Amberjack Closure

[Wookie]

I don't disagree with a reporting system tied to recreational fishing. I also would agree that the fisheries managers don't always get it right. But we have to be careful of a couple of things. First, look up the concept of shifting baselines. We've overfished virtually all of our stocks and our modern assessments of what a particular fish stock should look like is skewed by current views of fish stocks relative to historical populations. For example red snapper can easily live to be over 50 years old. The oldest red snapper caught now is about 14. Given the indeterminate growth pattern of fish (e.g. continuous growth), we've substantially altered both numbers and the overall size/age-class structure of our fisheries. Second, if you think the fisheries managers are wrong, then go collect some systematic data on fish populations, validate your methods, and provide an alternative to fisheries managers. Just pointing a finger and saying the fisheries managers don't know what they are doing doesn't validate your view that fish stocks are healthy. Sure, you may see lots of AJs when you go out, but how does that compare with historical populations and how do these current population sizes influence the health of our overall fish communities. Provide some data and provide an alternative.

Yup, it's what I did for a living. By the time the data gets to the council, politics has been applied to the data in so many ways the council has no idea what they are getting. When trapping red snapper in the gulf, and south atlantic their otoliths often showed 20, 30, or in a few cases, 40 year old fish. But that does not fit the agenda of CCA and others, so those reports don't ever seem to get to the council.

But what do I know, I'm just the guy who caused the data to be collected and saw the otoliths pulled. I'm not an author or anything.

 

[RyanT]

Frank, we're not in disagreement about fisheries politics. Unfortunately as I mentioned, otolith studies are only one small part of the equation when it comes to managing stocks. For example, what is the recruitment rate for a species like red snapper? We simply don't have any clue. You'll hear numbers thrown around like 1 in every 10,000 egg survives to adulthood. These are simply guesses. Politics aside, I'd rather fishery managers err on the side of underestimating rather than overestimating stocks.

 

[RayfromTX]

Based on watching the historical record of the state of Texas when it comes to protecting or even understanding our natural resources, I would prefer the feds take the lead on protecting our coast line. I would go further and put pressure on the feds to be more conservative in their approach and I would fund research on a national level. We don't even understand our oceans and the gulf. All we have proven is that we know how to maximize short term profits and ignore the consequences.