(10/29/2010) – The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) was recently notified by NMFS' Southeast Regional Office that a 4,800-square mile fishing ban is on its way for South Atlantic anglers. A final rule to implement controversial Amendment 17A will likely be published in mid-November, but the U.S. Department of Commerce's announcement will ultimately establish a closed area extending from southern Georgia to Cape Canaveral, FL affecting angler harvest and possession of all snapper-grouper species.
The fishing closure affects areas with depths between 98 and 240 feet and is being implemented as part of the Amendment 17-A which indefinitely bans all bottom-fishing for both the commercial and recreational sectors. A blanket ban on red snapper harvest adopted as a temporary measure last year remains in effect in a 200-nautical mile zone off the entire Southeast coast.
According to the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), the closure is based purely on flawed science, inaccurate harvest data and overly restrictive federal fisheries language written into the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Management and Conservation Act. "There is no biological problem with this fishery," said RFA Executive Director Jim Donofrio, "this is a management and legislative problem, not a fishery issue."
Read the complete story from Sport Fishermen.