As reported in the Asbury Park Press of New Jersey on October 2, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) is exploring legal options to block a federal shutdown of the black sea bass fishery along the Eastern Seaboard.
"This is unprecedented, absolutely unprecedented," RFA’s Jim Donofrio told the Press just hours after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced its intention to close the fishery in federal waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from Cape Hatteras, NC north to the Hague Line in Maine beginning Monday, October 5 for a period of 180 days.
NOAA’s decision to immediately close the sea bass fishery is based on the "best available information" coming from the recreational harvest surveys for 2009 which shows that recreational fishermen "may have" overharvested their allowable catch this season. "It’s abuse on the part of the federal government to use this data for a complete shutdown," Donofrio said, explaining that a precautionary approach would’ve been emergency bag limit restrictions, not a complete closure. "NOAA has really showed their hand on this decision, making it quite clear of their disdain for our recreational industry," Donofrio added.
The RFA points out that NOAA is basing its decision to close the fishery for the next six months on the latest trends coming from the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Surveys (MRFSS), a survey methodology called "fatally flawed" in a report by the National Research Council (NRC). The RFA points to a position paper on their homepage atwww.joinrfa.org as detailing the "serious flaws" in MRFSS according to the NRC report. The congressionally mandated peer review said specifically in 2006 that there were "inadequate analysis methods that need to be addressed immediately." However, three years later the data is still being used as gospel harvest information on important coastal fisheries like summer flounder, scup and sea bass.
In a letter to James Balsinger, Acting Assistant Administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee, and fellow New Jersey coastal congressman John Adler. said an emergency shutdown will hurt coastal economies at a difficult time, and insists there’s no need to take such drastic action on a rebuilt fishery such as sea bass. "We believe that using the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey (MRFSS) as the only tool in determining the shutdown of a fishery is severely flawed," the New Jersey Congressmen said, while adding "in light of the fact that MRFSS is not the most accurate way to measure catch levels, NMFS should pursue new assessments that are more concise. The review should include industry data that can provide an index of fishing activity."