making waves winter 2013
DESCRIPTION
The Official News Magazine of the Recreational Fishing AllianceTRANSCRIPT
Page 1 Making Waves | Winter 2013
Volume 2, Issue 1Volume 2, Issue 1
Volume 2, Issue 4
Winter 2013
ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: A NOAA Mess of Biblical ProportionsA NOAA Mess of Biblical Proportions
MAGNUSON REAUTHORIATION ON THE HORIZONMAGNUSON REAUTHORIATION ON THE HORIZON
MEET THE McMULLANS: Fishing Activists, Tournament Champions MEET THE McMULLANS: Fishing Activists, Tournament Champions
SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS
Page 2 Making Waves | Winter 2013
Page 3 Making Waves | Winter 2013
FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK Gary Caputi
Executive Director’s Report: On Our Elect-ed Representatives
4
RFA Issues & News 7
Profiles: The McMullan’s & Ocean Isle Fishing Center
15
John DePersenaire on A NOAA Mess of Bibli-cal Proportions
22
An Open Letter: By Jeff Deem, MAFMC
25
State Chapter News RFA Boots on the Ground Around the Nation
30
Inside this issue:
Volume 2, Issue 2 Summer 2013
TIS THE SEASON As the holidays rapidly approach everyone at the Recreational Fishing Alli-
ance would like to wish our members and supporters the very best. No mat-
ter your religious affiliation or how you observe this special time of year we
hope it will find you in the best of spirits surrounded by family and friends.
The coming year will be one of challenge for the recreational fishing com-
munity. The reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Act is already being
debated and the RFA is deeply involved in representing your interests . Our
mission remains the same as it has been from the day the organization was
chartered; to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers; protect marine, boat
and tackle industry jobs; and ensure the long-term sustainability of our na-
tion’s fisheries.
In the spirit of the season we will strive to bring together a wide ranging
and often fractionated fishing community to affect the common sense
changes to fishery legislation that has done far more harm than good.
Changes we have been championing since before the 2007 reauthorization
was even signed into law. We can’t accomplish our goals without your help
and support and that of many thousands more anglers around the country.
As part of your New Year’s resolution we ask that you include a goal to sign
up as many of your friends and fishing buddies in the RFA as you possibly
can. In fact, a membership is a great holiday gift with benefits.
From all of us to all of you—Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a won-
derful New Year’s to all.
Gary Caputi
Page 4 Making Waves | Winter 2013
Executive Director’s Report
2014 & MSA Reauthorization
By Jim Donofrio, RFA Executive Director
N ext year marks the 7
th
year since the reauthori-zation of the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conser-
vation and Management Act by the 109
th Congress in the final weeks of
its session. At the time of its signing into law by President George W. Bush in January 2007, it was clear that amendments made to the law were going to have negative im-pacts on the recreational fishing community as the law became fully
implemented in the coming years.
Unlike the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 that imposed regulations on fishermen to prompt rebuilding de-pleted stocks but promised im-proved access to those fisheries as they began to response to manage-ment measures, the 2007 MSA reau-thorization established a manage-ment regime that becomes even more restrictive for anglers as those fisheries began to demonstrate re-building success. A combination of strict annual catch limits and a fatally flawed data collection system put the recreational fishing community in a no-win situation. It is a system that defies the principle intent of fisheries management often cited when rebuilding a fishery that re-ductions in the short-term will result in greater fishing opportunities and economic benefits in the future as stock improve. Not only is this man-agement approach illogical but it is patently unfair to the recreational
fishing community.
Both the House of Representatives
and the Senate have undertaken a series of hearing during the second half of 2013 calling in experts, man-agers and fishermen to identify the flaws with the current law. The hearings demonstrated that while the 2007 MSA reauthorization might be working well for the commercial sector, the law is a complete disaster for the recreational sector. Rumors indicate that a Magnuson reauthori-zation bill has a very good oppor-tunity to pass out of the House in 2014. However, that optimism is not shared for a bill passing out of
the Senate.
Recreational anglers have an oppor-tunity to correct some of these seri-ous flaw which have disadvantages the recreational sector since 2007. However, the anti-fishing environmental industry as well as factions of the commercial fishing industry are looking to use the loom-ing reauthorization as an opportuni-ty to further erode recreational fish-ing access or take fish from recrea-tional fishermen and lock it way in individual fishing quota pro-grams. No question that these two interests are heavily lobbying mem-bers of Congress to ensure that their ideology or the interests of their constituents are included in the reauthorization, most likely at the expense of recreational fisher-men. 2014 represents a unique and necessary opportunity for the collec-tive recreational fishing community to work together toward achieving a positive outcome of the reauthori-
zation. An outcome that increases recreational fishing opportunities as fish stocks rebuilds, that doesn’t pun-ish anglers for the federal govern-ments unwillingness or inability to improve recreational data collection and one that allows the tremendous economic potential of the recrea-tional fishing industry to grow. This will take a team effort from individu-al anglers, from small business own-ers, from recreational fishing organi-zation to establish clear and defini-tive objectives for the reauthoriza-tion and engage Congress in a uni-
fied, determined voice.
Recreational fishing has the jobs, the economic output, and the votes, so there is no reason that outside groups should be able to pursue their agenda in the coming reau-thorization to the detriment of our industry. RFA will be asking for your help in the coming months. We will be asking that you engage the politi-cal process and speak to your legisla-tors about the importance and needs of the recreational fishing community. Also, we will be asking you to provide our RFA Political Ac-tion Committee (RFA PAC) with any contribution you can. Political con-tributions are a necessary evil in DC and it goes without saying that the commercial fishing interests and anti-fishing environmental industry is giving heavily to legislators to ad-
vance their interests.
The battle lines are drawn, lobbying is well underway and the
RFA is in the thick of it on your behalf. Will this be the year we
can make substantive changes to flawed legislation?
Page 5 Making Waves | Winter 2013
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RFA Issues & News By Jim Hutchinson, RFA Managing Director
Each news item includes corresponding hyperlinks. For more information, simply click on the link to read the release in its
entirety.
DECEMBER 19 MARKS ‘ANTI-FISHING’ ANNIVERSARY West Coast investigative reporter Dan Bacher reminded Americans in a recent Daily Kos column that December 19
marks the first anniversary of the completion of the network of so-called "marine protected areas" off the California coast under the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. According to Bacher, last year at this time 19 "marine pro-tected areas" went into effect in the Northern California
coastal region between the California/Oregon state line and Alder Creek, near Point Arena in Mendocino County, amidst great jubilation by state officials and corporate "environmental" NGO representatives. The implementation of these "marine protected areas" (MPAs) was preceded by
those created on the South Coast, Central Coast and North Central Coast. In his recent column, Bacher takes the mainstream media to task for ignoring a huge scandal pertaining to the creation of these marine protected areas - the terminally flawed and incomplete science that these MPAs were based upon and the alarming news that Ron LeValley of Eureka, the co-chair of the MLPA Initiative Science Advisory Team that oversaw the crafting of these alleged "Yosemites of the Sea," is now awaiting trial on federal conspiracy to embezzle charges.
Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) is one of many North Coast residents who believe the charges against LeValley call into question the legitimacy of the science used to close vast areas of the North Coast to fishing. "I would like to know how the state of California is going to revise the science advice LeValley provided for the North Coast MLPA Initiative process, based on him allegedly filing false documents," Martin said, while suggesting a "truth and reconciliation commission" to unrav-
el "what really happened" in the MLPA Initiative. Read more at DailyKos.com.
FLORIDA TODAY SAYS BALANCE OF COMMERCE & CONSERVATION SWAYING Finally, federal officials may be willing to consider socioeco-nomic impact as an issue in their decisions to manage fisher-ies in the South Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. In his November 16 report in Florida Today, journalist Bill
Sargent reports that how the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard heard testi-mony relating to the upcoming re-authorization of the Mag-nuson-Stevens Fishery and Management Act, the primary law governing marine fisheries management in the U.S. “We’ve established that the 2006 re-authorization is working for the fish, but what about the fishermen?” Ben C. Hartig, Chairman of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Coun-
The empty environmental promise to preserve angler ac-cess rights since the MLPA initiative was launched has West Coast anglers angry at the loss of fishing area which has even crept up along the surfcasting set. Photo by Jim Hutchinson, Jr.
Page 8 Making Waves | Winter 2013
cil was quoted as saying in a media release by the Recrea-tional Fishing Alliance (RFA). Hartig added, “Consideration of the human element of fish-eries management has all but disappeared since the 2006
re-authorization and must be re-introduced back into the management process.” Click here to Read Bill Sargent’s column.
RFA MAKES EARLY NY ENDORSEMENT IN THE 2014 CONGRESSIONAL RACE With less than 12 months before the midterm election of 2014, RFA is already looking closely at races of interest for our members. With all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Repre-sentatives in play and 33 of 100 seats in the Senate, we ex-
pect the 2014 election to hold promise for saltwater anglers and recreational fishing business owners on every coast. According to RFA executive director Jim Donofrio, with Gal-lup polls showing Congress has reached an all-time low, winning the approval of just 9% of the American public (breaking the previous record low 10% the year before), it has become clear that we're in need of change in Washing-ton DC. “For our New York marine anglers, perhaps the biggest area
for change is in the First Congressional District, made up of some of the 'fishiest' towns on Long Island including Smith-
town, Brookhaven, Southold, Southamptom, East Hampton, Shelter Island, Brookhaven, Mastic and Riverhead,” Donofrio said, throwing the organization’s support behind New York State Senator Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) who has already proven himself a champion for saltwater anglers in Albany.
“Sen. Zeldin has made the rights of saltwater anglers one of his platforms, both at the state level and now in the race for Congress. I don't have to tell you how important that is as a saltwater angler,” Donofrio said, adding “I would encour-age you to read more about Lee at www.zeldinforcongress.com - he's the fresh young blood we need to get the House of Representatives back on track and working for the America we love.”
LOUISIANA SPORTSMAN HIGHTLIGHTS FEDERAL RED SNAPPER RESPONSE On December 9, the deadline for submitting comment to a red snapper allocation plan in the Gulf of Mexico closed. Efforts by the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) to drive public comment in favor of the recreational sector were reported by Louisiana Sportsmen. Under proposals in Amendment 28, the Gulf of Mexico Fish-ery Management Council could move forward with an allo-cation plan that provides up to 100 percent of any red snap-
per quota above 9.12 million pounds to the recreational sector.
New York State Senator Lee Zeldin, a saltwater angler himself, has hosted several party boat fishing trips for underprivileged Long Island youth since coming to office in the Empire State. Photo by Jim Hutchinson, Jr.
Page 9 Making Waves | Winter 2013
RFA executive director Jim Donofrio said in a press release that any plan providing a minimum of 90 percent of any red snapper quota beyond 9.12 million pounds to the rec-reational sector would help give equal opportunity for an-glers to enjoy the benefits of rebuilding the red snapper
stock. "This is not an allocation war, this is about helping reallo-cate a portion of the quota over and above the present threshold towards the recreational sector in order to help increase the opportunity for anglers to fish," Donofrio not-ed. In the days leading up to the federal comment deadline and following the RFA bulletin, comments in favor of the allocation plan quickly surpassed commercial opposition.
Click here to check out the Louisiana Sportsman story.
BIG GAME FISHING JOURNAL EXPOSES ENVIRONMENTAL “MASQUERADE” In the world of fishing, recreational fishermen are living the tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” day in and day out as envi-ronmental businesses that have long sought to gobble up fishermen on the premise of “protecting” fish stocks have tried all manner of methods of fighting them – lawsuits, alarmist studies and reports, and publicity blitzes. That’s
according to Karen Wall, editor of BGFJ.
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Page 10 Making Waves | Winter 2013
“At the root of all of this, of course, is the screwed-up lan-guage in Magnuson, where environmental businesses forced in rebuilding timeframes that bore no resemblance to the realities of the ocean or of science,” Wall notes, add-ing that hearings for the next reauthorization of our na-
tion’s federal fisheries law have been underway on and off this year with efforts to increase flexibility in the law in or-der to loosen the noose around the necks of the fishing communities at the forefront of the debate. “Flexibility is necessary, especially since the best-available science continues to have significant problems stemming from faulty data collection,” she notes. As Wall reports, groups like the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance, Gulf Fishermen’s Association and
South Atlantic Fishermen’s Association - all created by Envi-ronmental Defense Fund (EDF) as a front to push IFQs on the recreational sector – are trying to influence anglers into believing that catch shares will be a benefit to those who adopt the plan. “Even worse, one of the movers and shakers behind those organizations, Michael Miglini, started up a separate organi-zation called the Charter Fishermen’s Association, a group designed to look like a recreational fishing industry outfit
made up solely of charter boat captains, according to Jim
Hutchinson Jr. of the Recreational Fishing Alliance” said Wall, explaining how Miglini, a commercial permit holder, has had help from EDF which she said has allowed EDF to “dress up in Grandma’s clothing and masquerade as a group of fishermen.”
Read more from Big Game Fishing Journal at http://www.biggamefishingjournal.com/editorial.html
To Keep Up with All the News from
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watch your email box. If you’re not
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and enter your email address in the
box in the upper right hand corner .
Page 15 Making Waves | Winter 2013
pr o f i le s The McMullan Family & the Ocean Isle Fishing Center
T he McMullan family is something very special in the world of saltwater
fishing. Originally from Atlanta, they migrated to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina with the patriarch of the clan, Rube McMullan, to follow his passion for saltwater fishing. Rube is a successful businessman who maintains a business in Atlanta while spending a good part of the year in OIB where he bought a second home many years ago. His two sons, Brant the elder and Barrett the young-er, inherited his love of fishing
and took it to new heights working on local charter boats at an early age, fishing from the family boats and eventually be-coming the two youngest men to earn their captain’s licenses in a state known for its charter captains. Both sons put down roots in OIB and live there year round raising their families.
