Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Archives - Page 8 of 10

Apply for the Marine Resources Education Program

February 23, 2017 — Interested in learning about how federal biologists manage fisheries across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Atlantic Seaboard from Florida north to North Carolina?

How about taking a spot on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s Coastal Migratory Pelagics Advisory Panel?

Here’s your chance: There’s a March 17 deadline for applying for membership on the advisory panel, a three-year term for the group which will merge the biology of pelagic fish – most of the offshore species, fish that do not live on the bottom nor near the shore – and the folks who catch those species into advice for the 17-member Gulf Council.

The message from the Gulf Council stated, “Advisory panel members are appointed by the Council and will serve a three-year term.” Most advisory panels meet no more than twice each year and per-day and travel expenses are paid for ad-hoc panel members.

Read the full story at The Acadiana Advocate

How Technology is Helping Fishermen

February 3, 2017 — Greetings from New Orleans, where I’m excited to bring you some great news about the recreational fishery! After years of careful analysis and deliberation, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council embraced change and voted unanimously to bring the charter for-hire fishery—which is made up of vessels operated by professional fishermen who take paying customers out fishing—into the Digital Age.

Yesterday’s decision directs the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop an electronic logbook reporting system for the charter boat fleet in the Gulf. Electronic logbooks are devices—some no bigger than a smartphone—that charter captains use to record their day’s catch and send it directly to managers.

As a result, accurate tracking and monitoring of fish caught by charter boats will be captured in a fast and reliable way—improving the management of our nation’s fisheries.

Recreational fishing is a favorite past time for millions of people (myself included) and helps supports thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to coastal economies. Because of its importance, it is critical we make sure the resource is sustainable so our children and grandchildren have the same opportunity we have to enjoy it.

Read the full story at the Ocean Conservancy.

21st-Century technology is key to sustainable fisheries

January 30, 2017 — Anyone who has paid attention to Gulf of Mexico red snapper management in the last several years knows that it is the most controversial of all Gulf species. Though controversial, there is one thing that almost everyone agrees on – the need for better data. At the upcoming January meeting, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) is slated to take a major step in the right direction by voting on an electronic logbook (ELB) requirement for the for-hire portion of the fishery.

Electronic logbooks deliver managers more timely and accurate information so they can make more informed management decisions, but they also make good business sense for coastal economies and the charter fleet. For communities like Orange Beach and Gulf Shores that rely so heavily upon the tourism income generated by fishing, this means more stability and better information for our Chambers of Commerce and Convention and Tourism Bureaus to plan and market to potential customers.

Red snapper scarcity prompts push to change US fishing laws

January 13, 2017 — Proposed changes to the main US fishing law could alter the way scarce red snapper is regulated, even as a new advisory panel aimed at alleviating long-standing tension between recreational and commercial fishermen prepares its first report.

The incoming administration of Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled congress may make it easier for proponents to achieve changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law that governs all fishing regulation in the US federal waters, sources have told Undercurrent News.

Some of the most vocal proponents of changes to the current law and their critics are users of the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery, which was once overfished but has recovered amid strict regulation.

With recovery, however, has come controversy, particularly among recreational red snapper fishermen who have seen the number of days they are allowed to fish in federal waters dwindle even as the number and quality of fish in the water improve.

In response, the five gulf states have set their own recreational fishing seasons in near-shore state waters. Keeping this in mind, federal officials have responded by drastically cutting the number of days red snapper fisherman can fish in federal waters. Multiple lawsuits followed.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Electronic Log Book Project at 88% of Goal; only 23 Vessel Spots Remain for Charter Boat Improvement Program

November 3, 2016 — The following was released by the Gulf Seafood Institute:

A $1.7 million Charter Boat data collection initiative led by the Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) and technology partner CLS America, Inc. is so attractive that 230 Charter boat Captains are signed on and only 23 spots remain. The program enables Captains with newly installed satellite technology that wirelessly links to mobile tablets onboard to create a real time database with vessel and catch data.

Bob Gill, an effective mediator between federal fishery managers and irritated fishermen and industry during his years on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, serves as the senior program director for GSI. He calls the first year participation rate “exceptional” and says it shows Captains in the Gulf of Mexico are willing to co-engineer a better fishery when given a clear opportunity to do so.

We caught up with Mr. Gill, a Gulf Seafood Institute board member, about the popular pilot program he’s managing. Here are excerpts from the conversation about how it all started, where it’s headed, and how to secure one of the remaining 23 slots. You can READ THE INTERVIEW HERE.

LOUISIANA: Coastal Conservation Association head blasts Wildlife & Fisheries secretary in email

November 3, 2016 — The head of Louisiana’s largest recreational-fishing advocacy group sent his members Wednesday a stinging rebuke of the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries over his support of the current structure of red snapper management in the Gulf of Mexico.

Coastal Conservation Association Executive Director David Cresson said in the emailed message that at the most recent meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, held the week of Oct. 17 in Biloxi, Miss., regulators discussed dropping the recreational season in federal waters next year to only one day.

The 2016 season was initially set at nine days but was extended to 11 days due to widespread bad weather during the short season.

In the missive, Cresson laid some of the blame at the feet of department Secretary Charlie Melancon, who has stated publicly his support for the Gulf Council and expressed strong opposition to HR 3094, a bill working its way through Congress that would transfer management authority to the five Gulf states.

