Saving Seafood

Chefs heat up red snapper debate

February 27, 2018 — Priced at $32, the pan-roasted Gulf red snapper with coconut rice and Malaysian curry sauce is among the best-sellers at Carrollton Market in New Orleans.

But chef Jason Goodenough worries that it could someday disappear from his menu, if Congress goes too far in loosening regulations and allows more overfishing of the stock.

“On the macro level, my fear is that tourism is going to drop off because less and less Gulf seafood is available to us as chefs,” said Goodenough, named the 2017 chef of the year by New Orleans Magazine. “People come to New Orleans to eat, to drink and to hear music — food tourism is a major, major part of the fabric of the economy.”

Goodenough is one of 26 chefs, most of them from New Orleans, urging Congress to put the brakes on any proposed rollbacks of federal laws that protect fish populations.

Their latest target is the “Modern Fish Act,” which is set for a vote Wednesday by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Backers of S. 1520, sponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and formally known as the “Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2017,” say it would give sports anglers more access to federal waters.

While many recreational anglers cheered the Trump administration for extending the Gulf red snapper season by 39 days last year, they regarded the move as a temporary fix. They’ve touted the “Modern Fish Act” as a permanent solution and a much-needed way to bring more flexibility to fisheries management (Greenwire, Dec. 19, 2017).

Opponents, including the chefs, say the bill would weaken federal protections and result in more overfishing, damaging stocks in the long run.

Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy in Baton Rouge, La., said it is “utter folly to think that chefs are interested in conservation.”

“I know that it’s going to be of a lot of interest that some chefs want to pick a fight — ‘bless their hearts’ is what my mother taught me to say,” he said. “But I don’t think any responsible person in America looks to chefs who profit from these fishery resources to be guiding any discussion on conservation.”

Recreational fishermen have long complained that the nation’s premier fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, has become too bureaucratic, fixated on quotas and catch limits.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Major Independent Study of Gulf Red Snapper Population Announced

February 26, 2018 — Independent fisheries studies are a major factor in management’s determinations of fish stocks, but the data is not always easy to come by. Studies are hard to fund, and may not be conducted consistently over the years if that funding disappears. But recently, there was news of a major study to be conducted on Gulf red snapper populations to develop data on the stocks that would certainly be useful in coming to a better, clearer understanding of the levels and dynamics of that species in the Gulf.

A team of university and government scientists, selected by an expert review panel convened by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, will conduct an independent study to estimate the number of red snapper in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

“American communities across the Gulf of Mexico depend on their access to, as well as the long term sustainability of, red snapper,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “I look forward to the insights this project will provide as we study and manage this valuable resource.”

The research team, made up of 21 scientists from 12 institutions of higher learning, a state agency and a federal agency, was awarded $9.5 million in federal funds for the project through a competitive research grant process. With matching funds from the universities, the project will total $12 million.

“We’ve assembled some of the best red snapper scientists for this study,” said Greg Stunz, the project leader and a professor at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. “The team members assembled through this process are ready to address this challenging research question. There are lots of constituents who want an independent abundance estimate that will be anxiously awaiting our findings.”

Recreational anglers and commercial fishermen will be invited to play a key role in collecting data by tagging fish, reporting tags and working directly with scientists onboard their vessels.

Read the full story at Florida Sportsman

 

NOAA to end SIMP “informed consent” period in April

February 16, 2018 — The date when the United States will begin enforcing full compliance with a program designed to prevent illegally fished and counterfeit products has been set as 7 April, according to a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Seafood Import Monitoring Program officially took effect on 1 January, nearly 13 months after officials revealed its regulations that required importers to keep records on selected products. However, officials opted to begin the program with an “informed compliance” phase, choosing to allow shipments with missing or misconfigured data.

“NOAA Fisheries has observed an encouraging and steadily increasing rate of compliance with SIMP filings,” the agency said in a statement.

SIMP requires importers to maintain records for Atlantic cod, blue crab, dolphinfish, grouper, king crab, Pacific cod, red snapper, sea cucumber, sharks, swordfish, and tunas detailing how they were caught or harvested and tracking the products until they reach the U.S.

In January 2017, the National Fisheries Institute and a group of seafood companies sued the government, claiming SIMP violated federal law. However, a federal judge in August ruled against the plaintiffs, saying Congress gave the authority to agencies to issue regulations.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the NFI said that programs like SIMP experience “growing pains” and that the industry will look for opportunities to help NOAA handle such issues as the April deadline draws closer.

“NFI members will work to ensure they are prepared for full implementation of SIMP,” said Gavin Gibbons, the NFI’s vice president of communications.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

FLORIDA: Red snapper pilot program in the works

February 15, 2018 — There is no fish along the Gulf Coast more talked about than the red snapper.

