Public Comment On Recreational Fisheries Reform Due April 22 - The Fisherman

Public Comment On Recreational Fisheries Reform Due April 22

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and its Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board has approved for public comment the Recreational Harvest Control Rule Draft Addenda to the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and Bluefish FMP. The states of Maine through Virginia have scheduled webinar hearings to gather public input on the Draft Addenda through April 13, with written comments accepted through April 22.

The Recreational Harvest Control Rule represents a series of changes to the management process currently used by ASMFC and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) when setting recreational management measures (bag, size, and season limits) for summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, and bluefish. These potential changes are intended to provide greater stability and predictability in recreational management measures from year to year while allowing for more consideration of stock status when setting the measures.

According to the American Sportfishing Association (ASA), there are a number of challenges in the way that recreational fishing is managed with regarding to fluke, sea bass, porgies and bluefish, including uncertainty in the recreational fishery data, the need to change measures often on an annual basis because of that data, and that recreational measures may not accurately reflect stock status. In an effort to address these challenges MAFMC and ASMFC jointly developed different management options for public comment.

Part of the ongoing problem with recreational fisheries management is with the random survey methodology used by NOAA Fisheries to tabulate recreational catches.  In a 2021 report to Congress, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Academy) documented low levels of trust among recreational stakeholders in some fisheries that are managed using rigid annual catch limits (ACL) and monitored by the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP).

The report cites “general lack of trust” which they said is likely based on “past experiences of poor outcomes (e.g. very short seasons); lack of affinity for federal management agencies (recreational stakeholders often profess greater affinity for state management agencies); and perceptions that federal management lacks transparency and effectiveness.”

The Academy report specifically pointed out the ongoing challenges with in-season management of some recreational fisheries.  “This study concluded that MRIP and the data collections conducted by its federal contractors and regional and state partners were not designed for the purposes of in-season management of recreational fisheries with ACLs,” while describing how adherence to the ACL mandate requires shortened recreational fishing seasons, therefore complicating data collection, monitoring, and management.  “Stability of regulations is frequently mentioned as a goal by stakeholders,” the Academy stated.

Prior to taking over as ASA’s Atlantic Fisheries Policy Director, Mike Waine spent 6 years working as fishery management plan coordinator and fishery management specialist at the ASMFC soon after getting a Master of Science degree from North Carolina State University.  Based on Waine’s experience from both the ASMFC and ASA perspective – recreational stability just makes sense.  “This is something that we’ve heard from the recreational fishing community through the public input process that exists in the fisheries management realm and it’s something that makes logical business sense,” Waine said, calling stability in management measures “beneficial not only for the recreational anglers on the water but also the businesses that support those anglers and the pursuit of fishing.”

“After learning from this process for 15 to 20 years, we have learned – and managers have learned – that relying on one year of MRIP harvest is a losing proposition, and the public has been saying it for a long time,” said Capt. Adam Nowalsky who has sat on both ASMFC and the MAFMC from the state of New Jersey.  Nowalsky and Waine have worked with others to help bring this Recreational Reform Initiative to the table in an effort to provide management stability while continuing to ensure the sustainability of key species like fluke, sea bass, porgies and bluefish.

“We are on the precipice of changing the way we do recreational management for the first time in two decades,” Nowalsky said at a September meeting of the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council.

So what does this all mean in terms of season, size and bag limits?  Regrettably, the council and commission leadership opted against providing examples of how regulations might look under various options.  “We encouraged managers to do scenario testing with the alternatives to demonstrate how the measures would be different under the alternatives,” Waine said explaining how this could’ve allowed recreational fishermen to better understand when changes would occur and what the magnitude of those changes would look like under each alternative.

“We thought knowing the expected outcome of the alternatives in terms of measures would allow further evaluation of the trade-offs of each approach,” Waine said, adding “the managers disagreed with us and believed if they provided measures anglers would just pick the alternative that resulted in the best outcome of measures.”

The outcome of this effort is unknown; it could prove risky to take a chance on any of these processes currently incorporated into management of fluke, sea bass and porgies.  But of course we know what happens and what we get with status quo.

Written comments will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on April 22 and should be sent to Dustin Colson Leaning, FMP Coordinator, at 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; 703-842-0740 (fax) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Harvest Control Rule).

Get full details at www.thefisherman.com/public-hearings-on-recreational-fisheries-reform-begin-on-march-16.

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