SEAFOOD.COM NEWS — March 17, 2014 –The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council's proposal to reallocate the red snapper catch between the commercial and recreational fishing sectors will jeopardize the red snapper rebuilding program, risk overfishing the stock, unfairly penalize the commercial sector and undermine its successful IFQ program, and reduce consumer access to fresh red snapper.
Over the next two weeks, there will be public hearings on The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council's proposal to reallocate the red snapper catch between the commercial and recreational fishing sectors. For many years, the annual quota has been divided about equally between the sectors, with 51% allocated to the commercial sector and 49% to the recreational sector.
The Council’s Preferred Alternative for this proposal, known as Amendment 28 to the Reef Fish Management Plan, would immediately transfer 4.4%, or about 500,000 pounds, of the quota from the commercial sector to the recreational sector, and would provide 75% of all future quota increases to the recreational sector. This proposal will jeopardize the red snapper rebuilding program, risk overfishing the stock, unfairly penalize the commercial sector and undermine its successful IFQ program, and reduce consumer access to fresh red snapper.
The recreational fishing sector does not comply with its catch limits. Since 2007, the recreational sector has exceeded its quota in every fishing season but one (when the Deepwater Horizon incident closed the Gulf to fishing), by an average overage of about 50%. During a fishing season last fall, the recreational sector was supposed to catch 1.25 million pounds but caught over 2.5 million pounds, an overage of over 100%. In contrast, the commercial sector adheres to its catch limit each year. So for every pound of red snapper reallocated from the commercial to the recreational sector, 1.5 to 2 pounds of red snapper will be landed. Increased landings and fishing mortality resulting from Amendment 28 may delay the rebuilding plan and result in overfishing.
The primary problem in the recreational fishery – instability due to shortened fishing seasons – is not caused by insufficient quota. The recreational quota has more than doubled since 2009, from 2.45 to 5.39 million pounds. In 2013 alone the recreational quota increased by 1.2 million pounds. Diverting another 500,000 pounds to the recreational sector will not bring about stability. This is because instability in that sector is caused by recent increases in fishing effort and fish size, the expansion of the red snapper stock into new areas, Gulf states that adopt fishing regulations that are inconsistent with federal regulations, inadequate reporting to keep track of what is being caught, and lack of accountability measures. Amendment 28 addresses none of these issues. The recreational fishing season will continue to become shorter and overages will persist.
The commercial red snapper IFQ program is one of the most successful catch share programs in the country.
Commercial fishermen devoted years of hard work developing it to address the problems in their fishery.
At the same time, while the recreational sector continued to overharvest, the commercial sector took a 2 million pound catch cut. Because of those efforts, the stock is now rebuilding. The commercial sector is supplying new markets to bring fresh red snapper to American consumers.
Fishermen have made investments in this stabilized fishery on the expectation of a constant or increasing catch. Amendment 28 would penalize the commercial sector for solving its problems and adhering to its catch limits, and would reward the recreational sector for persistent overharvesting.
Commercial fishermen put in the work and played by the rules, only to see the benefits of their sacrifices given to a sector that refuses to solve its own problems. This is not fair. Instead of taking fish away from commercial fishermen and American consumers, the recreational sector should find solutions to its own problems like the commercial sector did.
Jason DeLaCruz is the owner of Wild Seafood Company, Madeira Beach, FL
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.