King Mackerel Catch Shares Update from Rusty Hudson (DSF,Inc.)

 

NOTE: Quoted from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (GMFMC) August 2010 Briefing Book, Minutes of the June 16, 2010 GMFMC meeting held in Gulfport, Mississippi. http://www.gulfcouncil.org/council_meetings/briefing_books/august_2010.php

"MR. SAPP: Thanks, David. Last week, our Mackerel Committee met jointly with the South Atlantic Mackerel Committee and among the things we talked about, since it’s a joint fishery management plan, was the notion of whether or not we should be going forward with catch shares.

The response that we got from the South Atlantic was pretty much that they felt like they needed to back away from it, because there wasn’t support from the industry folks that would be involved in a program like that.

I know your involvement in the whole catch shares issue and can you give me a fair gauge or level of what the support is in the Gulf Coast mackerel fishermen about whether they’re opposed or in favor of a catch share system for king mackerel?

MR. KREBS:

Yes, thank you. The Gulf, as you know, in Corpus Christi, after numerous concerns from king mackerel fishermen that operate in the western Gulf, that would be from the Alabama/Florida line west, on that million-pound commercial quota, came to me and said we need a catch share system and we’ve got too many new participants that are showing up from the east coast that’s affecting our livelihoods and we would like to develop a catch share system.

I came to the council and requested that we form an AP and you guys were so gracious as to do that. The issues in the South Atlantic are the South Atlantic and fortunately, after the Southeastern Fisheries Association’s meetings in Orlando last week and the Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation roundtable, I think there was some new information given to those fishermen to know that this is not something that that council or this council is ramming down anybody’s throat. It’s an option.

I think the perception of moving into the future and talking with Dr. Branstetter about the future and king mackerel management as a whole, we know that we have several zones that we’re fishing already in the Gulf, the southeastern subzone, the northeastern subzone, and then the western Gulf.

They can be broken into any number of options and I think that the advisory panel will do that and we’ll present options that’s going to go out to the fishers to see if they accept that or not is the prudent thing to do.

 

The South Atlantic guys, after the conference in Orlando, said can we come sit in and listen and I said would you like to sit in and listen and not vote and they said we would just like to be there. It’s interesting when you finally get information out that this is not something that’s being force fed to anybody.

They recognize they’ve got over 1,700 permits that go from North Carolina to Brownsville, Texas and that makes a latent permit issue huge. We all know that there’s ways around qualifiers and keeping permits and so to have the opportunity to explore a catch share as an effort reduction tool is a good opportunity.

If the fishermen don’t want it at the end of the day, they’ll tell you that, but I really appreciate the chance to sit down or for you guys to have an advisory panel meet to sit down and try to cipher this out."

Rusty

Russell Howard Hudson, President Directed Sustainable Fisheries, Inc. (DSF, Inc.) PO Box 9351 Daytona Beach, Florida 32120-9351

Comments

[Wanchese Pirate]

Arghhh Mr. Krebs,Everyone knows yous beens drinkin EDF's Koolaid! Starts lookin out fer yer fellow fisherman insteads of yer own pockets!! Ifs you don't I say boycott ARIEL SEAFOOD, yer spewin poison man!!!!!