MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – Grand Strand fishermen will be gathering in North Charleston Wednesday to voice their concerns about proposed catch limits that they believe will negatively impact business.
The limits come as the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council works to comply with a federal mandate to set catch limits based on best available data. "To be honest with you sometimes that can mean garbage unfortunately," shared Tom Swatzel, member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Swatzel says the data has to be improved before fishermen are going to have confidence in the system.
"The fishermen are seeing a lot of fish out there," he said. "The scientists are showing something different and it's kind of hard to reconcile the two." Swatzel says the fishery council gets caught in the middle in trying to reconcile the data with the concerns over the data's accuracy.
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