper Season for Anglers in Gulf’s US Waters

May 3, 2017 — Private recreational anglers went 25 percent over last year’s quota for red snapper , and will have only three days to fish federal waters this year for one of the Gulf of Mexico’s most popular sport and table fish, federal regulators said Tuesday.

Charter boat captains will have a 49-day season. Both seasons will start June 1.

“It’s a disappointment to me to that we have made such gains in rebuilding this stock but the season’s going to be this short,” said Roy Crabtree, regional fisheries administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A big reason, he said, is that private anglers are expected to take 81 percent of their 3 million-pound (1.3-million kilogram) quota out of state waters, where seasons range from 66 days off Alabama to year-round off Texas.

State officials and politicians say the 3-day season just proves states should regulate the species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

SEAMAP Releases 5-Year Management Plan

April 19, 2017 — The following was released by the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program:

The Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) has released its 2016-2020 Management Plan. Prepared by the South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean components of SEAMAP, the Management Plan serves as a reference for official SEAMAP policies and procedures through 2020. The Plan also includes detailed information on SEAMAP activities and highlights how SEAMAP data meet critical needs for recent stock assessments and management decisions. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the Plan details how SEAMAP’s core surveys have been impacted by level/declining funding. It identifies how expansions in funding could be used to refine existing assessments and advance the movement towards ecosystem-based management; ultimately, leading to more comprehensive fisheries management in the Southeast region.

SEAMAP is a cooperative state/federal/university program for the collection, management, and dissemination of fishery-independent data and information in the Southeastern U.S. and Caribbean. Representatives from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) jointly plan and conduct surveys of economically and ecologically important fish and shellfish species and the critical habitats that support them. Since 1982, SEAMAP has sponsored long-term standardized surveys that have become the backbone of fisheries and habitat management in the Southeast and Caribbean. SEAMAP currently provides the only region-wide mechanism for monitoring long-term status and trends of populations and habitats within the region.

As a cooperative effort, SEAMAP monitors the distribution and abundance of fish and other marine resources from North Carolina through Texas and into the Caribbean. SEAMAP is intended to maximize the capability of fishery-independent and associated survey activities to satisfy data and information needs of living marine resource management and research organizations in the region. The primary means of performing that task is to optimize coordination and deployment of regional surveys and provide access to the collected data through documents and online databases. Additional roles of SEAMAP are to document long- and short-term needs for fishery-independent data to meet critical management and research needs, and to establish compatible and consistent databases for ecosystem and predictive modeling applications. SEAMAP promotes coordination among data collection, processing, management, and analysis activities emphasizing those specifically concerned with living marine resource management and habitat protection, and provides a forum for coordination of other fishery-related activities.

The 2016-2020 SEAMAP Management Plan is available online at: http://bit.ly/2pw1qXM. For more information about SEAMAP, particularly the South Atlantic component, please visit www.SEAMAP.org or contact Shanna Madsen, SEAMAP-SA Coordinator, at smadsen@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Senator Shelby leads way on more data on Gulf red snapper populations

March 27, 2017 — Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby paved the way for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to land a multimillion-dollar grant to innovate Gulf of Mexico reef-fish survey assessments and technologies.

This $9.5 million grant program, authored by Shelby, is directed by the 2016 Appropriations Act. The goal is to produce a more-accurate estimate of Gulf red snapper populations and improve fishing access.

Read the full story at the Sun Herald

Alabama’s first Oyster Shell Recycling Program captures ½ million shells; ready for January expansion

December 22, 2016 — GULF SHORES, Ala. — With an anticipated 130,000 pounds of shells to be collected by the end of a productive pilot period, Alabama’s oyster shell recycling program is set to expand into Gulf Shores and Orange Beach restaurants starting in January.

The successful program — the first multi-partner initiative of its kind in the state — is expected to save nearly 600,000 oyster shells from landfill in just nine weeks and return them to Alabama’s reefs as habitat for future oysters.

“This is an excellent program because it creates a positive cycle,” said Mark Berte, Executive Director of the Alabama Coastal Foundation, which designed the program and secured two years of funding from National Fisheries and Wildlife Federation officials.

“The more shells we collect from restaurants, the more opportunity we give new oysters to grow when we put them in the water, which means more oysters for restaurants to sell…and more to recycle,” Berte said.

The program involves weekly pickups from six seafood restaurants in Mobile along the Causeway who otherwise would toss their oyster shells as garbage or discard them somewhere out of the way on property.

Felix’s Fish Camp Grill, for example, used to line the perimeter of their parking lot with oyster shells; in fact, the restaurant became renowned for it on Travelocity and other tourism websites. A shell recycling event on November 31 filled more than 317 bins, weighing nearly 70,000 pounds, from Felix’s property — an estimated 341,092 shells.

