Fish Traps Coming Back

[Walt Stearns]

We all need to take a hard look at this.

It appears that commercial fishing lobbyist Bob Spaeth, Southern Offshore Fishing Association is maneuvering the Gulf Council to endorse the return of fish traps in the Gulf of Mexico. This, coming years after the long battle to have them banned from US waters in both the Gulf and South Atlantic EEZs.

Fish traps are without a doubt not only the most controversial gear type ever permitted in the snapper/grouper fishery of the Southeast US, but also the most destructive.

To get an understanding of the damage done by fish traps read this by highly respected and experienced fishery management expert Dr. Russell Nelson - http://www.seawatch.org/bibliography/nelsonpaper.php

The state of Florida banned fish traps in state waters in 1980, yet it took the NMFS over a quarter of a century (not until Feb. 2007) to finally ban the gear in the Gulf of Mexico. Bermuda also recognized fish trapping as an unsustainable method of harvest and banned their use years ago.

Unfortunately, fish trapping is so deeply entrenched in the culture of the Caribbean that many still view it as an acceptable method of harvesting reef fish. In every Island Nation – Haiti, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, St. Maartin, etc., etc., that actively uses fish traps the presence of bottom fish larger than my hand is nearly non existent.

One of the worst assumptions is that the fisherman simply releases the fish they don’t want, like angelfish, grunts, etc., or can’t legally take like undersize snapper and groupers once a trap is brought to the surface. Not true. Almost nothing survives with a swim bladder (bony fish) after being brought up from depth rapidly. It’s common practice among trappers to cut up this by catch, legal or otherwise and use it for bait.

To see what I am talking about watch this video - Explosive Decompression in Fish Traps - Fish Traps: Explosive Decompression on Vimeo or here YouTube - Fish Traps Explosive Decompression Part 1

Now it appears the conservation groups Ocean Conservancy, Oceana and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) are willing to consider throwing reef fish under the bus to do what they believe will save sea turtles by sitting down with the Gulf Council and at least two commercial fishing lobby organizations to re-consider fish traps as allowable gear to be included in Amendment 32.

This meeting will be taking place Dec 15th, 2009, 10 AM-4 PM at the Florida Wildlife Research Institute, 100 8th Avenue SE, St., Petersburg, 3rd floor conference room.

Currently this amendment is in the scoping process in order to get some public
feedback before the February Gulf Council meeting in Tampa, Florida.

According to Elizabeth (Libby) Fetherston, Southeast Fish Program Manager for the Ocean Conservancy, “We are trying to engage the stakeholder community in a productive dialogue about the issues with this gear type and giving the industry an opportunity to discuss trap evolution and if some of the advancements adequately mitigate the concerns that led to the gear's prohibition in the first place.”

Apparently Ocean Conservancy is unclear of it’s own Mission and even some of the “Issues” they are fighting against.

The very notion of bringing fish traps back into practice in US waters is highly irresponsible and unconscionable, but some believe that it will cut down on the use of long lines, which do kill sea turtles. However, most commercial fishermen will not be replacing their long line gear for fish traps, they will use both as long as they can get away with it.

The real root of the problem is that the ITQ – Individual Transferable Quota mess created by the Gulf Council has basically eliminated all of the smaller more traditional fishing methods, like bandit rigs (a far less destructive form of commercial fishing than nets, long lines and fish traps) and turned the fishery over to those that did the most damage (fish trappers and long liners). To add insult to injury, if the smaller operators want to acquire additional shares they have to buy them from the same individuals who forced them out of business years ago, again, the fish trappers and long liners. The result is the users of the most destructive gear types have been awarded higher ITQ shares and to catch this quota the long liners now want to convert to fish trapping so as to be able to fish more destructively and with less restrictions!

Believe me friends, if this gets passed in the Gulf, it won’t stop there. Before we know it fish traps will be back in action all over the US Coast and bottom fish stocks, including both food fish and ornamental species, will once again plunge to disastrously low levels.....like the islands of the Caribbean.