Last week at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting near Tallahassee, the red snapper was once again on the table for discussion.

The FWC looked at the future of Gulf red snapper management in state and federal waters, including a proposed fishery-management pilot program (also referred to as an Exempted Fishing Permit) that would allow the FWC to manage all recreational red snapper harvest caught in Gulf state and federal waters off Florida in 2018 and 2019.

The pilot program is pending approval by NOAA Fisheries and would set the harvest season for recreational anglers fishing from private vessels in state and federal waters of the Gulf, and would also include for-hire operations that do not have a federal reef fish permit and are limited to targeting reef fish in Gulf state waters only.

What impact does this have on the “for-hire” boats in Destin, such as the charter fleet, which the majority of holds a federal reef permit?

“Absolutely none,” said Destin Charter Boat Association President Gary Jarvis, who was in attendance at the meeting.

Read the full story at the Destin Log

 

GMFMC approves EFP applications

February 15, 2018 — Any review of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s recent meeting in New Orleans begins with the discussion of state recreational red snapper management, and its review of the five Gulf states’ application for exempted fishing permits for 2018 and 2019.

The GMFMC’s first step was to come up with a way to, as the council’s report stated, “to estimate red snapper biomass off each state, which will be used in one of the alternatives for allocating the red snapper quota among the states.”

Briefly, Louisiana has estimated its allocation in the neighborhood of 15 percent of the annual total allowable catch for the recreational sector, a figure state managers have set at slightly more than 1 million pounds.

The council voted to exclude the 2010 landings, the year of the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, a move which could help Louisiana, since most of the spill affected our offshore waters (and nearshore, too.)

There was debate about how to handle headboats and charterboats under this EFP. From reports, Louisiana’s delegation supports retaining these operations in the recreational sector. It appears two other states want to remove these operations from the recreational umbrella.

In the end, the GMFMC gave its approval for each state’s EFP, “with the condition that if federal for-hire vessels are included in any state’s EFP, it would not shorten the length of the federal for-hire season.”

The council also recommended National Marine Fisheries Service advance the Florida Keys Commercial Fishing Association’s Lionfish EFP request, which modified the sampling area for this invasive species.

Read the full story at the Acadiana Advocate

 

After turbulent 2017, states want to control snapper fishery

February 14, 2018 — A year after the Trump administration likely broke the law by allowing overfishing of red snapper, five Gulf of Mexico states now want special power to manage the species in federal waters in 2018 and 2019.

They’re likely to get their way, too.

Unlike last year, the new plan would not allow sports anglers in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to exceed federal quotas, but the states would get the authority to call the shots in setting their own fishing seasons in federal waters.

Daryl Carpenter, the owner of Reel Screamers Guide Service in Grand Isle, La., and president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, can’t wait, saying the federal management system is broken and “has failed to come up with any type of fix.”

“It’s too dominated by non-interested groups, by your green groups who want to hug and cherish the fish,” he said. “You can get nothing done in the federal system. … I’m 100 percent in favor. The states need to take control of this and get the federal government out of our damn life.”

Critics say that ceding control to the states would be a mistake, arguing that federal officials long have led the way in rebuilding the red snapper population and remain the most qualified to do the job.

“The federal management process is the most open and transparent, no matter how frustrating,” said Shane Cantrell, executive director of the Charter Fisherman’s Association and the owner of Galveston Sea Ventures in Galveston, Texas.

All five states are pushing the idea as an experiment that would be allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, the nation’s premier fishing law.

They want NOAA Fisheries to give them “exempted fishing permits.” Those permits allow fishing that would normally be banned under federal law, usually as pilot projects done in the name of research.

“It allows us to exempt certain fishing activities from the regulations,” said Roy Crabtree, administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“How well will it work? Well, time will tell,” Crabtree said. “But I think a lot of people will argue that we’ve had some quota overruns in the past and we’ve had a lot of dissatisfied customers, so I think we do need to try something different.”

Many state officials say that NOAA is all but certain to sign off on the exempted fishing permits, after Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby got Congress to include language in a fiscal 2017 appropriations bill that directed the agency to come up with a pilot program to give states more control.

After the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council voted on Feb. 1 to approve the plans, Alabama officials said they were one step closer to taking over management of the red snapper.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Opinion: Chefs respond to column on fisheries management

February 13, 2018 — We read David Cresson’s op-ed “Chefs push half-baked fisheries agenda” and were immediately struck with how little he seems to appreciate the real problems in Gulf fisheries.

As chefs who rely on healthy fisheries to run our businesses, we know it is possible to have fish for both the commercial and recreational sectors to catch and eat while also preserving this resource for the future. We know this because we already have a system that is doing just that: the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary federal law managing our nation’s fisheries.

