Okay team, here is the scoop… There are TWO SECRET REEFS that SCDNR created “Area 51” and “Area 53”, the oldest of which was created NEARLY 2 DECADES ago… These numbers are NOT published, and very few people know about them. Therefore they receive very little fishing pressure like the popular reefs. The cool thing is that IF you can find these hidden gems, you are legally allowed to fish them! Who paid for these reefs? These were built primarily with federal funds, so if you file taxes with the IRS, then YOU PAID for them…
So, as you can imagine, they are thriving with life just like many of our current live bottoms that are relatively unknown. The principle here is obvious to ANYONE - SECRECY of a fishing spot = less pressure = better sustained fishing. Is there ANY fisherman that does not understand this universal concept???
What this PROVES is 2 things:
This is HOW MORE SCDNR reefs SHOULD be deployed (i.e. make MORE secret reefs). 50% hidden and 50% published.
This PROVES that there are ALTERNATIVES TO MPAs that: do not require ANY enforcement, do not make criminals out of fisherman, and do not create a NETWORK of “no fishing zones” all over the map.
The bottom line, is that we do NOT need 100’s of MPAs. What we need is 100’s of SECRET REEFS…
So, if things are so great, WHY am I writing you? Currently, there is an amendment sitting on the SAFMCs desk called “AMENDMENT 36”. What is the purpose of this amendment? To identify WARSAW GROUPER SPAWNING AREAS</font id=“red”>. "Well, skinnee, what in the heck do reefs in 70 and 105 feet of water have to do with WARSAW grouper? I’ll tell you what… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…
Here is what is happening… The SAFMC is proposing closures up and down the coast again in response to an environmental lawsuit. They are being forced to draw up some “spawning area closures” for WARSA
Oh yeah, the government is using new language now since “MPA” is a dirty word… They are called “Special Spawning Management Zones”… You might even hear them throw around the term “SMZ”… They will even remind you that all of the current SCDNR reefs are “SMZs”… But are they the same? NOT AT ALL… They want to designate Area 51 and Area 53 as a new type of SMZ that prohibits ALL BOTTOM FISHING… So, even though they are given the same label, they truly function like an MPA - i.e. no bottom fishing of any form… So, please don’t fall for that when they write you back… A rose by any other name is still a rose, so an area where you are NOT allowed to bottomfish is an MPA… PERIOD…
Funny thing about the hidden area…We happened to be at the “secret area” yesterday and low and behold a DNR boat rolled up on us immediately with the 101 questions on what we were catching in said location. If anyone out there thinks you aren’t tracked when fishing you are very mistaken. PS we were just getting off plane when they got to us at “secret spot” they are very aware of when someone fishes them haha.
Funny thing about the hidden area…We happened to be at the “secret area” yesterday and low and behold a DNR boat rolled up on us immediately with the 101 questions on what we were catching in said location. If anyone out there thinks you aren’t tracked when fishing you are very mistaken. PS we were just getting off plane when they got to us at “secret spot” they are very aware of when someone fishes them haha.
If we were being tracked, NMFS wouldn't be pushing for remote monitoring systems like those in the GOM. They literally want to put an ankle bracelet on you with a video monitoring system in your boat. Sure, you may have had DNR roll up on you, but they are NOT out there every day covering every inch of the ocean.
Heard about this a week or so ago…from a guy that knows where Area 51 is
I've got the approximate locations to both sites. If this nonsense continues and they pass, there will usually be like a 30-45 day window from the time they write it into the federal register until the law actually goes into effect. If that does happens, I will post the coordinates on this website so that taxpayers can have their way with these spots before they are permanently closed.
^^This. I am not saying they are “ankle bracleting” to say but they seem be watching said areas. I just don’t understand how they can use false information to close areas.
^^This. I am not saying they are “ankle bracleting” to say but they seem be watching said areas. I just don’t understand how they can use false information to close areas.
I think these are "pet projects" that have been around for a long time... Now that a few fishermen have found them, SAMFC and a couple members at DNR are panicky that the cat is out of the bag. They want to "protect the investment" so to speak... If these new zones were a part of their own amendment, they would never make it through public scrutiny... So, there is a little game being played here to slide something under the radar on the coattails of a larger initiative... They problem is that there is not enough forward thinking of the precedence this sets...
they are already pusing tracking… its called ais in vhf’s at some point all vhf’s will have these functions along with networking in plotter ect ect… its not hard for them to “track” you
I’m not sure but wouldn’t the dnr/police/cg boats be trackable… hey I’m game to fish area 51/53 give me some numbers lol… they can come watch me jig my arm off for fun…
Skinny-He knows who I am, will verify that I know what I am talking about if anyone doubts what I say. Those numbers were supposed to be released to the public after several years of research. To my knowledge that never happened. I will tell you that an area established like this works beyond your wildest imagination. The video records are there to prove it. I did indeed see Warsaw grouper on both of the mentioned sites. Ongoing research is still done there. The most Warsaw I ever saw on a dive happened to be at the Charleston Sixty and they hung around for about a year before they were all caught or left the area. Skinny-I hope you don’t do as you said above and release the numbers, think you and I know why. I do understand if that happens.