As the sons built their charter businesses the family built the Ocean Isle Beach Fishing Cen-ter, a beautiful facility located at the foot of the causeway bridge across the Intracoastal Water-way onto the barrier beaches of
OIB. The facility includes a tackle center and outdoor clothing store, docks that are home to the best charter captains in the area including Barrett and Brant, and the Giggling Macke-rel Restaurant. It is a tourist desti-nation and home for serious an-glers all rolled into one and it is run by a family that is dedicated to providing their customers and charter clientele with the best personalized service possi-ble.
A few years back Rube McMul-lan hooked up with the RFA while working on forage species
TEAM OFIC shows off their winning two fish at the 2013 SKA National Championships
in Biloxi, Mississippi. The Team from left to right: Rube McMullan, Capt. Barrett McMullan,
Caroline and Brayden, Amy McMullan and Capt. Brant McMullan.
Page 16 Making Waves | Winter 2013
issues, specifically to get the Omega Protein purse seine boats off the beaches and out of state waters in southern North Carolina. What developed was a strong working relationship with the entire clan and a family of strong supporters of the RFA. Along the way the battle against Omega was won and the purse seiners were banned from working along the pristine beaches of the area. It was a major bene-fit to the fishing in the ar-ea, too.
But the story doesn’t end there. The family, and I do mean family, also happen to be one of the most suc-cessful if not the most suc-cessful competition teams in the Southern Kingfish Association Tournament Trail in recent years. Team OIFC consists of Rube, Barrett and Brant, Brant’s lovely wife Amy and their two children, Caroline, age 9, and the most re-
cent addi-tion to the team, four year old Brayden. They em-body the ideal that the family that fishes together stays to-gether, but their accom-plishments in both re-gional divi-sion tourna-
ments and on the pro tour have been nothing short of extraordi-nary!
If you’re not familiar with the Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) Tournament Trail it is the
largest and most successful salt-water tournament organization in the United States. They have 10 regional divisions from North Carolina to Texas for weekend warriors and a Professional Kingfish Tour for top teams that reach a level of success that warrants an invitation to step up. SKA hosts or sanctions over 50 tournaments a year, two ma-jor fishing rodeo events and the Nationals, the tournament that everyone wants to compete in for the title and a very signifi-cant payday. SKA tournaments are sort of like NASCAR and off-shore fishing combined boast-ing high-powered center con-sole fishing boats making long runs in an effort to find the big-gest kingfish and then racing to beat the clock back to the weigh-in each day. Think Bass-masters with triple and quad
The helpful staff at OIFC is always ready with a warm
welcome and a wagging tail.
The 74-lb. king that put the win in winning at the 2009 SKA National Champi-
onships! The six-foot long fish remains the largest kingfish ever weighed in SKA
competition and the Mississippi State Record.
Page 17 Making Waves | Winter 2013
outboard center consoles fre-quently fishing under the harsh-est conditions imaginable! Com-petitors regularly clock over 200 miles in a day to get on the big-gest kings they can find. You might be interested to know that Jack Holmes, the managing partner of the SKA, also is on the Board of Directors of the RFA and a good percentage of the SKA competition members are also RFA members, including the McMullan family.
In November of 2009 the McMullan clan arrived in Biloxi, Mississippi to fish the SKA Na-tional Championships. The team consisted of Brant, Barrett and Rube and they were up against approximately 175 teams of top anglers from North Carolina to
Texas, the best teams with the best equipment, all vying for the title. Team OIFC pulled off a win in the most dramatic manner possible on the last day of fish-ing bringing to the scale the largest kingfish every weighed in the 20+ year history of SKA tournaments! The fish weighed an incredible 74 pounds.
In 2011, the McMullan’s were back in Biloxi, but the team in-cluded Brant’s wife Amy and their daughter Caroline fishing in the junior division, vying for another shot at glory. The weather was lousy, the two day tournament was cut to one and it was do or die. Team OIFC cleared check-out Saturday morning and made the 84-mile run to the Dome at full speed
arriving as one of the first boats on the scene. They had a fish on as soon as the first bait hit the water and the action never stopped, except when they ran out of live bait and had to hunt for more. The first fish was fought to the boat by Amy and estimated at 45 pounds so it went on ice in the fish bag while the rest of the clan was hooking and releasing one 30 to 40 pound king after another, releas-ing them quickly so they could get bait in the water to try for bigger ones. Kings were jump-ing out of the water all around them, but they realized it would take a bigger fish to make it on-to the leader board because most of the boats in the tourna-ment were within sight fishing
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Page 18 Making Waves | Winter 2013
much line and it came in with-out a struggle, but once it saw the boat the 50-pound plus king went crazy. It took all their skill and some fancy boat handling before the gaff was planted in their biggest fish of the day.
At the weigh-in Brant was hav-ing second thoughts about the size of the team’s two fish. "I re-ally thought they would be around 99 pounds combined," he said. Their smaller fish dropped the scales to 48.43 while their second fish weighed an impressive 54.70 pounds for a 103.13 pound two-fish aggre-gate giving the OIFC Team the lead. They had won the Nation-als two out of the past three years, quite a feat, but our RFA family from North Carolina was-
n’t done breaking records yet.
This past November at the SKA Nationals in Biloxi, again with nasty weather cutting the fish-ing days from two to one, the McMullan were in the hunt for big fish. The crew consisted of Rube, Brant, Barrett, Amy, Caro-line and Brayden and they were back in the same area where they caught their winning fish in year’s past. Here’s how it hap-pened in Brant’s own words.
Blast off was at 6:40 AM on Sat-urday morning and over 100 big, powerful, offshore fishing boats shot across the sea at 60+mph. The ocean had gotten much nicer compared to previ-ous days, but it still presented a sloppy 3-4’ Southeast sea. After a stop to check out a group of
rigs called the Cities, we headed to the Salt Dome. When we ar-rived there were 10 other boats fishing the area and every single boat was fighting fish. This is what we came for—the Salt Dome bite has become famous as the ultimate king mackerel bite. We won our 2009 and 2011 National Championship titles while fishing this very spot, and we were ready to do some business. I ran around the group of boats and surveyed what was going on before set-tling up sea. Barrett and Rube deployed and it took about five minutes before the first reel went off. After the bite, I set the boat in neutral and we began drifting and free-lining baits to hungry and fired-up kings. Amy was angling one fish out of a
Page 19 Making Waves | Winter 2013
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double, which swung close to the boat. She put out the word of good fish and Rube ran up to sink the gaff in a long fish. I was baiting more hooks and briefly looked up to see the fish come over the rail. I got a little excited as I felt like this fish could make for one half of a possible win-ning duo; possibly making 50 pounds, but it was all work aboard our boat as we contin-ued to set out baits and battle fish.
