March 2014 SAFMC Meeting Public Comments
Please take the time to read these comments regarding some important issues the council should be and is considering.
It is important for us to learn from successes and failures in our own fisheries and others. One notable success has been on the west coast with fishermen?s voluntary use of Descending Devices to greatly increase survival rates of fish suffering from barotrauma. The success has been so great that the Pacific Fishery Management Council will be considering reducing discard mortality allocations this month for several species with a similar life history and anatomy of many deepwater species off our coast. Promoting the use of Descending Devices would be a great way to collect data on and protect Warsaw Grouper and Speckled Hind without closing any more traditional fishing grounds. Descending Device use is also a solution that could allow fishermen to keep some of the 500,000+ pounds of Red Snapper currently being allocated to dead discards every year. Using these devices should return some of the 100,000+ pounds of our annual Gag Grouper Total Allowable Catch being allocated to dead discards. Most of this tragic waste of our resources is easily avoidable by simply managing quotas to avoid extended closures and releasing illegal fish so they have the best chance of survival. The vast majority of west coast fishermen were willing to use Descending Devices once they learned how effective and easy to use they are. Higher quotas will be a great reward for doing the right thing. This west coast success could be replicated in our commercial and recreational fisheries by taking these three simple steps.
- Establish a South Atlantic Recreational Reef Fish Permit or work with states to include a box that fishermen can check on the fishing license application saying they bottom fish in federal waters. This will define the universe of anglers while providing contact info.
- Request or require all recreational and commercial fishermen to have an approved Desc