January
22, 2008
Bill Brings
Flexibility to Fisheries Management
By JOHN GEISER
CORRESPONDENT
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.'s, D-NJ, bill to add flexibility to the
Magnuson-Stevens Act and save the summer flounder fishery should receive
strong support in Congress.
The measure is designed to correct a fisheries management problem that
should never have arisen in the first place: a rigid schedule for an element
of nature.
The attempt typifies a growing hubris in the environmental community.
Protectionists are unwilling to admit that statistics, models and beliefs
have no effect on the recruitment of summer flounder this year or any year.
Management officials, backed by law enforcement, could close the summer
flounder fishery in 2009, but they cannot by will or fiat put 100 million
juvenile fluke in the ocean at the same time.
This is where Pallone's bill comes in. Fisheries management officials
must have flexibility - the ability - to adapt to the vagaries of nature.
The Save the Summer Flounder Fishery Fund's rally in Manasquan on Monday
night was designed to get additional public support for this effort.
Money is being sought from fishermen to scientifically prove what is
really going on in the marine environment where fluke are concerned, and
persuade Congress to pass legislation to enable management officials to
adapt to change without threatening the food supply, livelihoods and
recreation of those who depend on the fishery.
Pallone persuaded the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries,
Wildlife and Oceans to hold an oversight hearing Dec. 5 on rebuilding
overfished fisheries, particularly summer flounder.
The congressman said the fishermen who testified at the hearing convinced
him that current rebuilding targets set by the National Marine Fisheries
Service and mandated by Congress are unattainable in the time frame.
In other words, reaching a total biomass of 214 million pounds and a
spawning stock biomass of 197 million pounds at the end of 2012 is
impossible.
The estimated spawning stock biomass at present is somewhere around 93
million pounds and the total biomass around 104 million pounds.
James A. Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing
Alliance, made some hard-hitting comments when he was in Washington for the
subcommittee hearing.
"Fishing mortality has decreased over 80 percent, and the total
stock biomass and spawning stock biomass have increased 251 percent and 280
percent, respectively," he said. "No one, not even the
environmental community, can deny that this represents good progress.
"To put the summer flounder's recovery in context, let's compare it
to striped bass," he continued. "During the same period from 1988
to 2004, the striped bass biomass increased 202 percent.
"As we all know, the rebuilding that occurred in the striped bass
fishery has been described by NMFS, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission, and many others as a rebuilding success," he added.
Despite the building of the biomass to record levels, some environmental
groups claim the stocks are unhealthy and must be increased.
"Some in the environmental community are calling for a shutdown of
the summer flounder fishery," Donofrio said. "In fact, one group
recently called for a 10-year moratorium on all summer flounder
fishing."
Greg Hueth, one of the co-founders of Save the Summer Flounder Fishery
Fund, said a paramount aim of the organization is to hire fisheries
biologists who will address basic problems in the summer flounder research.
These include outdated tuning indices, inadequate sampling techniques,
unrepresentative data collection and unfounded modeling assumptions.
Tony Bogan, another of the founders, stressed that pressure on Congress
is vital in giving management officials flexibility, and that effort will be
pushed by SSFFF with as much vigor as the scientific approach.
Dave Arbeitman, also a founder of SSFFF, said contributions are pouring
in to fund SSFFF's initiatives.
"We get checks in the mail every day, and more and more people are
stepping up to offer their support," he said. "This is what is
needed, if we are going to solve the problems in this fishery."
The weather has been the problem in current fisheries, but the fish are
there.
