Coastal Conservation Association (CCA)

Casting Comments
The End of the Beginning

By Ted Venker
TIDE
May/June 2006

Driving through Cameron Parish to Calcasieu Lake for a day of fishing with Capt. Mary Poe of Big Lake Guide Service, a Winston Churchill quote came to mind, one that was designed to give people not just empty hope, but a realistic vision of the job left to be done. "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning," he said after a significant British victory in World War II.

The recovery of Louisiana after being smacked by two major hurricanes in less than 30 days is nowhere near complete in many places. In other places, there is remarkable progress. Overall, shattered lives and impractical promises of revival have merged into a realistic vision of the future.

Louisiana is at the end of the beginning.

While folks like Mary and Capt. Jeff Poe have carried on admirably (Faith in the Fish, pg. --), the road ahead for many coastal residents is less clear, particularly for those who made their living from the sea. Commercial fishing is a difficult occupation in the best of times. With the destruction of boats and seaside processing facilities, the industry is at a crossroads.

Prior to the storms, commercial fishermen faced soaring fuel costs, stiff competition from imports and suffocating overcapitalization. Here, at the end of the beginning, the debate now centers on what and how to rebuild. Does it make sense to rebuild a broken system, or is this the time to provide financial assistance to make the industry better for both the fish and the fishermen?

CCA Louisiana Executive Director Jeff Angers was invited to give testimony on the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources. The following is a summary of his remarks.

“Some in the Gulf want the federal government to restore the commercial and recreational industries to exactly the level they were in August before Katrina. That would mean restoring a commercial shrimp industry that was overcapitalized and only sustainable in circumstances where it has enormous negative impacts on other fisheries. Restoring a shrimp processing and harvesting sector that is being protected by dumping margins and direct subsidies of its own, including federal payments. Restoring a directed red snapper fishery that is overcapitalized and not sustainable at the present level of harvest, much less at the reduced rates being discussed by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

This is not a picture the federal or state governments should be remaking.

So how do we fix the problem of reducing these fleets? Recreational fishermen across the Gulf are willing to help. Having recreational fishermen pay to reduce the impact of commercial fishermen is not new to CCA. We are reducing the Texas inshore shrimp fleet through a $3 surcharge. We placed a $3 surcharge on saltwater recreational licenses here in Louisiana to compensate net fishermen for the loss of their nets and for retraining.

In each of these instances we saw a benefit and unlike so many, we were willing to stand up and pay for it.

The shrimp fleet is simply too large for the recreational sector to help on its own. For that, we need the assistance of the federal government. A fleet reduction program must be put in place that has two impacts. The first assists those vessel owners who do not want to reenter the fishery by offering them a way out: Retraining, relocation assistance if necessary and compensation for the loss of their livelihood. The second is a control on the remainder of the fleet that enhances its sustainability.

There is little doubt that Katrina and Rita produced a huge impact on the users of our marine resources here in the Gulf. The aftermath of that impact will be felt for many years to come. Congress has a chance to guide it in a direction that alleviates much of the stress on the resource and results in sustainable fisheries.”

What happens next is likely to be the determining factor in the health and sustainability of Gulf marine resources for decades to come. If we make the right decisions today, we will be able to look back and realize that we were standing at the beginning of a new age of conservation in the Gulf of Mexico.