Skinny-He knows who I am, will verify that I know what I am talking about if anyone doubts what I say. Those numbers were supposed to be released to the public after several years of research. To my knowledge that never happened. I will tell you that an area established like this works beyond your wildest imagination. The video records are there to prove it. I did indeed see Warsaw grouper on both of the mentioned sites. Ongoing research is still done there. The most Warsaw I ever saw on a dive happened to be at the Charleston Sixty and they hung around for about a year before they were all caught or left the area. Skinny-I hope you don’t do as you said above and release the numbers, think you and I know why. I do understand if that happens.
What's frustrating about this process is that they are successful NOT because they are MPAs, but because they are secret... Instead of observing this fact and using this as a forward-thinking model of success, the MPA agenda will get pushed forward and these will be converted into MPAs. In 5 years, they will be the poster child for "Why we need more MPAs" instead of objective evidence that there are viable alternatives to MPAs... These reefs PROVE beyond a shadow of a doubt that MPAs are NOT needed, and this fact will be forever lost on deaf ears... I would like to see some more "critical" thinking on the council... Why don't we let the evidence drive the model, instead of the model drive the evidence???
Skinney you make a very good point. What we did there was take unproductive bottom and make it a Eden so to speak and it can be done in other areas. Could be just what the Council needs to hear from those that are truly concerned about the resource as I know you and I are. I had hope with S.C.s last appointtee to the council we might see a difference, but he is only one man. Tell me what I can do to help buddy and I will. Mr. Bell sits on the Council now and knows all too well what those areas are capable of.
This hole area 51 thing has been around since I used to do a lot of off shore fishing. Good spots that many know about get passed on to others. But those secret spots that produces great holds most true fishermen to secrecy. I’ve bluntly asked several DNR officers about “area 51”. It is most definitely an area that all involved in it wants it to remain secret.
We have so many live bottom areas that produce and are kept secret for those that know them, why such secrecy on a tax funded project? I think everyone(most everyone) on this site understands that If you give fish a Beautiful home to live in and hang out around, they will. These artificial areas are like Oasis in a desert.
Here’s the thing, it was funded by ALL tax payers! Not a fishing guide on a lake that dumped several loads of Christmas trees to attract some crappy.
All aside, I’ll not give anyone a location to some of my most prized areas. I’m a private person to a large degree. But super fishing areas made by Every tax paying citizen should not be kept secret.
Our government has found that artificial reef work and help our fisheries, so lets make more of them and give back to those that paid for them.
Really, what is the % of recreational fishermen that can actually make it to these sites and fish them? If anything ban commercial fishermen from these sites and let the Recreational guys keep their legal limits.
Thanks for posting this skinnyj. and I don’t know the numbers, but I have fished the area. I’d love to dive and see first hand, but I’ll keep my underwater adventures to snorkeling and shallow free diving. You off shore divers have my respect.
“If Bruce Jenner can keep his wiener and be called a woman, I can keep my firearms and be considered disarmed.”
Fred67, while I do believe that 50% of the reefs should be public, I think we should keep 50% hidden. If you look at the reef program in Alabama, that’s how it is… There have been areas on the Florida Gulf Coast (Steinhatchee, etc) that have done that as well… Just to give you example of how that has taken off, Alabama now catches 40% of the red snapper in the GOM with about 5% of the coastline. Prior to their semi-hidden reef program, they had 0% catches of red snapper…
If you can find them, you can fish them… Imagine if, over the next few decades, SCDNR deployed dozens more secret reefs in some of the most unproductive areas. The feds have the money to do this, but they don’t want to give it to us because they are too busy driving the MPA agenda. Secret reefs have the “benefit” of an MPA (i.e. hardly any fishing pressure), but don’t require any sort of law enforcement… MPAs get fished when the man ain’t looking, and no DNR boat is going to sit out there every day monitoring people fishing on MPAs. They don’t have the cheddar to do that… So, that forces them into the “Vessel Monitoring System” discussion straight out of George Orwell’s playbook. And imagine how ugly your chartplotter is going to look one day with 50 MPAs scattered all over SC waters? It would take a degree in engineering to understand where you can and can’t fish… Hey, I have a better idea… Don’t create expensive to enforce MPAs that make fishermen into criminals. Make SECRET reefs…
Also, commercial fishermen cannot fish commercially on the existing SCDNR reef sites. So, it’s definitely the recreational fishermen hitting the public sites hard.