SAFMC meeting update

Saltwater Offshore Reports
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This was sent to me by SAFMC member Tom Swatzel. He said I could share this with you.
At the bottom is a minority report I added!
…

I wanted to provide you with an update concerning some of the actions taken by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council at its meeting in St. Simons Island, GA last week.

Vermilion Snapper

The fishery council unanimously approved increasing the annual catch limit for vermilion snapper beginning this year via Snapper-Grouper Regulatory Amendment 18, which was sent to the Secretary of Commerce for approval.

The recent stock assessment update determined that vermilion are not overfished or experiencing overfishing.

For 2013, the overall ACL will increase by about 30 percent to 1,372,000 lbs. whole weight.

The ACL increase will remove the recreational season closure for vermilion, resulting in a year-round fishery.

This year the six month commercial vermilion quota will be 466,480 lbs. whole or 420,250 lbs. gutted weight.

Black Sea Bass

A stock assessment is underway for black sea bass and will be reviewed, as required, by the Scientific and Statistical Committee next month. The SSC will then make a recommendation to the council concerning the ACL.

It is anticipate that the stock assessment will justify a badly needed increase in the ACL.

The challenge will be to get an ACL increase in place in time to affect the recreational season opening on June 1st. The last recreational season was open for only 96 days, closing on September 4th.

Rather than wait until the next regularly scheduled fishery council meeting in June to vote on an ACL modification, the council agreed to an extraordinary May 13th council meeting via webinar (a first) to quickly move forward a new ACL for Secretary of Commerce approval.

The meeting will be advertised and open to the public as required.

Requirement f

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The intent of some of the workgroup members was completely different than the expert workgroup fishermen asked to attend. That is why the minority report had to be filed!

3

People have to stand against VMS. They will collect every bottom spot and publish them online at some point. There will be no secrets and our fishery will be destroyed forever… Its a one-way operation that we could never recover from once we did it.

4

That’s encouraging @ vermillion and possibly BSB. A blind man could tell the ACL needs to be increased if not abolished for BSB. Last time I went out bottom bumping 25% of the BSb had juvenile snappers in their mouths and bellies.

5

“They” already have most of the bottom numbers, which is the info they used to compile the potential MPA’s.

Sea Hunt 207CC,Yam 150
www.abfishcharters.com

6

Confusing to say the least - what hits home is the “no trolling in the MPAs” “including the GT Hole” - did I read this correctly?

Thanks,
Jason

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That is correct!

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The “No trolling in the MPAs” sounds like typical governmental scare tactic bs to me intended to divide and conquer. Make a big stink with a proposal that obviously NO ONE will accept. Then let up and change it to read just bottom fishing, thus appeasing a portions of those against, allowing the SAFMC to basically say that they gave in to the voices of many of the fisherman and tried to meet them in the middle. In the end it allows them to say that their plan is acceptable by whatever x number of fisherman, and the rest of us will just never be happy with any regulations they try to implement. Of course I could be wrong, this could be the start of the SAFMC attempt to finally include ALL types of offshore fishing in their “Grand Plan, MOOOHAHAHAhahahahah.”

9
quote:
Originally posted by Beaufort Boy

“They” already have most of the bottom numbers, which is the info they used to compile the potential MPA’s.

Sea Hunt 207CC,Yam 150
www.abfishcharters.com

No they don't. They know general areas but not exact spots. I studied their MARMAPS data quite a bit and a lot of it is close but not exact enough. I have found a few of their inshore lobster pots on junk numbers, so sure they have some, but not the cream! In addition, they don't understand fish as well as your typical fishermen, but with VMS they would know very private information built up over generations, not only where to fish, but when.