Cresson is right when he states, “It’s time to set the record straight. The United States manages its fisheries better than anyone else in the world.” MSA has rebuilt 43 fish stocks since 2000, all while increasing their economic output.

He also correctly points out that Louisiana’s senators and congressional representatives support the proposed Modern Fish Act, a bill that would weaken fishery management and is supported by Cresson’s Coastal Conservation Association.

But it makes sense that the Louisiana congressional Delegation would stand with CCA once you follow the money.

CCA, through the lobbying firm Adams and Reese, has rewarded the Louisiana delegation handsomely. CCA paid Adams and Reese more than $110,000 each of the last three years to dole out campaign contributions to Louisiana politicians.

Cresson attempts to paint MSA defenders’ focus on red snapper as overblown, even irrational. But it is CCA’s champion, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, who introduced a bill titled the Red Snapper Act that would exempt that single species from the protection of MSA, the very legislation that rebuilt the stocks.

Despite CCA’s claims that the commercial sector is taking more than its fair share, recreational fishers are allocated 49 percent of the red snapper quota. And still they have exceeded their quota 7 out of the last 10 years. Meanwhile, the commercial sector is intensely monitored to stay within its quota and the charter for-hire component of the recreational fishery (captains who take individual, paying anglers out on fishing trips) has developed separate management that is keeping them in their limit.

If Cresson is indeed interested in leading the fight for conservation, perhaps he could explain to the public why the Louisiana politicians his lobbyists influenced pushed the Commerce Department to open up the federal recreational season this summer for an extra 39 days, knowingly allowing overfishing by upwards of 50 percent, or 6 million pounds.

Read the full opinion piece at Houma Today

 

Gulf Council recommends new pilots to test state management of recreational red snapper fishing

February 6, 2018 — The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has recommended that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) approve pilots for all five Gulf States to test state management of recreational fishing for red snapper. The Council’s approval of the pilots, known as Exempted Fishing Permits or EFPs, came with the caveat that the decision by some states to include their federal charter/for-hire vessels (and the corresponding quota allocations that are associated with them) not result in shrinking the federal charter season for the rest of the states.

The following is a statement from Matt Tinning, Senior Director of Environmental Defense Fund’s US Oceans Program:

“EDF has long called for innovations in the way we manage recreational fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, and we applaud those who are considering new approaches. We support this two-year opportunity for the states to show that they can manage their private red snapper anglers under the conservation tenets of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

“It is important that federal charter boats who do not wish to participate are treated fairly. These captains have worked for years to stabilize their seasons and are now close to finishing development of new federal fishery management plans.

Read the full story at the Orlando Political Observer

 

Ryan Prewitt: Federal red snapper management is working to restore species

January 30, 2018 — As a chef and restaurant owner, I consider it an important obligation to be a responsible part of the seafood economy. Restaurants are the link between the amazing seafood of Louisiana and the consumers who travel here to enjoy it. I hope my customers and children are able to eat Gulf fish for the rest of their lives. I sincerely want all involved parties to be able to sustainably harvest more fish.

American fisheries are the most productive and well-managed in the world as a direct result of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the main law overseeing federal fisheries. The Magnuson-Stevens Act works.

In the mid-1990s, red snapper stocks were reduced to 3 percent of historic levels by decades of overfishing. We are now in the fortunate position of being able to catch and eat this fish because of successful management strategies. However, the population is far from fully recovered.

All commercial species, including red snapper, feed directly into the Louisiana restaurant industry. We are projected to have an 8.9 billion dollar financial impact in 2017 and employ more than 207,000 people.

These numbers do not include fishers, dockworkers and numerous adjacent seafood-based industries, nor those who regularly access seafood through restaurants and markets. This massive population would be harmed if MSA is weakened.

Read the full letter at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

 

SAFMC: Meeting of the Council’s Socio-Economic Panel

January 25, 2018 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will hold a meeting of its Scientific and Statistical Committee’s Socio-Economic Panel February 6-7, 2018 in North Charleston, SC.

The meeting will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 4831 Tanger Outlet Boulevard, N. Charleston, SC 29418.

Agenda items include: 

  • Electronic reporting for recreational anglers in the South Atlantic
  • An update on the Council’s Citizen Science Program
  • Wreckfish Individual Transferable Quota Review
  • Preliminary results from the Socio-Economic Profile of the Commercial Snapper Grouper Fishery report

Members of the public are invited to attend. Public comment will be accepted at the meeting and via an online public comment form. The meeting will also be available via webinar. Webinar registration is required.

Additional information, including the meeting agenda, briefing book materials, public comment form, and links to register for the daily meeting webinars is available from the Council’s website: http://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/scientific-and-statistical-committee-meetings/.

Learn more about the SAFMC by visiting their site here.