The objective is to try to keep multiple fish on the hooks at all times so we can cull through and keep the biggest fish. Bar-rett was hooked up and I stuck the gaff in another nice fish which we pulled aboard and put on ice. We knew we had a
couple of good fish that should show well for us. The problem with that kind of bite is everyone is catching fish, and you have to assume that others are catching the same quality of fish. Around noon Amy and Rube were locked into a double header of screaming reels. Rube saw his fish and announced that he had the big one. Amy and I were getting an eye on her fish and when it came by the boat we both remarked on how wide the fish’s back seemed. Rube hol-lered as his fish bit through the wire, a fish that he would later swear was easily over 60 pounds. Amy’s fish was stub-born and had actually gotten tail wrapped, coming up side-ways and tail first. We couldn’t
judge the fish and didn’t want to kill a fish we weren’t going to weigh, so we allowed Barrett to reach over and tail the fish aboard. As Barrett hoisted it my eyes grew wide—this was a fat fish. I pronounced this is our big fish at which point Barrett and I went into a debate. We ended up putting the three fish we had boated together and measuring them to determine which two fish we needed to ice and take best care. Our first fish and last fish ended up being our weigh fish.
The final chapter of the story comes on the ride to the weigh in. We felt like we had good fish, and getting there on time was top priority. Rube prompt-ed me to leave a little early on a
Page 20 Making Waves | Winter 2013
few occasions, but I pushed it to keep trying for a bigger fish. The ride home was 70 miles of open ocean and it ended up be-ing much rougher than I antici-pated; I had made a mistake. I was watching the GPS and cal-culating all along how fast we needed to go to make it in time. It was going to be close, and we were getting beat up trying to maintain the needed speed, but we were going to be OK. Then with 37 miles left the starboard engine died and my heart sank. I jumped back to the bilge and pumped the fuel primer bulb while Barrett fired the engine and throttled up, but it died again. This was the exact same scenario we had seen two weeks earlier. We had again gotten water into our fuel and again it had caused a failure.
There was no hesitation as we learned the only way to keep the engine going was to literally give it manual resuscitation by continually pumping the fuel primer bulb and thus forcing fuel into the engine. Amy jumped into the bilge and Bar-rett lay on the floor taking turns pumping the primer bulb until their forearms burned too much to continue. Meanwhile Caro-line held onto Brayden, Rube jumped in for occasional primer bulb pumps and I drove the boat for all she was worth.
I was honestly on the brink of tears as there was a time shortly after the problem occurred that it was apparent we were not go-ing to make it. Amy took on the role of motivator as she pushed both Barrett and I to keep going and push harder. She is a Cross
Fit instructor in Ocean Isle Beach, and I think the trainer/motivator in her kept us in the game. I watched the GPS and its projected ETA as we fought to make the 5 PM deadline. Keep in mind that it is still rough while all of this going on. We are getting beat up physically and mentally agonizing. As we got closer to shore the seas set-tled enough to pick up speed and we began to pick up time.
At 4:50 we showed the tourna-ment official our boat number and a huge sigh of relief was re-leased. We’d done it. We didn’t have any idea how were going to fair in the tournament, but we did know that we had done enough to at least have the op-portunity to find out. We soon learned that Windy Conditions was in the lead with 91 pounds,
but it was still early in weigh-in and I thought we might do pretty well. As we moved through the weigh-in line we found out that Choice of Two, an-other boat that fishes out of OIFC, had weighed a monster 58 pound king and taken over first place with 94 pounds. I was really excited to hear of their success, and again thought it strange that more weight had not been posted. By my calcu-lations I figured we had in the neighbor-hood of 100 pounds, and it was Tea,m OFIC pose with their trophy after winning the 2011 SKA National Champion-
ships. Brant’s daughter would be aboard for the teams threepeate in 2013.
Page 21 Making Waves | Winter 2013
dawning on me that we might actually win this thing again. The weigh-master weighed our smaller fish at 48.82 pounds and Amy and I looked at each other know-ingly, we had done it. We pulled out the big fish, the king that Barrett had simply tailed into the boat, and it pulled the scales to 56.28 pounds. We had taken over the lead and won our third SKA National Championship title in five years!
In retrospect it was not the most glamorous as nothing could rival the 74 pounder we caught in 2009. It was not the most efficient as 2011 saw us all working perfectly in sync and losing no fish. However, 2013 will go down as the
most dramatic and most earned through perseverance.
To the uninitiated, what the McMullan’s accomplished that day was miraculous, but un-less you’ve actually been in SKA competition and experi-enced what it is really like it’s hard to imagine that any team could win the National Cham-pionships three out of five years! For it to be one of the most generally liked teams on the tournament circuit made their win more palatable for the other competitors and the applause and the outpouring of congratulations was simply amazing. I know, I was there and saw it happen.
The McMullan’s are at once the all American family unit,
proud, hardworking, humble, and caring of the environ-ment and the fisheries they enjoy and make their living from; while also being a group of the toughest com-petitors in tournament compe-tition. Their work on behalf of fishermen in North Carolina is tireless and deserving of high praise and we appreciate the work they have done with the RFA to promote the organiza-tion. Everyone at the RFA is proud to have them as mem-bers and to call them friends. At this very special time of year we rejoice in their contin-ued success and wish them all a very Merry Christmas and great fishing in the New Year.
Page 22 Making Waves | Winter 2013
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: A NOAA Mess of Biblical Porportions!
By John DePersenaire
Anglers in the South Atlantic recall the massive bottom fishing closed areas that were implemented by NOAA. The closure impedes fish-ermen’s ability to fish for red snap-per and many other important bottom fish from South Carolina to Florida. NOAA had implemented the closure to enforce the annual catch limit for Warsaw grouper and speckled hind which are set at zero. With each species as-sumed to have a 100% discard mortality rate, NOAA closed hundreds of miles of ocean to prevent any incidental catch of these non-targeted
species.
However, this kind of draconian but appar-ently necessary man-agement to enforce Magnuson Stevens Fishery Con-servation and Management Act (MSA) is not the course of action NOAA intends to take with the pelagic drift longline fleet in the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna fishery.
Mortality is mortality, regardless if the fish is landed or discarded. And under the management re-gime in place since the last reau-thorization of MSA, dead discard-ed fish are applied to the sector’s
overall annual catch limit. It should be the responsibility and the desire of the fishery partici-pants to convert as much of that discard mortality to harvest mortal-ity.
From a management and assess-ment standpoint, the accuracy of
data collection for harvested fish is far better than discarded fish. From a socioeconomic standpoint - save a few catch and release fish-eries - discarded fish provide no financial benefit or purpose. In most recreational fisheries, anglers go to great lengths to minimize their mortality associated with dis-carding noting the value that re-duce discard mortality presents to future opportunities.
In draft Amendment 7 to the Highly Migratory Species fishery management plan currently under its second extension of public comment, NOAA has selected pre-ferred options that would reduce the bluefin tuna allocation for rec-reational anglers and other selec-
tive gear categories and transfer it to the 160 permitted longline vessels. Basically, NOAA is proposing to take away landings from recreational anglers and apply them to discards in the longline fishery.
