Making Waves |
March 2013
er than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
A Move to Divide the Community When charter and party boat captains purchase a federal permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in order to take customers out fishing in federal waters, these boats are bound by federal fisheries regulations. Private anglers of course, nonbusiness folks who own their own walk-arounds, center consoles or offshore express boats are also bound by federal regulations when fishing in this area. However, when states decide to open their own local waters to angling under separate season, size or bag limits which differ from the federal regulation, the private angler may take advantage of this fishery whereas federally permitted vessel owners are still bound by the federal regulation. In other words, a federally permitted vessel owner may not fish in his own state waters if the state regulations differ from those beyond the federal line. The private angler may, but by requirements set for by the Department of Commerce, the professional captain may not. “What we’re seeing now in response is that for-hire captains who have been required to get a federal fishing permit to fish in federal waters are now seeing red because they’re not allowed to fish inside the federal line, and that’s causing a major rift in our recreational fishing community,” said Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). “Suddenly we have party and charter boat operators who see no recourse but to push for sector separation plans, to divide our recreational sector into private and commercial subsectors, which will only make us weaker as a coalition.” RFA believes that the federal permitting program under NMFS is just another layer of needless bureaucracy that has done nothing but add confusion to the fisheries management process. Case in point – the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife (LDWF) is one of many coastal state agencies
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throughout the United States now feeling the dire negative effects of a broken federal fisheries law. In a recent bulletin to local anglers, LDWF attempted to whip up support for states to turn away from federal fisheries management policies which they say are not working. “There’s no confidence in the federal regulations, so it’s time to draw a line in the sand,” said LDWF Assistant Secretary Randy Pausina who wants red snapper to be managed on state-by-state or regional basis. “We hope our fellow Gulf Coast states will join us in rejecting the federal red snapper dates and limits and move forward with our own interpretation of regional management,” Pausina said. RFA points out that if Gulf States do choose to go non-compliant with the federal regulations, those for-hire captains will have to surrender their federal fishing permits. “We’ve heard that Louisiana and Mississippi have already indicated that they would issue state charter boat permits to anyone who gives up their federal permit, but now our charter and party boats will need to constrain their red snapper fishing to inshore state waters,” Donofrio said. “This is clearly a case of the federal government making a mockery of the commerce clause while punishing legal business owners.” Donofrio said that much of the original purpose with issuing federal permits was an effort by NMFS to limit the number of for-hire vessels in the recreational fishing community, a ‘limitedentry’ mechanism to keep a reign on the overall number of fishermen. Federal regulators then began requiring these federal vessels to keep comprehensive vessel trip reports, also known as VTR logs, in order to compile better recreational data collection. Today, NMFS readily acknowledges that the VTR data is not being used for data collection and has not been rolled into the . Essentially, federal permits simply add more bureaucratic red tape that’s big on promise but small on actual delivery when it comes to managing a coastal resource. That’s petty disturbing when you consider that NMFS fits
under the Department of Commerce umbrella, a cabinet branch which still has no appointed Secretary more than 7 months since the resignation of John Bryson. Madison would’ve looked at this clearly as an abridgement of freedom by gradual and silent encroachment of a bureaucracy gone astray; for recreational fishermen, it’s just another day at the office.
PART 5 - CONVERSION, DIVERSION AND PERVERSION On the the final day of February, 2013, the woman in charge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrator (NOAA) officially stepped away from her appointed post. Based on promise and performance, that can’t be bad news for any coastal fishermen in America today. At a meeting with the New York fishing industry just 2-1/2 years ago, Dr. Jane Lubchenco heard first-hand about ongoing problems experienced by coastal fishermen - the ‘regulated community’ as NOAA calls us. Brokered by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the personal sit-down was meant to provide a forum for members of the both the recreational and commercial fishing community whom together shares allocation of important food fish species like black sea bass, porgy and summer flounder. Regrettably, the take-home tasks and follow-up items promised by Dr. Lubchenco following the meeting never materialized. Whether or not a new NOAA Administrator - expected to be appointed by President Obama any day now – will address these concerns remains unknown. What is known and has been openly expressed by RFA years prior to that 2010 meeting is that recreational fishermen cannot be managed by the same rigid methodology as the commercial sector. “The way our recreational fishery is managed is wrong in terms of pounds of fish,” RFA managing director Jim Hutchinson told Dr. Lubchenco at the open forum, pointing out one of the most critical items for the NOAA ad-