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RK McLean
Posts: 10 Greenhorn
Plea to the NMF
RK McLean
Posts: 10 Greenhorn
Please, please, please DO NOT SCHEDULE OUR OPEN RED SNAPPER SEASON, if we get one this year, on the Atlantic coast during the months of July and August. Anyone who has any experience fishing this coast knows this is the red snapper egg bearing season. Last year, during your ill conceived one day open season, most all the fish were full of roe. So, last year, in your endearing and "scientific" effort to save the "endangered" red snapper, you allowed us to keep one fish each and killed many hundreds of future fish. Nice piece of species protection science you guys! PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THIS ERROR AGAIN.
Replies
www.sportfishingthetreasurecoast.com
-Levi
Don't worry, they know what they are doing.
My posts are my opinion only.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Will Rogers
If they made the season in Sept/Oct, somebody would complain its the height of hurricane season. If they made it Jan/Feb, somebody would complain its too rough and cold. if they made it Apr/May, somebody would complain school is still in session. If they made it weekdays, someone would complain they only get off work on weekends. When they make it weekends only, people complain they don't have Sat/Sun off; their day off is mid-week.
I'll ask a serious question: What days are best?
It was my understanding that those head boats in the pilot program each received their own (vessel) quota for the season, (i.e. The double eagle had 997 individual Red Snapper). I think the reason they are still able to target them is that they have not yet met their quote. I could be wrong though.
Lagerhead Fishing Team
Team Cabo Loco
They are fishing under 2011 season numbers (in 2014?) with over double the fish they have been given - one boat was given 8,779 fish - enough to take his entire 80 person boat out 55 days and put them ALL on full limits of snapper - there weren't even 55 days in the 2011 season, much less considering weather days.
The system has been rigged to make IFQs look better than they really are.
The HB scheme quota is part of the total Rec quota and was supposed to be
closed when the rec quota was determined to be met. Perhaps the NMFS is
playing a game with the 20% buffer and while stopping all other recs from ARS
harvest allowing the HB game to continue. Not supposed to be that way, but then
again the HB's did not get their quota adjusted down in all reality as the rest of
the recreational anglers did.....despite them having their quota based on seasons used
in the AM reduction determination placed on all other anglers. Neither Fair or Equitable.
Funny, pot calling the kettle black.
The headboat EFP is just one example of how the enviros have hijacked (derailed) our fisheries management.
Seriously???????? What days are best for what?:shrug
Best days for catching genuines lately are any days with a Y in them. Best days for this forum are any days that you don't post propaganda.:grin
Agreed; a day with a Y is a good day to fish. But the original post said every Y day in Jun/Jul was bad because of spawning. Just pointing out that other opinions prevail as well and complain when Y days Oct/Nov are picked, or Y days in Jan/Feb are picked. Bottom line is you can't please everybody. Someone would complain if you said you can have a million if you show up at Mt. Rushmore on Thursday: "I can't be there til Friday; move the deadline".
So my question stands: When would be the best time to have a short, limited South Atlantic red snapper recreational season? Just want to see if someone here can provide an answer that isn't full of grist. And they don't have to be judged right/wrong; everyone has an opinion. Just curious as to what alternatives folks consider to be reasonable.
Oh that question:rolleyes
It has been answered for you here many times you just keep ignoring the answer.
The best time to have a short, limited South Atlantic red snapper recreational season would be right after all commercial harvest had been eliminated. As long as there are enough fish to warrant any commercial harvest there should be a year round 1 or 2 fish per day recreational season.
FIFY
Like I said, no answer is right or wrong. but I really had hoped for a reasoned response.
Why "Short" and Why "Limited"? The South Atlantic NEVER should have had ARS shut down to
start with as anyone familiar with the chain of events that took place leading to it. Perhaps the
real question should be what will it take for the NMFS to correct the wrong they committed. We
see ARS off east central Florida move in shallower during the traditional winter spawning closure
but then again mid summer during the thermoclines. With the Gulfstream waters however, we always
have ARS in fishable waters off our coast year round sometime 10 miles out, sometimes 20, and
in more recent years pretty much in all places between, including following bait pods at the surface
and along weedlines, which we seen many times. Our average tagged fish is 29" and since circle
hook mandated recaptures the same day are common.
So if were going to be realistic, Short and Limited is what we have now at 8 days, but what we are
seeing on the water represents so much more. I would say at least 1 (5) day work week and (1)
3 day weekend per month on non spawning season month's. 1 fish per person is fair with a 20" min.
Short fish are rarely caught here in deeper waters.
