RFA IN CONGRESS
WORKING TO REPAIR MAGNUSON
By Gary Caputi
Current wording in this critical federal legislation will needlessly bring an end to recreational
fishing in many important rebuilding fisheries.
On December 5, 2007, Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing
Alliance (RFA), testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Natural
Resources on rebuilding fisheries under the current language contained in the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The Committee invited the RFA to share its
views on the challenges in meeting the newly enacted requirements of the MSA, which included
arbitrary deadlines that are having serious unintended negative consequences for recreational
fishermen and the industry specifically when dealing with rebuilding fisheries.
Donofrio started by sighting the current situation with summer flounder, a vitally
important recreational fishery on the East Coast, but by no means the only species that will be
impacted. RFA testified that the current law has needlessly tied the hands of fishery managers at
a time when flexibility is most needed. The summer flounder stock has been rebuilt to a size not
seen in 25 years, fishing mortality has decreased over 80%, total harvest has decreased over
96%, and both total stock biomass and spawning stock biomass have increased 251% and 280%,
respectively. That’s quite an accomplishment and should be great news to environmentalists and
fishermen alike. However, despite what can only be considered remarkable progress, recreational
fishermen are facing the most restrictive quotas in the history of the rebuilding process and a
possible shut down of the fishery over the next three years!
While summer flounder might not be of concern to Florida anglers, it is only the first of a
number of rebuilding fishery facing this scenario. RFA noted that the red snapper fishery will be
similarly impacted along with other southeastern and Gulf stocks as they run up against an
unnecessary brick wall in the near future if MSA is not revisited and fixed. That is why the RFA
is working diligently to build consensus among fishermen, the industry and members of
Congress to correct the obvious problems quickly.
Many fisheries under federal management are of great social and economic importance to
the recreational fishing community. That is why recreational fishing groups have pushed so hard
for stringent conservation measures when stocks proved to be seriously overfished. The pressure
we exerted drove management to begin the process of rebuilding and the result has been a
growing number of success stories in recent years. Yet, recreational fishermen have experienced
an unprecedented loss of access to some rebuilding stocks despite high levels of abundance. The
reason for such overly restrictive measures is wording contained in the 2006 reauthorization of
the MSA that was successfully championed by the environmental lobby, specifically provisions
that impose arbitrary deadlines to meet rebuilding targets. In some cases, the looming deadlines
are exacerbated by unrealistic targets that have little or no basis in science or reality, and that is
what is happening with summer flounder. Even though all the data clearly indicates stocks have
been rebuilt to historic levels and have possibly reached the carrying capacity of the ecosystem
in its current state, the rebuilding target is still well out of reach. When questioned, fishery
scientists are hard pressed to support the target they chose. As we move nearer the arbitrary
deadline the total allowable landings have continued to be reduced until they are approaching
levels that can no longer support a recreational season. Even if a total harvest moratorium was
imposed with the socio economic disruptions that would occur as a result, a suggestion made by
one environmental group spokesman, there is no guarantee that the target will ever be reached!
Similar scenarios are on the horizon for other species unless MSA is changed to permit a degree
of flexibility that should be included in any management plan, especially when you consider the
uncertainty associated with the management process.
One can understand the rational for reducing the flexibility managers had to set quotas in
fisheries that are in serious trouble, but the problems are becoming most evident with fisheries
that are responding well to management measures and increasing at a substantial rate. This was
something never envisioned by Congress and it must be addressed now before it is allowed to do
even greater economic harm. The current situation was never the intention of the MSA, nor the
diverse groups who worked so hard to rebuild damaged fisheries.
“Without flexibility in the statute, fishermen will continue to be held to unrealistic and
unachievable standards,” said Donofrio, “and recreational fishermen and the industry will be
regulated out of one fishery after another as they get close to achieving the positive outcomes the
FMP’s were designed to deliver. It just doesn’t make any sense to shut down well-regulated
fisheries that are growing at a rapid pace, but that is what the language in the MSA is forcing
managers to do because they have no flexibility to weigh the socio economic benefits of a
reasonably controlled fishery against a few extra years of rebuilding time or rebuilding targets
that are proving unattainable.”
“Fishermen know that it is patently unfair to place unrealistic objectives on them,
especially with so many uncertainties,” Donofrio stressed. “Scientists, managers, fishermen, and
members of the environmental community know full well the limitations of fisheries science and
the uncertainties in the marine environment. Fishing mortality it not the only thing impacting
rebuilding and there is a larger case to be made for the failure to protect and rebuild forage
species, which are so necessary to sustain the high level of biomass of predatory species we are
trying to achieve. It is my hope that interested parties can agree that the statutory regime cannot
dictate biologically impractical results and that common sense revisions need to be made soon,
before the full brunt of these missteps in Magnuson are felt.”
Fishermen and industry need to pull together to protect the sport while we continue to
work toward rebuilding fisheries using a balanced, common sense approach. To learn more about
this critical situation and other issues RFA is involved with go to
www.joinrfa.com. If you are
not a member, join today. Through unity there is strength.