Steve Southerland with some common sense on Trigger fish

[bman]

Full Disclosure- Steve is a cousin. But cousin or not this article just makes sense.
B

Feds off target with triggerfish management
2012-06-22 17:34:16
By REP. STEVE SOUTHERLAND

WASHINGTON
Any Gulf Coast fisherman will be familiar with the gray triggerfish, a fish that is rarely targeted by commercial or recreational fishermen, but one that is prized for its delicious meat. In recent years, however, the gray triggerfish has become symptomatic of a fishery that is seriously out of balance.

Earlier this month, the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service shut down Florida’s gray triggerfish fishery due to a steady decline in landings. This marks the first gray triggerfish closure ever for the Gulf region.

Over the last two red snapper seasons, I have been bottom fishing a handful of times and did not catch a single triggerfish. As a lifelong angler, I remember — like any experienced fisherman would — a time when you were more likely to catch a triggerfish than a red snapper. Our fishermen understand better than anyone that there is more to this story than meets the eye.

Since the red snapper season was cut from six months to 65 days, and then cut again four more times until we were left with just a 40-day season, the landings of triggerfish have plummeted by more than half. NOAA’s Fisheries Service reflexively reasoned that fewer triggerfish landings must mean that people have overfished them. Fishermen are left scratching their heads wondering, “How can you overfish a non-targeted, incidental catch during five years of continuously shortened seasons?”

The average size of red snapper has more than doubled over the same period that the triggerfish landings dropped by more than half. Shortened seasons have resulted in larger and more plentiful red snapper. According to NOAA Fisheries, the gray triggerfish is being overfished by people, but the reality is they are being overeaten and overshadowed by red snapper, an extremely aggressive competitor among reef fish. Anyone who fishes outside of red snapper season knows that it is very difficult to get a baited hook past the snapper to catch any other fish on the reef.

Not only do our fishermen understand the problem, but so do some of our fisheries managers. During a recent Gulf Council meeting, Bob Shipp, a Gulf Council member and chairman of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of South Alabama, asserted that the overabundance of red snapper is having a serious impact on the gray triggerfish. Shipp explained, “The red snapper also feed on triggerfish egg masses, and they have become so dominant that they really are having a major impact on the ecosystem.”

To get to the root of the problem, you need to look no further than NOAA Fisheries, where the total allowable catch is issued for red snapper annually. By issuing a total catch that is based on whole fish weight, rather than number of fish caught, and relying on a recreational survey that has been deemed “fatally flawed” by the National Academy of Sciences, NOAA Fisheries has created a scenario that leads to fewer and fewer fish being caught.

In 2011, Gulf fishermen caught 813,000 fewer red snapper than we did in 2006 — not because of overfishing, but because the snapper are so much larger. Larger fish means that anglers are reaching the weight limit of their allowable catch with fewer heads of fish in the boat, while fishing businesses are forced to make a living on a 40-day season.

It has long been time for the federal government to institute common-sense reforms in fisheries management. The Gulf Council and NOAA Fisheries must begin setting and managing the recreational allowable catch limit by numbers of fish, based on the increasing average fish weight. Otherwise we will continue to catch fewer and fewer fish as they get larger and larger, and this imbalance causes damage to the other fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries has missed the bull’s-eye with its management of red snapper, but it won’t get any closer to the target by pulling the trigger on our triggerfish.

Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, represents Florida’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

http://www.newsherald.com/articles/trig ... -feds.html

[silverking]

Interviewed Rep. Southerland last year at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic. He was fishing the tournament with a congressman from Louisiana. He also has sponsored the Billfish Act in Congress that would ban the importation and sale of billfish. Definitely a friend to recreational anglers.

[Jumptrout51]

I voted for him. Glad to hear he is doing something I agree with.

[Good Times]

Steve is a good man.

[Dubble Trubble]

def.

common sense: 1: A trait that bureaucrats have not...