To express your concerns Contact:

Elizabeth Fetherston - Ocean Conservancy
Manager, Fish Conservation, Southeast
E-mail: efetherston@oceanconservancy.org or ph 727-369-6615

Vicki Cornish, Ocean Conservancy
Director, Marine Wildlife Policy
E-mail: vcornish@oceanconservancy.org or ph 202-351-0452

Dave Allison, Oceana
E-mail: dallison@oceana.org or ph 202-467-1945

Pam Baker, Environmental Defense Fund
ph 512-691-3439

 

[Capt Slate]

Walt, thanks for taking the time to submit this article and brother I can tell you from my hundreds of dives on fish traps when they were allowed to place them near our dive areas back in the last 70's and early 80's, there is no explaining the wholesale murder of fish better than a fish trap. I have cut up dozens of them placed on our reefs, not where they were supposed to be, the trappers came in during the nights and placed them in groups to 10-15 in a line with only a buoy at each end directly on our corals and inside the sanctuary, (literally in sight of the Christ Statue in 30 feet of water!) these trappers for the most part have absolutely no care for the life of the fish and reefs. When you swim up to a trap there are literally skeletons of fish left overnight from fish killing each other, especially when eels get inside a trap, they kill everything and the fish beat themselves to death on the wire, and God forbid if they, traps, get lost they kill for the next 50 years until the wire rots away. No fish larger than a couple of inches wide can get out of these death traps, this isn't fishing this requires no skill, no intelligence and definitely no morals or caring for our oceans and their future. Just dive the Bahamas and other island destinations where they allow fish traps, except in protected areas there are no fish larger than 4-5 inches! So I hope all our divers unite and send a message to organizations who are deciding whether to allow fish traps that it will not happen in our oceans or we simply face extinction of our vibrant fish populations for generations to come...Divers please send your letters and make phone calls to stop fish traps for ever.

 

[Walt Stearns]

I still find this unbelievable!

I have fire several inquiries to members of both the Ocean Conservancy and Oceana, and have been stunned by I have gotten back from these two groups.

In a phone call from Vicki Cornish, Ocean Conservancy’s Marine Wildlife Policy Director, the purpose of the up coming Dec. 15th, 2009, meeting at the Florida Wildlife Research Institute (which I, and several others will be attending) to vet this topic among the “Stake Holders.”

Come on! Vet the topic. If the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, Gulf Fishermen’s Association or the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance propose that dynamite should allowed for commercial fishing, would it need to vetted too?

Fish traps are without a doubt among the top three most destructive forms of commercial fishing in use, hence why it is among the most controversial form of fishing gear type ever permitted for the snapper/grouper fishery of the Southeast US.

I urge everyone to read Dr. Russell Nelson’s report - Sea Watch | Bibliography & Background Reading and veiw the video - Explosive Decompression in Fish Traps - Fish Traps: Explosive Decompression on Vimeo or here YouTube - Fish Traps Explosive Decompression Part 1

In every Island Nation that I have visited - Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, St. Maartin, etc., etc., that still actively uses fish traps, the presence of bottom fish larger than my hand is nearly non-existent.

The Island of Bermuda learned that the hard way during the 1990’s, recognizing fish trapping as an unsustainable method of harvest and banned their use years ago. Now, according to Ned Deloach, who was there recently last summer says their black grouper are showing signs of coming back.

The state of Florida banned fish traps in state waters in 1980, with the gear getting banned completely by the NMFS in the Gulf of Mexico in Feb. 2007.

Now the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, Gulf Fishermen’s Association and the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance are pushing to have them back, claiming there isn’t enough data. With others like the Ocean Conservancy, Oceana EDF trying to sugercoat the topic claiming bring them back into use is more desirable than the use of long lines as it will reduce the number of incidental by-catch of sea turtles. Also not true, these guys won’t be giving up their long line gear, and will keep dropping on the sea bottom as soon as nobody is looking.

Here's a couple shots from Stephen Frink to remind you of what these things kill.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Here is my letter to Oceana and Ocean Conservancy folks:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have been a scubadiver for over a year. I have just come back from a dive trip to Roatan where to be honest with you the ocean did look pretty empty. I am also reading now the book Tuna by Richard Ellis which describes in details the slaughter of tunas carried out with awful and destructive means by commercial fishermen without any regards for reducing or eliminating by catch, the senseless killings of dolphins, sea birds and no interest whatsoever in managing the stock in a manner that does not include their extinctions.

