Gulf Council's Panel on Recreational Catch Data

[jdubb247]

Greetings FS Forum Members,
My name is Jason and I've been selected to sit on the Gulf Council's Panel on Recreational Data Collection. I'm from Bay County (born/raised) and I've been fishing in the Gulf most of my life. Red Snapper is by far my favorite target. Like every other angler, I'm frustrated with what the feds are doing to recreational fishermen. Rather than sit back and become more and more cynical, I decided to get involved in the process. Like every other recreational angler, I have a full time job and a family that consume 99% of my time. I'm trying to get up to speed on the info surrounding this issue so I can hopefully make a decent contribution to this process. I've been keeping up with the news from the various recreational angler sites and organizations. I'll also spend more time reading the threads on this forum. Our first meeting is in May. I'd love to hear your ideas on the best way to solicit data from recreational fishermen. I understand there are cynics who will say that nothing we can do will help, etc, etc. However, I'm looking for honest, constructive ideas/opinions on what might help our case with the feds.

My initial thought/idea was a website that is similar to the FS fishing report forums that could be used to encourage recreational guys to provide catch data. I was excited to learn about angleraction.org as this was what I had in mind. I've also heard ideas about purchasing snapper tags. What are your thoughts?

I appreciate your feedback and ideas.

Thanks

[ANUMBER1]

Good luck sir.

[Long Gone]

Good for you man. Nice to see someone recreational getting involved. FYI- beware of getting into, or saying much here. FS forum participation is not something anyone at the GMFMC looks favorably upon. Some here have even been essentially black balled because of it.... This place is 100% positively monitored by management folks.

[Eggsuckindog]

I agree, read without much comment, security probably has pictures of most posters here no matter how knowledgable they are

[CaptBobBryant]

Greetings FS Forum Members,
My name is Jason and I've been selected to sit on the Gulf Council's Panel on Recreational Data Collection. I'm from Bay County (born/raised) and I've been fishing in the Gulf most of my life. Red Snapper is by far my favorite target. Like every other angler, I'm disgusted with what the feds are doing to recreational fishermen. Rather than sit back and become more and more cynical, I decided to get involved in the process. Like every other recreational angler, I have a full time job and a family that consume 99% of my time. I'm trying to get up to speed on the info surrounding this issue so I can hopefully make a decent contribution to this process. I've been keeping up with the news from the various recreational angler sites and organizations. I'll also spend more time reading the threads on this forum. Our first meeting is in May. I'd love to hear your ideas on the best way to solicit data from recreational fishermen. I understand there are cynics who will say that nothing we can do will help, etc, etc. However, I'm looking for honest, constructive ideas/opinions on what might help our case with the feds.

My initial thought/idea was a website that is similar to the FS fishing report forums that could be used to encourage recreational guys to provide catch data. I was excite to learn about angleraction.org as this was what I had in mind. I've also heard ideas about purchasing snapper tags. What are your thoughts?

I know the cynics will criticize most ideas, but what other options do we have? Obviously the data collection system the feds are using is broken. They are just guessing. For example - we all know the snapper fishery is healthy, yet every year our season gets shorter. I know it's tempting to throw our hands up and just give up the fight, but before I do I want to be able to say I tried my best to get involved in the process.

I appreciate your feedback and ideas.

Thanks

May I ask what are your credentials when it comes to the collections, classification, analysis, and reproting of data?
Do you beleive that MRIPS did anything at all to change the "fatally flawed" MRFSS collection?
Can you see that data is used as a weapon and not a tool?

Take this to the council....2.7 million anglers in this state are about ready to tell NMFS to go jump in a lake....

[Beck]

I am of the opinion that data collection is not the problem. There are countless ways to collect data. I think they just don't want any or they would be collecting it. How can it be that I don't know a single angler that has ever been surveyed?

I think the new iSnapper app that is being developed shows promise and could be used for rec. data collection too.

Best of luck!

[Capt Easy]

Tags might be the only way to get real numbers on rec fish. I know it would be a pain in the arse but the alternative is no fishing, which is what is happening most of the year now for the rec fishery.

Buy them for a small fee, refundable at the end of the year if not used.

It would be interesting to see what happens, All the tags bought up in 4 hours or fishing allowed for much more of the year than now.

I think that this would be opposed by some in the rec fishery because they don't want to know the real numbers. Right now they can claim millions of fisherman and if only 20 or so thousand actually bought tags they would have less meat in their argument to gain quota from the commercial sector.

[Tom Hilton]

jdubb,
It's obvious that you have not been involved long enough in this fight, as you WILL become cynical as time goes on due to the NMFS' "interpretation" of the law and the intent of Congress. They don't give a rat's butt about what you think, although placing you on this panel may give you the false impression that they do - it's part of the process to give the "appearance" of caring, but unless your input dovetails with their pre-determined outcome, it will NOT be considered.

You may want to contact Monty Weeks - he was/is on the Red Snapper Advisory Panel. He can give you some insight as to how the system really works.
mont@2coolfishing.com

Or, you may want to contact Dale Perkins;
News Release Labor Day, 2011 For Immediate Release Contact: Captain Dale Perkins 850-982-1930

GULF COUNCIL RED SNAPPER ADVISORY PANEL MEMBER RESIGNS; CALLS THE PROCESS “A CHARADE"

Pensacola, FL Citing emails from Steven Atran, Population Dynamics Statistician; Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council; Red Snapper Advisory Panel member Captain Dale Perkins resigned on Labor Day. “The whole process is a charade as evidenced by the fact that they schedule meetings to take out input and then go ahead and make decisions without even holding the meetings. I am not going to lend false legitimacy to this charade by allowing my name to be used on a so called committee that has no input. No matter what the data shows, it is always interpreted as a need to reduce Total Allowable Catch. If we are catching to few fish, they say to reduce the quota. If we catch too many, reduce the quota. The fish are too big, reduce the quota. The fish are too small, reduce the quota.” Perkins has unsuccessfully called for a congressional investigation of the fisheries management process in the past. Perkins resignation coincides with a Fox News Business Labor Day special report on Federal Regulatory Strangulation of fishing families.

Good luck,
Capt. Thomas J. Hilton

[Ron@.38 Special]

Take a look at MRIPs, some new ideas being floated there.

[surfman]

I am of the opinion that data collection is not the problem. There are countless ways to collect data. I think they just don't want any or they would be collecting it. How can it be that I don't know a single angler that has ever been surveyed?

I think the new iSnapper app that is being developed shows promise and could be used for rec. data collection too.

Best of luck!

I agree, one very simple cost free (almost) method would be to simply do what the USFWS is doing currently for ducks. Everyone must be on the federal registry, i.e. have a fishing license of some sort, when you buy the license you simply fill out the survey. Keep it simple and you should get very good results.