Red Snapper- Quota, Bag limit, and Regional Management

[GandyGirl]

Ahoy,
There are some very important red snapper issues being discussed by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery management Council.

First, Council is working on determining the 2013 quota for red snapper and is also considering reducing the recreational bag limit to 1 fish as a way to increase the number of fishing days. Please watch this video presentation and send us your comments on the issue before the end of January. http://youtu.be/dAlwPT9K-vo

Next week the Council is hosting a series of scoping workshops that deal with the idea of regional management or recreational red snapper. We will be traveling to a number of different cities across the Gulf asking for pubic input.
All meetings will begin at 6pm and finish no later than 9pm.

January 14, 2013

Doubletree by Hilton

4964 Constitution Avenue
Baton Rouge, LA 70808


Holiday Inn Express

2440 Gulf Freeway

Texas City, TX 77591

January 15, 2013
Hilton Garden Inn

6717 S. Padre Island Drive

Corpus Christi, TX 78412


Four Points by Sheraton

940 Beach Boulevard
Biloxi, MS 39530

January 16, 2013 

Hilton Garden Inn

23092 Perdido Beach Blvd.

Orange Beach, AL 36561

January 17, 2013 

Destin Community Center

101 Stahlman Avenue

Destin, FL 32541

January 22, 2013

Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park

950 Lake Carillon Drive

St. Petersburg, FL 33716

If you won’t be able to join us at the workshops you can still submit your comments. Follow this link to our ‘Scoping Documents & Proposed Amendments’ page and scrolling down to the section titled “Reef Fish Amendment 39 – Regional Management of Recreational Red Snapper.

http://www.gulfcouncil.org/fishery_m...ementation.php

(A short video explaining the possibility of red snapper regional management will be posted on the above link before the end of this week.)

Also, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have any questions about this stuff: Emily.Muehlstein@GulfCouncil.org

If you want to get more direct info on what the Council is doing ‘like’ at www.facebook.com/GulfCouncil

Your Chum,
Emily

[Mackeral Snatcher]

Emily, why is it that the scoping is done at Gulf Coast locations but the Assessment and Review workshops are done in Miami?
That's got me confused.

[GandyGirl]

Emily, why is it that the scoping is done at Gulf Coast locations but the Assessment and Review workshops are done in Miami?
That's got me confused.

The NOAA Science center is in Miami. I presume that is the SEDAR meetings are held there because it saves on travel cost.

[Bubba One]

The NOAA Science center is in Miami. I presume that is the SEDAR meetings are held there because it saves on travel cost.

The last grouper meeting not one council member bothered to show up.It was very insulting to those of us that showed up to speak our mind.I guess our time and opinions don't mean much to the council.Yet they can't figure out why we have very little respect for them.

Vance

[Mango Man]

The last grouper meeting not one council member bothered to show up.It was very insulting to those of us that showed up to speak our mind.I guess our time and opinions don't mean much to the council.Yet they can't figure out why we have very little respect for them.

Vance

Vance, are you referring to the meeting in St Pete Beach?

[Mackeral Snatcher]

The NOAA Science center is in Miami. I presume that is the SEDAR meetings are held there because it saves on travel cost.

Sorry Emily, I'm not buying that.

[Tom Hilton]

Personally, I do not see any added benefits of regionalization to the states, to the fisheries, or to the fisheries managers as presented thus far. It looks to simply be a mechanism to further punish states that refuse to relinquish their sovereign rights to manage their state waters as they see fit and as mandated by the 10th Amendment. That's all.

Perhaps the Council should first identify the number of private recreational vessels that fish for reef fish as they have already done with the charter-for-hire vessels before considering a regional management approach. Requiring a simple boat reef fish permit for private rec vessels would give a MUCH more detailed picture of effort than is currently available.

Once that has been done, then other measures such as hail-out/hail-in requirements would give another dimension of data in terms of how many boats are fishing out of what port on what day, how many fishermen are aboard those vessels, and how many fish they caught. The hail-out/hail-in data would be almost real-time, managed by an automated voice response system, would be extremely cheap to implement, and would provide laser-sharp data on a scale never seen before by this Gulf Council. This is the type of data that is needed BEFORE any type of regional management should be considered.

It is my opinion that regional management be scrapped at this time until other, more urgent matters are resolved, such as simply identifying how many fishermen are actually fishing offshore.

It is past time to get away from the virtual management techniques of computer modeling and projections, and begin the process of implementing 21st century technology to provide almost real-time, laser sharp data that can be held up to the light of day so that all fishermen could buy into the management process. This includes counting the red snapper found around artificial structures, which for some odd reason, have been systematically eliminated from assessments in the past. It will be interesting to see if they do this in the upcoming benchmark assessment but I'm not going to hold my breath on that.

Right now, I'm sorry to say that it is abundantly clear to most all Gulf fishermen that the data collection process is a sham and even considered ""obscene"" by high ranking GC members and scientists. THAT is what needs addressing immediately - concepts such as regionalization are simply distractions from the REAL issues at this time.