I am also a volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium. The aquarium staff has been giving me a positive feedback about your organization. Once a week I talk to visitors about the magnificent marine life of the Pacific Northwest and instill a conservation messages that visitors can take with them once the visit to the aquarium is over.

After reading an alarming report from a fellow diver on Scubaboard about your decision of allowing powerful almighty commercial fishery barons to reintroduce fish traps in the Gulf of Mexico for the shortsighted and vain attempt to safe sea turtles I am under a state of shock! I am totally disgusted by you guys and I just cannot believe how your organization is willing to introduce a fishing practice that you must know is totally immoral and devastating like drift nets.

I will send a copy of this report to the Seattle Aquarium and let the 700 volunteers and about 70 staff members know about your decision to allow fish traps!

I really hope that you will re-consider this decision and make the commercial fishing industry realize that fish traps will actually be its own downfall!

Regards

Betty Bastai

 

[Soakedlontra]

Walt Stearns,

I hope you don't mind but I cut and pasteed your report on my local diving blog called Northwest Dive Club.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

 

[Walt Stearns]

Not at all. NGO's like Ocean Conservancy need to hear from us.

 

[Phishie]

I sent an email asking that fish traps remained banned in the Gulf.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Here is the reply that I have received from Ocean Conservancy:

As an organization of devoted ocean lovers, we understand and share your concern about fish traps. Many of us have seen firsthand the impact that trap gear has on ecosystems, fish populations and marine mammals, and continue to work tirelessly to minimize the impact that fishing has on the sustainability of fish populations, ecosystems, habitat, and marine wildlife. As such, let me state clearly that we do not support the introduction of untested fish trap gear into the Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery.

The reason for the confusion has to do with a recent workshop.

Last year new data revealed that turtles in the Gulf of Mexico were being caught and killed at ten times the level authorized under the Endangered Species Act. In response, Ocean Conservancy worked with NMFS, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, and bottom longline fishermen to reduce interactions with sea turtles in bottom longline gear. Our work to find a solution to this problem resulted in the adoption of conservation measures to reduce effort in the longline fishery by 65% (see our recent article in Ocean Conservancy's Splash for more details:Ocean Conservancy: Laudable Decision on Loggerheads).

Out of concern about these and other restrictions on fishing effort, longline fishermen requested that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) consider reintroducing fish traps as an allowable gear at the Council’s October 2009 meeting. The fishermen’s request is being incorporated into a proposed management plan to address overfishing of gag grouper, known as Reef Fish Amendment 32. Given the affirmative decision to consider this issue by the Council and knowing that many who currently follow the council process were not familiar with the concerns that led to a phase out of fish trap gear in 1997, we offered to convene a workshop to review the history and current state of science on this issue.

Unfortunately, there were some that misinterpreted the convening of this workshop as a show of support for bringing traps back. Instead the purpose was to provide a forum for discussion about the history of trap use in Florida, the observed and potential impacts of traps on wildlife, target and non-target fish populations, and bottom habitat, the management and enforcement challenges that traps present, and recent innovations in trap design.

The workshop held in St. Petersburg, FL in December included formal presentations on the history of fish trap use in the Gulf of Mexico, enforcement and management concerns from the perspective of FL Keys National Marine Sanctuary personnel, a summary of bycatch research done on fish traps, a summary of bycatch release survival rates in trap caught reef fish, a history and perspective from the FL Keys dive and commercial fishing community, marine wildlife interactions and concerns, habitat concerns, as well as the perspective of Gulf commercial fishermen who proposed the reintroduction of trap gear and presentation of a new trap design for discussion. The workshop fulfilled the intended goal of providing members of the wider Gulf fishery stakeholder community (ourselves and decision makers included) with a thorough review of the gear being proposed as well as the concerns that continue to surround fish traps here in the region and beyond.