Recent changes with ICCAT regula-tions stipulate that dead bluefin tuna discards must come off each country’s overall quota. To
comply with this regulation, NO-AA is proposing to take 68 metric tons of bluefin quota from selec-tive gears such as the angling and general categories and apply it to the pelagic longline fishery effec-tively increasing their allocation by
82%.
Instead of imposing greater re-strictions on the longline fishery to reduce their dead discards and making those longliners accounta-
BLUEFIN TUNA ARE A HIGHLY PRIZED TARGET SPECIES FOR
RECREATIONAL ANGLERS AND A HIGH VALUE TARGET
FOR COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN.
Page 23 Making Waves | Winter 2013
ble for their bluefin tuna bycatch, NOAA is rewarding this unselec-tive gear type while punishing rec-reational fishermen.
And you thought it was ridiculous that NOAA would close an entire South Atlantic region to eliminate any incidental bycatch mortality coming on Warsaw or speckled hind catches? Recreational anglers should be up in arms over this bla-tant attack by NOAA against the recreational fishing community.
That’s why RFA is supporting the following action for Amendment 7.
Strictly maintaining the longline
allocation for bluefin of 8.1% of the
total US quota.
Implementing measures to imme-
diately reduce bluefin bycatch in
the longline fishery instead of find-
ing ways of allowing the longliners
to continue to catch vast quantities
of bluefin.
Implementing a mechanism to im-
mediately prohibit the use of pe-
lagic drift longline gear once their
bluefin quota is projected to be
have been met through either
landings and/or dead discards.
Increasing the size and number of
time-area closures, preventing
longliners from fishing in areas
where they incur bycatch of blue-
fin.
Establishing an annual bluefin by-
catch "cap" for every single long-
liner in the Gulf and Atlantic, and
never to exceed 8.1% of the total
US quota.
Establishing 100%, industry-
funded observer or electronic cov-
erage of every longline vessel in
the Gulf or Atlantic.
Eliminate "latent permits" in the
longline fishery.
Effectively addressing the problem
of discarding of juvenile bluefin in
the longline fishery which are the
primary size class targeted by rec-
reational anglers.
The public comment period for
Amendment 7 is open until Janu-
ary 10, 2014. RFA will be circulat-
ing an action alert in the coming
weeks to provide information on
how to submit comments to NO-
AA on Amendment 7.
If you’re not presently receiving
RFA email alerts, sign up free on
the bottom of the homepage at
www.joinrfa.org.
Page 25 Making Waves | Winter 2013
T o My Fellow Recreational Fisher-men:
I would like to respond to the concerns of my friends and fellow Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (the Council) member's about my vote on the river herring and shad issue at the October 2013 Council meeting.
First, I would like to commend the envi-ronmental community for bringing the issue of forage fish to the forefront a few years ago. At the time, the councils were so deep in the task of restoring our over fished stocks, that we were not focus-ing on the for-age issue even though forage is critical to recov-ering and main-taining our fish-eries. We are not at odds on the need to manage forage. The question is how to go
about it.
To put every-thing in perspec-tive, you should be aware of the information pro-vided to Council members before the meeting:
Commercial fishermen had already be-gun to address the bycatch of these forage species by alerting each other of areas where they have encountered substantial river herring and shad catch-es. High bycatch numbers are a lose/lose situation for these fishermen whether through the time and effort required to sort the catch or because of the possibility that their fishery could be closed if too many of these forage spe-cies are caught.
Catch caps for shad and river herring in
the Atlantic mackerel and Atlantic her-ring fisheries will take affect this year. Once the shad and river herring land-ings are estimated to have reached the cap levels, the offending fisheries will be
shut down.
These species are managed by the At-lantic States Marine Fisheries Commis-sion (the Commission) because they spawn in state waters, not the EEZ where the MAFMC has authority.
Through the Commission, the various Atlantic states have ongoing river her-ring and shad conservation efforts at various levels and the states have re-cently increased their control of state landings.
Although they have not been formally assessed since 2007, American shad stocks do not appear to be recovering . As for river herrings, NOAA Fisheries has recently found that they are not endan-gered or threatened and that coastwide abundances of river herrings appear to be stable or increasing. You can find more details at the link below.
“NOAA Fisheries has recently committed to expanded engagement in river her-ring conservation.”
The Council is “initiating a framework that would improve precision and in-crease accountability in the river herring and shad cap for the mackerel fishery”.
Additional research into stock abun-dance is needed to establish biological reference points.
The National Marine Fisher-ies Service has been divert-ing resources from other small mesh fisheries to mid-water trawl fisheries in recent years to get better infor-mation on river herring bycatch. Mid-water trawl fisheries ap-pear to be responsible for most of the at-sea bycatch.
You can find the materials we were pro-
vided at http://www.mafmc.org/briefing/october-2013, under Tab 2.
One of the fisheries with the highest incidence of bycatch in the past was the mackerel fishery. For the last few years, there has not been any substantial mackerel fishery. Some of the most out-spoken groups are apparently con-cerned that if the fish return, there could possibly be a problem. Council mem-bers have not seen any evidence that this fishery will return in the near future.
While it would be desirable to commit Council staff to study these species, de-velop a Draft Environmental Impact
An Open Letter: From Jeff Deem of the Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council Concerning the River Herring & Shad FMP.
Page 26 Making Waves | Winter 2013
When he isn’t busy taking care of RFA business
he can sometimes be found catching dinner.,
Page 27 Making Waves | Winter 2013
Statement (DEIS), initiate a formal Fisher-ies Management Plan (FMP) have observ-ers on every boat and all of the other steps requested by the environmental community, the Council's staff and re-sources are already committed to studies we have requested for other fisheries. Throughout both of my terms on the Council, we have pressed for more and more staff commitment to research and improved scientific data in the many fish-eries we manage. The staff and funds are already stretched to the limit and it is quite likely that some of these commit-ments concern species that are im-portant to you. Are we willing to post-pone research on summer flounder, black sea bass or one of the other species we manage? We believe we have a plan that will avoid any major diversion of resources from other projects while also addressing the core data and manage-ment gaps for river herring and shad.
We would all like to have more research and better science across the entire spec-trum of fisheries management. The reali-ty is however, that like it or not, there are real funding limits. We are not likely to see any change in this situation in the current political environment.
I should mention that the Draft Environ-mental Impact Statement (DEIS) that some are calling for would take 2 to 3 years, at a minimum, followed by anoth-er year to complete the Amendment necessary to implement the Council's recommendations. The solution we passed develops a working group con-sisting of Council and Commission staff, the NOAA Regional Office and state fish-eries officials that should produce results much sooner. The Council members' commitment to the forage issue was demonstrated in the 'motion to amend' which changed the original motion's requirement to reconsider the “stocks in the fishery” question in five years to three years. We also insisted that the progress of the working group be report-ed annually. These reviews will begin at the June 2014 Council meeting. We are serious about this issue.
