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Delay sought on snapper ban
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER , ENVIRONMENT WRITER
March 11, 2010 12:05 AM 10 Comments Vote 0 Votes
Posted in East Volusia - Fishing
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum voiced concerns Wednesday about a controversial ban on red snapper fishing in the Atlantic Ocean, saying current science doesn't justify such an extreme restriction.
Speaking by phone in Daytona Beach, McCollum called on federal officials to reverse or delay the ban and funnel more money to fisheries research to support its decision-making in the Southeast.
"To have this wide of a restriction just seems to be excessive," McCollum said.
McCollum also sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. He joins thousands of fishermen and many elected officials who also oppose the ban.
The ban is one of several measures being considered by federal regulators to rebuild red snapper populations in the Atlantic, which they say are a fraction of what they were 60 years ago.
The ban is widely expected to have a devastating impact on Florida's multi-billion dollar recreational fishing industry. A dozen local fishermen traveled to Washington, D.C., last month to join thousands protesting similar closures across the nation.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service face a short deadline for acting to rebuild snapper populations. Under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, the agencies must respond this year to a 2008 stock assessment that found red snapper in serious decline.
The closure and the stock assessment have been widely and hotly debated for nearly two years. Fishermen are especially worried the agencies could close vast areas of the Atlantic to bottom fishing as an additional measure to limit the snapper catch.
McCollum called on Florida's congressional delegation to press for more money for the Southeastern Fisheries Science Center, which collects data for the federal agencies.
"We need to adequately fund the Southeastern Center and let them take more samples on a regular basis to make these conclusions," McCollum said. "There has to be enough hue and cry, outrage if you will, that there is a sense that this goes to the head of the line as the top priority."
The center oversees scientific research for the Gulf, Caribbean and Southeastern Atlantic regions, with responsibility for 41 species. They include 34 species considered overfished. The science center's 19 stock assessment scientists update four or five stock assessments each year and conduct four or five new assessments, said center director Bonnie Ponwith.
The center collects and uses two kinds of information, one depending on information collected from fishermen and the other collected by scientists, based on strict scientific principles. Both methods are considered essential to producing strong, science-based results.
It's the latter, more independent, science-based research that is sorely needed, said Dick Brame, Atlantic States fishery director for the Coastal Conservation Association, a national group representing recreational fishermen. The center received authorization to hire an additional seven scientists this year and also received an additional $1.5 million from Congress for data collection.
But that new information may not come in time to benefit the new snapper assessment the center will launch this fall.
dinah.pulver @news-jrnl.com
Tagged:snapper ban
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Fishermen taking snapper ban fight to Washington
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER , ENVIRONMENT WRITER
March 11, 2010 12:05 AM 10 Comments Vote 0 Votes
Posted in East Volusia - Fishing
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum voiced concerns Wednesday about a controversial ban on red snapper fishing in the Atlantic Ocean, saying current science doesn't justify such an extreme restriction.
Speaking by phone in Daytona Beach, McCollum called on federal officials to reverse or delay the ban and funnel more money to fisheries research to support its decision-making in the Southeast.
"To have this wide of a restriction just seems to be excessive," McCollum said.
McCollum also sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. He joins thousands of fishermen and many elected officials who also oppose the ban.
The ban is one of several measures being considered by federal regulators to rebuild red snapper populations in the Atlantic, which they say are a fraction of what they were 60 years ago.
The ban is widely expected to have a devastating impact on Florida's multi-billion dollar recreational fishing industry. A dozen local fishermen traveled to Washington, D.C., last month to join thousands protesting similar closures across the nation.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service face a short deadline for acting to rebuild snapper populations. Under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, the agencies must respond this year to a 2008 stock assessment that found red snapper in serious decline.
The closure and the stock assessment have been widely and hotly debated for nearly two years. Fishermen are especially worried the agencies could close vast areas of the Atlantic to bottom fishing as an additional measure to limit the snapper catch.
McCollum called on Florida's congressional delegation to press for more money for the Southeastern Fisheries Science Center, which collects data for the federal agencies.
"We need to adequately fund the Southeastern Center and let them take more samples on a regular basis to make these conclusions," McCollum said. "There has to be enough hue and cry, outrage if you will, that there is a sense that this goes to the head of the line as the top priority."
The center oversees scientific research for the Gulf, Caribbean and Southeastern Atlantic regions, with responsibility for 41 species. They include 34 species considered overfished. The science center's 19 stock assessment scientists update four or five stock assessments each year and conduct four or five new assessments, said center director Bonnie Ponwith.
The center collects and uses two kinds of information, one depending on information collected from fishermen and the other collected by scientists, based on strict scientific principles. Both methods are considered essential to producing strong, science-based results.
It's the latter, more independent, science-based research that is sorely needed, said Dick Brame, Atlantic States fishery director for the Coastal Conservation Association, a national group representing recreational fishermen. The center received authorization to hire an additional seven scientists this year and also received an additional $1.5 million from Congress for data collection.
But that new information may not come in time to benefit the new snapper assessment the center will launch this fall.
dinah.pulver @news-jrnl.com
Tagged:snapper ban
Share:
Fishermen taking snapper ban fight to Washington