FIFY
I'd rather it was 8 days straight because I fish when I want and everyone else is relegated to the weekends and it'd be less crowded for me my buddies and my customers... but I maintain that three we ends in a row is fair even though it SHOULD BE LONGER and the OP might disagree with the timing at least until he went fishing with me to see how abundant they have become... they're like reef cockroaches.... 8 days won't hurt a thing....
www.sportfishingthetreasurecoast.com
-Levi
Again, Tom, I ask, what does your gulf 6 month season have to do with south atlantic red snapper season? You just looking to tag onto any thread you can to continue your rant? Have you even done the math for 200K lb per day X 180 days? Or even 100,000 lb per day (less willingness to pay)?
here is just another day in FL state waters after the end of the federal season:
http://forums.floridasportsman.com/showthread.php?158715-Stingwray-PC-6-13-14-Always-my-favorite-trip
do the math.
ACME...... thank you for the reasoned reply (you normally don't give me that). Maybe your offer of an option will stimulate more constructive comment by others that the SAFMC can use.
Although I humbly respect most everything ACME has to say, I don't think he means surrender to the IFQ frankenstein. Unlike the rest of your ilk he's trying to proffer a "reasonable man" solution to the Gordian knot our fisheries are in as a result of bureaucrats, probably smells like you, have put us.
I'm sure you're dreaming of unicorns, skittles, rainbows and the day sector separation is fully implemented in the rec sector. Dream on bubba man, dream on.
No bubba, why don't you and NMFS do the math. Most of us are still waiting on our telephone survey. Garbage in, garbage out.
Give us our 6 month season back and stop micromanaging.
again........ what does a gulf 6 month season have to do with south atlantic red snapper season? ACME answered to the question.
The rest of you are just using this thread to pound the pulpit.
Gotta remember that while I stated a VERY conservative idea for a YEAR Round season made
up of 8 days a month, it is important to know that the South Atlantic ARS fishery should never
have been closed to start with. Under current MS provisions, or at least NMFS interpretation
of them, the ARS will never be open, at least for decades under anything but the emergency
rules we see now.
This process is what is in need of complete overhaul or replacement, much like the GOM's
mismanagement process. We in the South Atlantic had Holly Binns of Pew sitting at every meeting
pleading to shut down not only ARS but all bottom fishing outside 98'. She almost got her
wish if it were not for a Federal lawsuit to be heard the day after the NMFS pulled back on the
complete bottom closure by "re-crunching" their numbers. Even now they are playing a game
with mortality numbers to give us a few days a season, but this apparently still ignores the
greatly reduced Circle Hook mandate drop in discard mortality.
So back to the real issue.......the South Atlantic ARS should NEVER have been closed to start
with. It was rebuilding under year round 2-20" fish per person with a 2 month spawning
closure. It was ONLY the application of MS wording and the 'Sliding of the Bar' definition wise
that rebuilding became reclassified as "Overfishing" and "Overfished" mandating widespread
closures. Nothing changed about the fishery health and rebuilding, only the political lobbying
and green infusion in the legal wording that EDF boasted about changing.
No rant here, just some South Atlantic facts about the last decade of ARS growth and then
closures. Now we have a basically closed ARS fishery that was already growing, exploding
with its complete protection, overrunning marine habitat and needlessly putting extra fishing
pressure on other less populated species as well. This is a very similar problem as what is
occurring in the GOM. A few have tried bringing up the privatization schemes on out East coast
but fortunately its a pretty unified from against such schemes. Our call to make reliable science
based data a mandate continues to be ignored and by the way opposed by groups like Pew and
EDF. Interesting is Florida's FWC East Coast ARS Tagging Program and the data it has yielded.
While the NMFS has access to that data, it seems like it to is ignored.
Maybe Red Snapper are deserving of Game Fish status so as to better protect and manage their
stocks while allowing recreational harvest to benefit the coastal communities with the tremendous
economic impact from such family level activation.
Right ACME, It is exactly what is happening in the Gulf, our red snapper fishery was being held down only by the shrimping industry, once Katrina cleared that slate the red snapper rebounded with a vengeance. The commercial industry and NMFS caused these problems and they are rewarded with a free allocation and a year round season. Now the shrimpers are coming back so we will probably get set back again, somehow getting blamed for all this while we can't even get a chance to go fishing. The NMFS claims they helped restore the red snapper when in fact they had nothing whatsoever to do with it, Katrina did it, the red snapper have always been there hiding behind the oil rigs where the NMFS doesn’t go to count fish.
It all goes back to some magical historical dreamed up red snapper population that existed before the recreational fishermen ever even went fishing off shore. If anyone should be stopped from fishing for these fish it should be the commercial fisherman.
My posts are my opinion only.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Will Rogers