“We had lined those along our parking lot so people weren’t driving off into the grass,” said Julius Harbison, General Manager at Felix’s Fish Camp, in Spanish Fort. “They had been there a year or two so they were some already seasoned shells.”

Harbison’s father was an oysterman so he understood the value of the program when ACF first approached the restaurant.

“Our owner asked me and my chef what we thought, and we said it was really a no brainer,” Harbison said. “It doesn’t take a lot of effort as a business, and for me personally, it’s amazing to be able to participate in something like this.”

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute

Gulf states get $370M in oil spill funds to restore wetlands

November 16, 2016 — NEW ORLEANS — Five Gulf states still seeking to restore their coastal waters and habitats after the devastating oil spill of 2010 will divvy up nearly $370 million for an array of projects that will create new wetlands, restore fisheries, aid sea turtles and more.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced the grants Tuesday for Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida as those states strive to bounce back from one of the largest environmental disasters in history.

Millions of barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days after an offshore rig fire and explosion in April 2010. British Petroleum, which was found primarily responsible for the spill, has paid billions in cleanup costs, settlements and penalties.

The funding announced Tuesday in New Orleans is the fourth and largest round of grants yet that the foundation — which oversees part of the money from criminal penalties paid by BP and other defendants — is allotting for the Gulf’s recovery. That fund is getting a total of $2.5 billion over five years for projects to repair the damage.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Rocky Mountain Telegram

Governor Bentley Announces $63 Million for Gulf Restoration Projects in Alabama

November 16, 2016 — MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Governor Robert Bentley on Tuesday announced the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) has approved more than $63 million for six Alabama projects that address high-priority conservation needs, including the acquisition and restoration of significant coastal habitats in key focal areas, and the continuation of fisheries monitoring.

“One of Alabama’s greatest natural treasures is its gulf coast, and it’s vital that we continue to provide the necessary funds to ensure our coastline is restored from the devastation caused by the 2010 oil spill,” Governor Bentley said. “This $63 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will support long-term recovery efforts and provide for future efforts to return wildlife populations to their normal levels. I appreciate the efforts of our local, state and federal partners who are working so hard on the continuing resurgence of the Alabama Gulf Coast.”

In 2013, a U.S. District Court approved two plea agreements resolving certain criminal charges against BP and Transocean related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The funds announced Tuesday are the fourth installment from NFWF’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (GEBF). A total of $356 million will be paid into the Gulf Fund over a five-year period for conservation projects in the State of Alabama.

The number of awards from the GEBF in the state of Alabama now stands at 19, with a total value of more than $115 million. All projects were selected for funding following extensive consultation with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Read the full story from WLTZ

ALABAMA: Drought means a stunningly clear Gulf, happy fishermen, and bad news for oyster lovers

November 2, 2016 — Suffering under an extended statewide drought, it is hard to remember that this year began with a record-breaking flood.

In January, the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers pushed far beyond their banks into the woods, and by the time they gathered together in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, they formed one giant super-river, 13 miles wide. The Alabama River hadn’t been so high in 25 years, measuring 53.6 feet above flood stage at the Claiborne Dam.

Now, almost 11 months later, the Alabama River is on course to potentially set a new record for the lowest flow ever. In the last week, the river dropped to 4.37 feet, just a foot above the low of 3.4 feet set during the 2007 drought. That record low was reached in late November, meaning we may be on course to meet or exceed the record if the dry conditions hold. Climatologists say the weather models predict the drought to extend into January.

It is important to remember that in some measure, the troubles seen on our rivers are self-inflicted. Alabama does not have a water management plan in place for its rivers, as most states do. And for the most part, industry is allowed first priority when it comes to the river flow, sometimes sucking in vast amounts of water for various uses, even to the point of causing tremendous casualties among fish and other aquatic life. Many in the state have been lobbying for a robust water management plan to ensure that our rivers aren’t choked dry by overuse, but such a compromise has been hard to come by.

Read the full story at AL.com

Reports: Gulf population of menhaden, prey of game fish, thriving

October 26th, 2016 — A commission that assesses the health and viability of the menhaden population in the Gulf of Mexico says despite massive commercial hauls, the menhaden population is sound.

The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission calls it a stock assessment for menhaden.

Steven J. VanderKooy, a fisheries coordinator with the commission, which has an Ocean Springs, Mississippi office, told The Sun Herald despite the fact that millions of pounds are hauled in each year, they are thriving.

The fish is caught for cat food and fish oil supplements and is a favorite food of large game fish.

The assessment was completed as a cooperative effort of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Texas and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Decatur Daily