“Inexplicably, Secretary Melancon supports this system,” Cresson wrote. “He even said at the July meeting of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission that ‘the Gulf Council saved the red snapper.’

“Secretary Melancon is mistaken.”

Read the full story at The Times-Picayune

Gulf council seeking input from fishermen for coral reef protection

September 23, 2016 — Fishermen will be able to provide input for coral protection areas in the Gulf of Mexico at a workshop Monday hosted by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott, 142 Library Drive, Houma.

The council’s scientists recommended protecting 47 areas in the Gulf, but with the help of the Coral Advisory Panel and Shrimp Advisory Panel, the number has been narrowed to 15 priority areas.

The meeting is to get feedback from fishermen who use bottom-contacting gear in federal waters in the Gulf before the council begins its public scoping process. Another meeting is to be held in Alabama.

“Most of the areas, no one fishes in, but there is one area off the boot of Louisiana and several off Texas and Florida where there is some fishing activity. They want to get feedback from fishermen to see how much impact it would have to fisheries,” said Julie Falgout, seafood industry liaison with Louisiana SeaGrant.

Generally, fishermen won’t trawl in areas where there are coral reefs as it would damage gear, Falgout said. But when a reef area is protected, there is an additional boundary area that surrounds the reef that may impact fishing.

“The council wants feedback from the fishermen to see if it’s going to be a big problem for a lot of fishermen or for one or two fishermen and see if they need to go back to the drawing board to rework the maps,” she said.

Read the full story at The Daily Comet

LOUISIANA: LDWF snapper-management cost estimate undermined

September 13, 2016 — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ contention that state-run management of red snapper would cost more than $10 million in its first year alone was undermined Wednesday when Congressional officials confirmed the federal government would still pay for stock assessments and research efforts in the Gulf of Mexico — absorbing most of the LDWF cost estimate.

The news came during LDWF’s “Red Snapper Education Day” that featured speakers hand-picked by the department to inform members of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission and the general public on the status of the snapper fishery.

The department, led by Secretary Charlie Melancon, has come under fire from recreational anglers since midsummer for opposing H.R. 3094, which would remove management of Gulf red snapper from the federal government and award it to the Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority, a group comprised of representatives from each of the five states.

Congressman Garret Graves (R-Baton Rouge) sponsored the bill.

Recreational anglers — who received an 11-day federal snapper season in the Gulf this summer — have long complained the federal system is highly-politicized, mismanaged and favors commercial fishermen.

The prior LDWF administration labored for years to strip management from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, and worked closely with Graves as the bill made its way through the Congressional process.

Melancon contended in June that an amendment offered by U.S. House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) to eliminate from the bill federal funding of state management was a “poison pill” designed to kill the legislation in Washington, D.C.

Read the full story at Louisiana Sportsman

LOUISIANA: Rescue in severe weather earns agent prestigious award

August 25, 2016 — The word ‘hero’ is sometimes thrown around too lightly, but no one can argue it doesn’t apply to Nicholas Guillory, a sergeant with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Enforcement Division. As many as eight people are alive today because of Guillory’s actions last September, and his courage earned him a commendation from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council last week in New Orleans.

During a severe thunderstorm almost a year ago, Guillory received a distress call from a boat taking on water in the Gulf of Mexico near Pecan Island. Conditions were horrendous, but Guillory decided to launch his 19-foot patrol boat and attempt the rescue anyway.

“As I traveled toward the Gulf of Mexico, I couldn’t even see the bow of my own vessel because the rainfall was so heavy,” he said.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

The Gulf War

May 31, 2016 — Katie’s Seafood Market is a corrugated-metal building on the Galveston waterfront with a wooden ship wheel hanging from its ceiling and an 89-pound snapper mounted near the entrance. A small retail area faces the street, but most of the action happens on the dockside, which opens onto a channel leading to the Gulf of Mexico.

It was there, last November, that William “Bubba” Cochrane could be found supervising the unloading of 11,000 pounds of red snapper from his boat the Chelsea Ann. A beefy man with a gray-flecked beard, Cochrane recorded weights on a clipboard as large blue vats filled with fish. Outside, his twelve-year-old son and deckhand, Conner, moved around the boat in orange bib pants. “Kids in school say, ‘I want to be a video-game designer,’ ” Conner said. “I’m the only one who has ever said, ‘I want to be a fisherman.’ ”

That would have been a ludicrous ambition a decade ago. When Cochrane started fishing for a living in the early nineties, the Gulf population of red snapper—mild and buttery, easy to catch, with pink-orange scales that stand out on market shelves—had bottomed out following a forty-year decline. Potential egg production, a key measure of population health, had fallen to 2.6 percent of its natural level, one tenth of what scientists consider sustainable.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Gulf Council) and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), scrambled to find solutions. For years commercial fishing was limited to the first ten days of the month during the spring and fall seasons. This led to a mad race—a “derby” in industry parlance—as every vessel barreled into the Gulf at once. “If it was blowing a gale on the first, you had to go,” Cochrane says. “You’ve got bills to pay and a boat loan.”

Under those conditions, fishermen didn’t have time to find the perfect fishing spot. “If I’ve got to kill two hundred pounds of undersized fish to catch fifty pounds of legal fish, I’ll do it,” he says of the attitude during those years. “A few discards, you try not to think about it.”

Derbies didn’t just stress the fishers; they also failed as a conservation tool. Most years, the commercial sector exceeded its allocation. The stock improved, but not by much.

Read the full story at Texas Monthly