The new joint working group is mandat-ed to 'seek to improve current manage-ment by aligning current ASMFC, individ-ual state, and at-sea cap management measures to comprehensively address fishing mortality throughout the species range in state and federal waters...'. It is not to 'study' the problem for another three years a some suggest, but to com-
bine the various efforts under way into a cohesive program to address the prob-lem. This joint effort also creates a new opportunity for the Council to address its concerns about these fisheries. While we have discussed the problems with dams, pollution, pharmaceuticals, habitat degradation, dead zones, etc., we did not have any authority to address these issues because they occur in state wa-ters. Hopefully, this partnership will al-low us to present our concerns and have some influence in finding solutions to those problems.
Recreational fishermen are appointed to bring the perspective and experience of a recreational fisherman to the council and to insure that the interests of recrea-tional fishermen are addressed. This does not mean that they are to damn the rest of the world and insist that recre-ational fishermen be allowed to catch each and every fish or that the entire focus has to be on their fish. No group owns each and every fish. If they belong to anyone, they belong to every Ameri-can. With very few exceptions, each member's obligation is to see that every-one has a fair share of any healthy stock. Council members are sworn to protect the resource first with the interest of all of those that benefit from the resource being the very next priority.
We are also not appointed to represent only one group and it would be irrespon-sible and foolish to assume that any one group has all of the answers. We are to weigh all of the information and base our actions on what we believe to be the most reliable of that information. The extremist members of each user group would have you believe that their way is the only way and that to think freely or develop any alternative is to abandon your responsibilities. To be even modest-ly successful, a member has to respect each group's concerns and try to formu-late plans that work for everyone.
Please keep in mind that some of the groups that are insisting that we blindly follow the DIES and 'stocks in the fishery' path are also the ones that insisted that we shut down the summer flounder fish-ery a few years ago. They believed that the stocks would then quickly grow to the target level, a level that the science and models later determined was unat-tainable. They also pushed for severe restrictions on the spiny dogfish fishery when everyone on the water knew the population was out of control. We are
still suffering the affects of this fishery disaster as these predators appear to be consuming substantial portions of the stocks we are trying to rebuild. Nothing can be taken at face value. Every re-quest, proposal and opinion has to be both considered and verified.
There is more to do to insure that our plan works. Two of the most important are the issues of industry funded observ-er coverage and slippage (the possibility of dumping a net with excessive bycatch before it is witnessed by an observer)
which I have recently learned will be addressed in early 2014. Updates will be provided at the Council website, www.mafmc.org. I have also been ad-vised by the Council Executive Director that further details on the Council's work group approach will be presented at the December 2013 Council meeting.
You can track NOAA's expanded en-gagement efforts at http://www.nero.noaa.gov/prot_res/candidatespeciesprogram/RiverHerringSOC.htm. A recent update can be found at
http://www.nero.noaa.gov/stories/2013/rhupdate.html..
Please stay involved and hold our feet to the fire on this issue.
Jeff Deem, Virginia Obligatory Member.
Editor’s Note:
While Deem’s vote
might seem contro-
versial, it was a well
reasoned decision
based on the facts
and with the best in-
terests of the re-
source in mind.
Page 28 Making Waves | Winter 2013
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CLICK HERE TO JOIN OR MAKE A
DONATION
Page 30 Making Waves | Winter 2013
RFA-NY New York Sportfishing Federation Jim Hutchinson
RFA FISHING SEMINARS AT NY BOAT SHOW: Discount Show Tickets Exclusively for RFA Supporters
The Recreat ional F i sh ing Al l iance (RFA) wi l l once again be host ing how to f i sh ing semi -nars at the New York Boat Show, which th is year wi l l be held f rom Wednesday, Jan-uary 1 through Sunday, January 5 at the Javi t s Center in Manhattan. Exc lus ive ly for RFA members , there’s a l so a $3 d iscount on admiss ion pr ice when you purchase t ickets onl ine at www.nyboatshow.com/at tendees/admiss ion.aspx and apply the promo code RFA.
Our exclus ive New York f i sh ing seminars get underway on Thursday night , January 2 at 6 p .m. wi th RFA managing d i rector J im Hutchinson ta lk ing up Bunker Bust in ’ Bass techniques . Dubbed ‘ the most important f i sh in the sea ’ bunker or menhaden schooled up a long the New York and New Jersey coast f rom May through Ju ly pro-v ides outs tanding trophy s t r iper act ion for those us ing l ive bai t s or lures . At 7 p .m. on Thursday night , get into some West End F luke with Capt . Aust in Per i l l i , a Brooklyn -based l ight tack le expert who chases door -mats runs f rom the f lats of Gravesend Bay and Coney I s land to deepwater hotspots l i ke Ambrose and Chapel Hi l l channels in search of New York f luke .
Fr iday night , January 3 , i t ’ s Blackf i sh ing on Long Is land Sound with Capt . R ich Tenre i ro of R&G Charters of Port Washington and capta in aboard the Angler F leet ; Capt . R ich
i s a lso wel l -known as costar of the syndi -cated f i sh ing show Northeast Angl ing Te le -v i s ion. At 7 p .m. , head out I s land for East End St r ipers with Capt . Joe Paradiso of Eastern L . I . Sport f i sh ing Charters , one of the North Fork ’s top s t r iped bass guides who goes on the hunt for t rophy s t r ipers f rom Greenpoint and Or ient out to the fa -b led waters between F ishers and Gard iners I s lands .
To k ick of f the Saturday l ineup on January 4 , be sure to br ing a long a penci l and
RFA CHAPTER NEWS Reports & Updates from RFA State Chapters
and Regional Directors
RFA managing director Jim Hutchinson with a 42-pound striper
boated while chasing bunker schools off the North Jersey coast
while fishing with Capt. Tony Arcabascio. Both Hutch and To-
ny will be doing fishing seminars at the 2014 New York Boat
Show at the Javits Center in January.
Page 31 Making Waves | Winter 2013
notepad for an exclus ive look at Spoon Feeding Trophy St r ipers with Capt . Tony "Maja" Arcabascio , maker of Tony Maja Bunker Spoons . Thi s 11 a .m. workshop wi l l spot l ight the art and sc ience of wire l ine bunker spooning for s t r iped bass expla ined in deta i l by one of the most area ’s most highly regarded s t r iped bass sk ippers , known for br ing numerous 40 ’s and 50 ’s to the gunnel every spr ing and fa l l . At noon, the focus moves to Doormat F luke wi th noted author/angler Tom Schl ichter of Newsday and The Fisherman magazine, as he takes a look at the most popular species targeted by NY Bight f i shermen from Mon-tauk to Staten I s land and a l l a long the Jer -sey Shore .