This was what has become an all-too-unique forum in the Gulf of Mexico where people on all sides of an issue come together to discuss the science and management aspects of a controversial subject. While we have heard criticism of our effort to support the discussion of such a controversial fishing gear, we believe that the process of bringing people to the table to discuss and evaluate issues in an open and informed way is essential to achieving our shared goal of healthy and sustainable marine ecosystems. Following the workshop, Ocean Conservancy submitted comments on Reef Fish Amendment 32 which read in part:

We do not support the proposal to reintroduce fish traps as an allowable gear into the reef fish fishery. Design alone cannot mitigate the fundamental enforcement, bycatch, habitat and wildlife entanglement issues with trap gear that led to its prohibition in Reef Fish Amendment 14. The history of this fishing gear in the reef fish fishery reveals some overwhelmingly negative side effects that might accompany its restoration as an allowable gear, and it seems prudent to have a firm position of prohibiting new (or reintroduction of old) gears from the fishery until they can demonstrate performance improvement over existing gear and methods. This is certainly not the case with the traps that were common in the 1990’s and there is little-to-no testing or literature to suggest a newer version of the trap would perform better. In the absence of supporting evidence, one must assume the issues with traps remain and we therefore do not support the reintroduction of fish traps as an allowable gear.

We appreciate your commitment to the ocean and hope you will continue your valued work. Please feel free to contact Ocean Conservancy or me personally if you would like to know more about our work to restore the health and balance of our oceans.

 

[Soakedlontra]

The following is a link to the Gulf Council's internal FTP site (hence why your search did not turn up the information) that is housing the various presentations and background information from the workshop itself: ftp://ftp.gulfcouncil.org/Fish Trap Workshop presentations-12-15-2009/

As far as where the Council is in the process of consideration of the traps, they are at the very beginning of a two-year management process that is primarily focused on ending overfishing of gag grouper (this is known as Reef Fish Amendment 32, also attached). You will note that this management document has a number of actions, of which the proposal to consider traps as an allowable gear is but one. This may be why you can find very little information on the proposal, it is very much in its infancy. The Gulf Council meets in the first week of February to consider the various options in this management document and will decide whether or not to pursue further consideration of traps as an allowable gear at this time. The The Council is accepting public comment on this entire management document through January 26 and I encourage you to submit comments to them at this address: gulfcouncil@gulfcouncil.org with "Amendment 32 scoping comments" in the subject line. I will be sure to let you know what the Gulf Council decides to do about traps at their February meeting.

 

[Walt Stearns]

First, Ocean Conservancy is doing a bit CYA after opening that door in the first place.

I was at the St. Petersburg, FL workshop held last December 15th. When members of the Ocean Conservancy, Oceana and EDF walked into the meeting, they had little clue how bad fish traps are on non-targeted by-catch. After the “formal presentations” on the history of fish trap use in the Gulf of Mexico (funny most of what Ocean Conservancy was able to talk about was marine mammal entanglement in lobster pots in the North East). Enforcement and management concerns from the perspective of FL Keys National Marine Sanctuary personnel (Billy Causey).

As for the “The summary of bycatch research done on fish traps, and the summary of bycatch release survival rates in trap caught reef fish, that is where we began to shut it down through documentation, photos, and historical perspective gathered from the Southern Gulf, FL Keys dive, Bermuda and Caribbean (where fish traps are still in use).

Two of the Gulf commercial fishermen who proposed the reintroduction of trap gear, Bob Spaeth and Tom Haugen presented what they claim was new trap design that won last year World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Smart Gear competition.

Part of our group included a former commercial fishermen who felt the trap was a ruse, in that it wouldn’t really work the way they claimed but would – if allowed to be used – would remove a provision against landing fish with “Trap Rash” – evidence that the fish were caught in a fish trap. Once they guys are over the horizon, out of sight of everyone, there is no telling what they will be using.

After the meeting we did a bit background checking on Mr. Haugen’s “wonder trap” design, including contacting WWF.

This what I got back from the a Mr. Michael Osmond at WWF December 28th, 2009.

“Tom Huagen did indeed submit a trap design to our 2009 Smart Gear competition. The judges felt that the design had potential to address the issues it was designed for but would have liked to have seen a set of trails with data that demonstrated the traps ability to do this. We encouraged him to resubmit his entry with data from trials next time we have the competition.

As for any award, the competition does not award prizes for "creative ingenuity". We have three main prizes and a regional prize.”

In short, no evidence the trap works and it did not win any competition they claimed it did. Tells you how much some Gulf Commercial Fishermen will bend the truth. Hence the answer you got from the Ocean Conservancy. I think they are starting to get.