Capt. Thomas J. Hilton"

[CaptBobBryant]

Ahoy,
There are some very important red snapper issues being discussed by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery management Council.

First, Council is working on determining the 2013 quota for red snapper and is also considering reducing the recreational bag limit to 1 fish as a way to increase the number of fishing days. Please watch this video presentation and send us your comments on the issue before the end of January. http://youtu.be/dAlwPT9K-vo

Next week the Council is hosting a series of scoping workshops that deal with the idea of regional management or recreational red snapper. We will be traveling to a number of different cities across the Gulf asking for pubic input.
All meetings will begin at 6pm and finish no later than 9pm.

January 14, 2013

Doubletree by Hilton

4964 Constitution Avenue
Baton Rouge, LA 70808


Holiday Inn Express

2440 Gulf Freeway

Texas City, TX 77591

January 15, 2013
Hilton Garden Inn

6717 S. Padre Island Drive

Corpus Christi, TX 78412


Four Points by Sheraton

940 Beach Boulevard
Biloxi, MS 39530

January 16, 2013 

Hilton Garden Inn

23092 Perdido Beach Blvd.

Orange Beach, AL 36561

January 17, 2013 

Destin Community Center

101 Stahlman Avenue

Destin, FL 32541

January 22, 2013

Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park

950 Lake Carillon Drive

St. Petersburg, FL 33716

If you won’t be able to join us at the workshops you can still submit your comments. Follow this link to our ‘Scoping Documents & Proposed Amendments’ page and scrolling down to the section titled “Reef Fish Amendment 39 – Regional Management of Recreational Red Snapper.

http://www.gulfcouncil.org/fishery_m...ementation.php

(A short video explaining the possibility of red snapper regional management will be posted on the above link before the end of this week.)

Also, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have any questions about this stuff: Emily.Muehlstein@GulfCouncil.org

If you want to get more direct info on what the Council is doing ‘like’ at www.facebook.com/GulfCouncil

Your Chum,
Emily

Emily...please pass this along to the Council:

I will be advising every fishermen I know....and those I do not know to refuse to allow any fish (especially Red Snapper and GAG grouper) to be counted in a ramp survey.....if these fish came from an artificial reef or structure.

If NMFS would count these fish, then our TAC could increase by as much as 5 million pounds and our season could be 190 days.

So starting this week....we will be on an all out blitz to inform the fishing public to REFUSE any survey if the fish they caught came form artifical structure.....

[Eggsuckindog]

Dear Mr Hilton

I will bet that the primary drive for regionalization would be the then needed extra staff to support such moves. The need to organize and collate the data for each region and write reports to the full council.

I can even see some assistents for Emily, she couldn't possibly keep up

quick question that I also ask Emily on Capt Mels - for 30 yrs they tried to figure out ways to lower juvi RS bycatch in the shrimp industry, they must have tons of data as that was the only thing they studied on RS. How much bycatch was there really, I know they sent observers out there and counted them.

After Katrina and the much lower shrimp effort due to imports, what happened to all those little bycatch'es, without checking I would guess this also parallels the increase of RS in the gulf - checking commercial landings should make that easy.
Therefore I guess they were correct on that, question why isn't any of that in the biomass models - millions and millions of juvi fish now not harvested and its our fault we can catch some now.

My logic tells me, as twisted and bizarre as it maybe, that 1 spawning after 3/4 yrs of growth and not being killed in a net its more fish than we catch in 2yrs.
We didn't just suddenly find these secret and previously unknown giant Red Snapper holes all over the gulf.

[CaptBobBryant]

Dear Mr Hilton

I will bet that the primary drive for regionalization would be the then needed extra staff to support such moves. The need to organize and collate the data for each region and write reports to the full council.

I can even see some assistents for Emily, she couldn't possibly keep up

quick question that I also ask Emily on Capt Mels - for 30 yrs they tried to figure out ways to lower juvi RS bycatch in the shrimp industry, they must have tons of data as that was the only thing they studied on RS. How much bycatch was there really, I know they sent observers out there and counted them.

After Katrina and the much lower shrimp effort due to imports, what happened to all those little bycatch'es, without checking I would guess this also parallels the increase of RS in the gulf - checking commercial landings should make that easy.
Therefore I guess they were correct on that, question why isn't any of that in the biomass models - millions and millions of juvi fish now not harvested and its our fault we can catch some now.

My logic tells me, as twisted and bizarre as it maybe, that 1 spawning after 3/4 yrs of growth and not being killed in a net its more fish than we catch in 2yrs.
We didn't just suddenly find these secret and previously unknown giant Red Snapper holes all over the gulf.

Yes I have come to the realization that the only gola of SERO is to grow SERO and get Mr Crabtree more staff and power....
Look at all the crisis fish he manages....
I am sorry but if I mismanagement my business as badly as he does.....well nuff said.

As I look at the STUPID moves, lousy science and misuse of data...all any one can conclude is that Dr Roy wants to grow his piece of the pie and add more staf...

More staff and budget means power....from there it is just a hop to assitent Director if NMFS or maybe even Billy Hogwarts...old job....If Dr Roy ever gets to manage all of NMFS...we are all doomed.