CCA Hails
Breakthrough on Catch Share Management
Coastal Conservation Association applauds the U.S. Congress for
recognizing the need to address impacts to recreational angling as a
result of the U.S. Catch Share Policy. Language inserted into the
Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill currently awaiting
President Obama’s signature directs the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) to provide a report within 90 days of the bill’s enactment on the
effect of catch share program management to recreational fishing.
“It is reassuring to know that members of
Congress understand the significance of recreational angling and are
concerned about policies that may have a negative impact on it,” said
Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee.
“NMFS is so mired in its commercial fishing past and present that it
cannot seem to even consider a future with a robust recreational fishery.
With the language in this bill, Congress instructs the agency to pay
attention to what their policies are doing to
recreational fishermen.”
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Fish Trap Proposal Turns Back the Clock on Conservation
An unusual alliance of environmental groups and commercial
longliners is exploring the use of controversial fish traps in the Gulf of
Mexico Reef Fish Fishery, leaving long-time participants in federal
fishery management issues surprised at the re-emergence of the highly
destructive gear. Fish traps were banned by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Management Council in 1996, but were not fully phased out of the Gulf
until 2006.
“There are
so many things we should be working on for the conservation of our marine
resources, yet here we are with another attempt by the environmental
community to keep commercial fishing operations in business at all costs,”
said Pat Murray, president. “It is just baffling that fish traps are back
in the discussion, especially when some of these same environmental groups
are pushing to give away permanent harvesting rights to the commercial
fishing industry through catch share programs. It is difficult to
comprehend the ultimate goal of these efforts.”
See Full Press Release
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Building
Conservation:
CCA's Commitment to Marine
Habitat
The Building Conservation Program
was created to provide funding for local, state and national marine
fisheries and habitat conservation and restoration projects. Program
funds are directed to CCA state chapters for grassroots-driven
projects.
Building
Conservation Program funds are combined with local CCA chapter network
volunteer efforts to identify and organize conservation projects,
engaging local communities to work together for marine conservation.
We have added a page in the CCA Newsroom called
Building Conservation that will
contain updates on the habitat projects underway in the state
chapters, including:
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CCA Helps Launch Ballot Initiative to Recover
Oregon’s Iconic Salmon Runs
PORTLAND – Coastal Conservation Association is launching a ballot
initiative to help save the last remnants of Oregon’s iconic wild
salmon runs, and to create a sustainable
salmon fishery for current and future generations. The Protect Our
Salmon Act would ban the use of gill nets and tangle nets in Oregon
waters, including the Columbia River. The Act calls
for the use of commercial
fishing practices that selectively harvest returning hatchery fish,
while protecting endangered wild salmon, steelhead and other species.
“Oregon’s failure to protect and enhance our wild salmon runs
threatens the state’s credibility as a leader in sustainability,” said
David Schamp, Chairman of Coastal Conservation Association’s Oregon
Board of directors and a chief petitioner of the initiative. “Each
year taxpayers, electric utility rate payers and others collectively
contribute about $1 billion to recovery efforts, yet wild salmon, an
important natural and economic resource for our state, remain on the
brink of extinction.”
While habitat,
hydro and hatchery improvements are important to salmon recovery
efforts, a key issue has been overlooked: the method of harvest.
Currently, the commercial fishing gear used in the Columbia River
(gill nets and tangle nets) is non-selective and kills large numbers
of ESA-listed and wild salmon and steelhead. Gill nets are designed to
“gill” fish snared in the nets, leading to injury, suffocation and
death before unharmed release is possible. Nearly all marine life that
gets caught in a gill net dies, from salmon and steelhead to seals and
seabirds. Oregon is one of the few places in the country to still
allow gill nets, a method clearly at odds with the state’s
long-standing commitment to sustainable practices.
To minimize any economic impact to commercial fishermen who currently
use gill nets or tangle nets, the Act establishes a fund (and
appropriate oversight) to compensate commercial fishermen for the
transition to alternative, selective gear.
The Act does not affect any tribal fishing rights, or the right to use
any fishing gear allowed under tribal fishing rights in the waters of
the state of Oregon established by laws, treaty or otherwise.
CCA members will immediately begin to gather signatures to place this
issue on the ballot in November of 2010.
“Banning the use of gill nets and tangle nets and using selective gear
that allows for the release of wild fish is an effective, achievable
way to create a sustainable commercial and recreational fishery for
the citizens of Oregon,” said Schamp. “It provides a greater return on
the investment that taxpayers have contributed to salmon recovery, and
is consistent with Oregon’s commitment to the responsible and
sustainable use of the state’s natural resources.”
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Coastal Conservation
Association Comments on
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Consideration
of a CITES Listing for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna
Following the
management decisions made at the November 2009 meeting of the
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in
Recife, Brazil, the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) remains firm in
its call for the United States to take a leadership role and insist that
all international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna be halted, while hope for
a recovery still remains.
Management measures
adopted by the member countries of ICCAT at its latest meeting fall far
short of the commitment
needed to ensure a future for this valuable species, despite a growing
international realization that time is growing short to end the
overexploitation of bluefin tuna.
ICCAT’s own Standing
Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) issued guidance warning that
adoption of a harvest limit of 8,500 tons in 2010 would result in a 70
percent chance that the spawning stock biomass for bluefin tuna would
still be less than 15 percent in 2019 Nonetheless, the member countries of
ICCAT adopted a 2010 harvest limit of 13,500 tons. Furthermore, the SCRS
called for a closure of the Mediterranean during spawning season which was
also rejected.
These latest
decisions continue ICCAT’s well-documented history of ineffective
half-measures regarding the international management of Atlantic bluefin
tuna and underscore the need to have both the eastern and western stocks
of Atlantic bluefin listed on Appendix I to the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Given the ICCAT track
record, the “promise” to adopt measures next year that will have at least
a 60 percent probability of moving the spawning stock above the low 15
percent level seems empty. Also, efforts by European nations to eliminate
the illegal fishing on the species that caused the liberal 2008 quota to
be exceeded by more than 50 percent have yet to show success.
In our previous
correspondence, CCA asked that, should ICCAT fail to adopt biologically
defensible management measures, the Department of Interior proceed with an
effort to list the Atlantic bluefin on Appendix 1 to the CITES, thus
prohibiting the international trade in bluefin and extinguishing the
greatest motivation to overfish the species It is clear from the last
meeting of ICCAT that its management efforts have again failed the United
States, the world and the bluefin tuna. There is no longer any reason to
expect ICCAT to end the overexploitation of bluefin.
American fishermen
and markets are not responsible for driving bluefin tuna to the edge of
extinction, but this country needs to lead the solution to salvage what is
left and set it on a road to recovery. Under an Appendix 1 listing,
American commercial fishermen will be allowed to market bluefin
domestically and anglers will be able to continue fishing within the
proscribed quotas and bag limits. We encourage the Department of Interior
to proceed with the necessary course of action to list the Atlantic
bluefin on Appendix I to CITES and prohibit the international trade in
bluefin. |
