Friday, Feb. 5, Outdoors column: RFA plans rally in Washington

The closures and reduced limits and quotas keep coming on marine fisheries along the East Coast. Recreational and commercial fishermen and members of the South Carolina and United States legislatures are voicing their concerns, calling for an overhaul of the U.S. fisheries management system.

Led by the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) - a national grass roots organization - thousands of fishermen from along the East Coast are planning a rally in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 24 in protest of the direction in which fisheries management is going.

Meanwhile, resolutions have been introduced in both the House and Senate of the S.C. Legislature opposing a proposal being considered by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management (SAFMC) that would close a huge area of the ocean floor to all bottom fishing off South Carolina and the Southeast Coast.

Recreational and commercial fishermen with similar concerns of losing their fishing livelihood are heading to Washington for the RFA rally. Locally, a whirlwind bus trip coordinated by the Ocean Isle Fishing Center in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., will include concerned anglers from groups such as the Seacoast Anglers Association in Little River.

"Much of our fishing waters are being taken away from us and this meeting is being held for the silent majority to speak out," said Rube McMullan, one of the owners of Ocean Isle Fishing Center. "The purpose is to demonstrate to the folks in Congress that you need to listen to us.

"It's sort of a sound of the trumpet for the fishing world to say if we just sit back here on our hands, before long all the ocean is going to be shut off and we can't fish anywhere."

The RFA rally will focus on demanding that changes be made to the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The MSA mandates that once a species is determined to be undergoing overfishing, the overfishing of the species must be stopped within a year. Thus, councils such as the SAFMC must in turn take drastic measures to end overfishing.

However, there are widespread concerns about the validity of the data gathered to determine whether a species is overfished.

"We're about to let Congress know they need to fix [the MSA] for us," said Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the RFA. "We've got a lot of friends in Congress that will be standing on the stage with us, asking their colleagues to reform the law."

The Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009, Senate bill 1255, is already in process and has a solid base of support in the U.S. Senate, Donofrio said.

Donofrio called for South Carolina Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham to join in support of the bill which, if approved, would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act to allow fishery management plan managers to specify a time period for rebuilding fisheries that is more practical.

Restrictions in effect for recreational anglers off the Southeast coast, which currently are virtually eliminating offshore bottom fishing for a variety of snapper-grouper species, are exemplary of fishery management trends that have anglers up in arms. The current restrictions include:

A spawning season closure for 11 shallow-water grouper species is in effect for both recreational and commercial fishermen through April 30.

Recreational and commercial fishing for red snapper is closed through June 2 in federal waters off North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and the Atlantic coast of Florida. The rule could be extended an additional six months if deemed necessary by the SAFMC.

The recreational fishery for vermilion snapper is closed through March 31.

The resolutions in the S.C. Legislature are aimed specifically at the SAFMC's Amendment 17A to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region. The amendment is intended to end the perceived overfishing of red snapper along the Atlantic Southeast Coast.

In early December, the SAFMC took preliminary action on the amendment at a meeting in Atlantic Beach, N.C., and if implemented, it would close a huge swath of the ocean floor from South Carolina (offshore of McClellanville) to central Florida to any snapper-grouper fishing in depths of 98 to 300 feet.

The SAFMC will readdress the issue during a March 1-5 meeting in Jekyll Island, Ga., and could take final action at a subsequent meeting June 6-11 in Orlando, Fla.

The S.C. Senate version of the resolution was sponsored by Senators Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, and Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, and introduced on Jan. 26. The S.C. House version was sponsored by Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, and introduced on Tuesday.

Amendment 17A is intended to prevent bycatch and release mortality of the overfished red snapper by closing the area to all bottom fishing, including about 3,500 square miles of prime fishing grounds off the S.C. coast.

Both resolutions point to data that indicates only eleven percent of the total red snapper landings in the South Atlantic region occur in South Carolina waters.

Both also state that "recreational and commercial saltwater fishing is vital to the coastal economy of South Carolina and employs thousands of state residents directly and indirectly."

The resolutions go on to say "any area closed to fishing off the coast of South Carolina proposed by the SAFMC in Amendment 17A is unjustifiable and would cause severe economic hardship to the State and its coastal counties."

Note | For more information on the bus trip to Washington, contact the Ocean Isle Fishing Center at (910) 575-3474 or Chris Carbone of the Seacoast Anglers Association at (843) 756-6464.