Whether you’re hunt ing for t rophy s t r ipers , doormat f luke or of fshore pelagic , the key to success can often be found in Castnet -t ing & L ive Bai t F i sh ing, and the New York Boat Show is proud to have Manhattan sharpie Capt . Frank Cresc i te l l i of F inchaser Charters & Guides Choice Tack le on tap at
1 p.m. on Saturday. I f you’ve ever wanted to learn the t r icks for throwing a cast net , don’t miss th is specia l presentat ion on Jan-uary 4 ! Then at 2 p .m. , i t ’ s Capt . Joe Leg-gio of Chas inTai lTV.com for a unique look at J igging Blackf i sh , one of the hottes t new techniques for tak ing th is tas ty, fe i s ty and often f in icky loca l reef favor i te - us ing l ight tack le , i t i s not only very ef fect ive , but a lso very exci t ing!
An outs tanding pai r of seminars caps of f the week of f i sh - f ind ing at the New York Boat Show on Sunday, with J immy Fee of On the Water Magaz ine k ick ing of f the Jan-uary 3 l ine -up with a look at Inshore L ight Tack le Pe lagics , focus ing on run & gun tac-t ics for chas ing l ight tack le targets l i ke bo-ni to , fa l se a lbacore , even a few Spanish mackere l when condi t ions are r ight and your proper arsenal i s in p lace . Noted New York C i ty area l ight tack le sk ipper , Capt . Joe Matt io l i of On the Bi te Charters p icks up on the f ly and l ight tack le focus wi th an exclus ive look at F l y & L ight Tack le
Page 32 Making Waves | Winter 2013
NY B ight tact ics . One of the Manhattan and Staten I s land top l ight tack le sharpies , Capt . Joe wi l l put the focus on l ight tack le sp in and f ly techniques for st r ipers , b lue-f i sh , weakf i sh and fa l se a lbacore , a l l v i r tu -a l ly wi thin minutes f rom New York C i ty .
Get more informat ion and d i rect ions to the Javi t s Center at www.nyboatshow.com – and be sure to get your t ickets in advance by c l ick ing here and enter ing the promo code RFA for your d iscount on t ickets !
On the pol i t ica l f ront , RFA has been care -fu l ly moni tor ing potent ia l changes to rep-resentat ion to the At lant ic S tates Mar ine F i sher ies Commiss ion (ASMFC) in the s tate of New York . A commiss ion of U.S . s tates f rom Maine to F lor ida , the ASMFC was formed by an Act of Congress in 1950 to coord inate and manage f i shery resources , inc luding shel l f i sh , mar ine f i sh and anadro-mous species . Each member s tate is repre-sented by three Commiss ioners , inc luding the d i rector for the s tate ’s mar ine f i sher ies management agency, a member of the s tate legis lature , and an ind iv idual ap-pointed by the governor .
The var ious members of the ASMFC part ic i -pate in var ious del iberat ions on key areas inc luding inters tate f i sher ies management , research and s tat is t ics , f i sher ies sc ience, habi tat conservat ion, and law enforce-ment . Whi le each of the 15 s tates has three Commiss ioners , i t i s a one -state one -vote process which typica l ly involves the three ind iv idual s tate members to come up with a consensus before contr ibut ing to the s ingle ASMFC vote for a given s tate .
In New York , th ings have changed with re -gard to the ASMFC in recent years . F i rs t and foremost , a f ter 40 years serv ice in the New York State Senate f rom the 4th Sena-tor ia l Dis t r ict , Owen Johnson announced his ret i rement dur ing the summer of 2012, paving the way for loca l republ ican Assem-b lyman Phi l Boyle in the state senate race . With support f rom RFA and the New York Sport f i sh ing Federat ion, Boyle was e lected to the Senate wi th 53% of the vote, and ended up reta ining the legis lat ive seat to the ASFMC previous ly he ld by Sen. John-son. In addi t ion to h is be ing personal ly engaged in our coasta l f i sher ies is sues ,
Sen. Boyle has a lso tabbed Kathy Heinle in of the Captree F leet and a di rector of the New York Sport f i sh ing Federat ion as h is ASMFC proxy.
The governor ’s appointee to the ASMFC, Pat August ine , has served for 15 years s ince been selected by republ ican Gover -nor George Patak i back in the late 1990’s . Having most ly turned his back on the rec-reat ional f i sh ing community in recent years , August ine has angered many RFA and New York Sport f i sh ing Federat ion by cont inual ly denouncing Governor Andrew Cuomo’s repeal of the sa l twater f i sh ing tax, whi le al so support ing increased commer-c ia l harvest of s t r iped bass . This fa l l , i t was announced at a New York Mar ine Re-sources Advisory Counci l meet ing that the New York Department of Envi ronmenta l Conservat ion - and Governor Cuomo him-se l f – was act ive ly seek ing nominat ions for a representat ive to replace August ine as the governor ’s appointee .
In response, both the RFA and the New York Sport f i sh ing Federat ion, in addit ion to the New York F i sh ing Tack le Trades Associ -at ion and Uni ted Boatmen of New York , have sent let ters to Albany in support of Emerson Hasbrouck as the governor ’s new appointee . As Senior Extens ion Educator for Mar ine Envi ronmenta l I s sues and F ish-er ies Management at the Cornel l Coopera-t ive Extens ion (CCE) of Suf fo lk County , RFA and our coal i t ion of angl ing groups bel ieve Emerson Hasbrouck i s uniquely qual i f ied to represent both the commercia l and recrea-t ional f i sh ing sectors .
An avid sa l twater angler h imsel f , Mr . Hasbrouck has dedicated his profess ional l i fe to help ing safeguard the mar ine envi -ronment and surrounding area , whi le con-centrat ing on the socioeconomic im-portance of a v ibrant and susta inable f i sh-ing community by work ing hand - in-hand with our coasta l f i shermen over the years .
RFA-NY - together wi th our f r iends at the New York Sport f i sh ing Federat ion – hopes for a more heal thy and prosperous New Year in our mar ine d ist r ict . With a fresh s late at the ASMFC, and perhaps some leg-i s lat ive success in Washington DC through J im Donofr io ’s e f forts to lobby Congress ,
Page 33 Making Waves | Winter 2013
we are opt imist ic about 2014!
_______________________________________________
Ne w E n g la n d U p d at e Capt . Barry Gibson
RFA New England Regional Di rector
RFA Cont inues To F ight No -F i sh ing Zone Off Massachuset ts
Massachuset ts anglers , a long with party and charter boat operators , cont inue to f ight a proposed 55 -square -mile “no recrea-t ional bot tom f ish ing” zone conta ined in the New England F ishery Management Counci l ’ s (NEFMC) “Omnibus Essent ia l F i sh Habi tat Amendment 2” scheduled for im-plementat ion sometime in 2014.
As I s tated in the fal l ed i t ion of the RFA e -newsletter , many of the a l ternat ives in the draf t document are sens ible and reasona-b le , and wi l l help protect cod, haddock, and other bot tom f ish , part icu lar ly in areas where these species spawn. But the man-agers of the Ste l lwagen Bank Nat ional Ma-r ine Sanctuary (SBNMS) have been pushing the NEFMC to inc lude a 251 -square -mi le Sanctuary Ecologica l Research Area, known as SERA I I , a t the lower port ion of the Western Gul f of Maine Closed area , which has been c losed to commercia l groundf i sh-ing s ince 1994 but has been open to recre -at ional f i sh ing.
The proposed 55 -square -mile “ reference ar -ea” i s s i ted at the southern end of the SERA I I , and would be c losed to recreat ional f i sh -ing, inc luding party and charter vesse l s , for f ive years or even longer . Dr . Cra ig Mac-Donald , SBNMS’s super intendent , says the c losure i s to “assess what ef fect recreat ion-a l f i sh removals have on the s tocks . ” He c la ims the SBNMS wants to “see what hap-pens i f a l l f i sh ing i s s topped. Maybe the f i sh s izes wi l l go up.” I ronica l ly , lobster t raps would s t i l l be a l lowed in the area , even though t raps account for a huge number of cod annual ly , many of which are unders ize and s imply recycled as lobster ba i t .
Over the past two season th is part icu lar ar -ea has become ext remely important to the for -h i re f leet , as draggers work ing under the new “sector” ru les have decimated the cod that have h istor ica l ly populated Ste l lwagen Bank. “We have to run 40 mi les out to th is ( the reference) area jus t to f ind some pol lock and redf i sh in the deep wa-ter , ” expla ins Capt . Tom Depers ia of B igf i sh Charters out of Green Harbor . “That ’s a long run, but there aren’ t any f i sh le f t on top of the bank. I f they c lose th is area we’ l l
have no place to go , per iod . ”
Back in September the RFA drafted a letter of oppos i t ion to the reference area and c i r -cu lated i t among New England RFA mem-bers and the region’s for -h i re f leet v ia the two largest indust ry organizat ions , the Northeast Charterboat Capta ins Associa -t ion and the Ste l lwagen Bank Charter Boat Associat ion. Many member draf ted s imi lar le t ters and sent them to the NEFMC, the
Codfish are a mainstay of the recreational and
for-hire fleets in New England waters.
Page 34 Making Waves | Winter 2013
Watch These Pages for
more RFA Chapter and
Regional News!
MA Division of Marine Fisheries, the Regional Administrator for NMFS, and to Dr. MacDonald.
The NEFMC’s Recreational Advisory Panel (RAP), which I chair, will be meeting in late January to develop a formal position on the proposed SERA II and its no-fishing “reference area.” If I had to guess I would say that the RAP will oppose it unanimously. The operators in the for-hire sec-tor that depend on groundfish have been con-tinually squeezed over the years with ever -shorter seasons as well as restrictive bag limits and minimum fish sizes. To remove an important 55-square-mile tract of ocean bottom simply in the name of “further research” is at this time to-tally inappropriate and unnecessary, and RFA will continue to oppose it.
There will be public hearings on the proposed Omnibus Habitat Amendment sometime in 2014. We will let RFA member know as soon as these are scheduled. In the meantime, much more information on the amendment is availa-
ble at www.nefmc.org.
Groundfish Economic Coordinating Committee
I was recently appointed to Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard’s new Groundfish Economic Coordinating Committee as a recrea-tional member representing the RFA and the RAP.
The committee is made up of about 45 members representing NOAA, NMFS, NEFMC, state fisher-ies agencies, and the commercial fishery. Two of us represent the recreational side. The focus of the committee is to try and explore ways NMFS, NOAA, and other agencies can help fishermen in these times of restrictive regulations and small quotas on most of our valuable groundfish species.
The first meeting I attended was held on No-vember 26
th, and each of the seven specific
agenda items was geared towards the commer-cial fishing sector. There was nothing that ap-plied to the for-hire sector or recreational fisher-men.
I brought this up right off the bat, and after a bit of discussion it was decided that a few of us who represent the for-hire sector would meet
with Mr. Bullard at some point in the near fu-ture to outline the difficulties the party/charter fleet are facing and to offer some suggestions as to how NMFS and NOAA might start to devel-op measures that could help mitigate the prob-lems. I intend to stay on top of this and will report again in the next e-newsletter.
Maine Elver Fishery To Be Reduced 25 to 40% Maine’s elver or “glass eel” fishery will remain open for 2014, but the catch much be reduced 25% to 40% from the 2013 level.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commis-sion’s (ASMFC) Eel Management Board, which manages American eels along the entire East Coast, postponed a new plan with tighter regu-lations until 2015, but mandated that Maine’s catch be reduced this coming year.
The tiny elvers, just a couple of inches long, are shipped live to Asia where they are raised in ponds into adults and sold for food. Elver fish-ermen, who net the eels in streams in the spring, were paid as much as $2,000 per pound in 2013. The fishery was worth $38.8 million in 2012, second only to the state’s lobster fishery in value.
Conservationists and fishery managers, though, are concerned about eel stocks coast wide, which are considered depleted due to overfish-ing and habitat loss. Eels are an important source of forage for a wide variety of fresh and salt water fish and birds, as well as a popular bait among recreational fishermen. Only Maine and South Carolina allow elver fishing, and Maine’s harvest is about 15 times larger. Contin-ued harvesting in Maine at current levels could impact stocks coast wide.
The Eel Management Board is scheduled to meet in February to continue work on the plan.
Page 36 Making Waves | Winter 2013
The RFA Mission Safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers
Protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs
Ensure the long-term sustainability of our nation’s fisheries.
Anti-fishing groups and radical environmentalists are pushing their agenda on marine fisheries issues affecting you. The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) is in the trenches too, lobbying, educating decision makers and ensuring that the interests of America’s coastal fishermen are being heard loud and clear. Incorporated in 1996 as a 501c4 national, grassroots political action organization, RFA represents recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues on every coast, with state chapters established to spearhead the regional issues while building local support. “The biggest challenge we face is the fight to reform and bring common sense and sound science into the fisheries man-agement process, says James Donofrio, RFA founder and Executive Director. “Anti-fishing and extreme environmental groups are working everyday to get us off the water.” Despite the threats to diminish access to our nation’s resources, Donofrio says that RFA offers members hope in an organization that’s designed from the ground up to fight back. “As individuals, our concerns will simply not be heard; but as a united group, we can and do stand up to anyone who threat-ens the sport we enjoy so much – fishing!” After more than a dozen years working inside the Beltway and within state capitols along the coast, RFA has become known as one of the nation’s most respected lobbying organizations, and our members have a lot to celebrate.
The Recreational Fishing Alliance Headquarters
Mailing Address P.O. Box 3080
New Gretna, New Jersey 08224 Phone: 1-888-564-6732 toll free Fax: (609) 294-3812
Jim Donofrio Executive Director Jim Hutchinson Jr Managing Director Capt. Barry Gibson New England Regional Director
Kim Forgach Administrative Assistant
Gary Caputi Corporate Relations Director
Jim Martin West Coast Regional Director
John DePersenaire Policy & Science Researcher
Cover Background Design: Mustard Seed Graphics