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June 2010
 
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Conservationists prepared for oil spill response
CCA Gulf State chapters standing by to lend assistance in cleanup
efforts
In response to the tragic rig
explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Coastal
Conservation Association chapters along the Gulf Coast have offered
assistance to state agencies as they enact plans for clean-up
efforts.
“Our chapters have been in contact
with the appropriate fish and game management agencies in each state
and have notified their local membership that they may be needed in
the coming weeks and months to do some heavy lifting to protect and
restore our coastal environment,” said Pat Murray, CCA president.
“The concern from our membership has been overwhelming. I’m
confident when and if we are asked to assist, we will have no
shortage of volunteers ready and willing to do whatever they can to
help.”
A massive clean-up effort is already
underway in the Gulf of Mexico even as more oil is leaking from the
well where a devastating explosion and fire sank the Deepwater
Horizon rig 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana almost two weeks
ago.
“Anglers know better than almost
anyone of both the value and fragile nature of coastal wetlands, and
our members are dedicated to the health of our shared coastal marine
resources,” said David Cresson, executive director of CCA Louisiana.
“This is a serious situation that poses a real threat to our
fisheries and we stand ready to do anything we can to protect our
coastal resources.”
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How Can You Help?
 Contact
your state
CCA chapter
and confirm that
you are ready and willing to assist in any organized clean-up
efforts when called upon. Make sure your contact information
is up-to-date.
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CCA Invited to Testify on Oil Spill before House Subcommittee
David Cresson,
executive director of CCA Louisiana, testified before the House
Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife of the
Committee this week on the short and long term impacts of the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Cresson’s comments ranged from the
economic impacts of the spill to the irreparable damage being
done to the lives of coastal residents all along the Gulf Coast
who depend on recreational angling.
“There have not been many
challenges in the past 25 years that the members of CCA have not
met head on, with their eyes clearly on the horizon. What I see
now is a remarkably committed group of people who, for the
moment at least, simply don’t know where to even begin,” Cresson
said. “However, I have no doubt that we will find a way to
reverse this disaster. I am confident that these darkest of days
will be beaten back by the people of Louisiana and the other
Gulf States through the same types of
projects that
have defined CCA since the beginning. We will rebuild reef by
reef, acre by acre, fish by fish. When the leak is plugged and
the last camera is turned off, when the rest of the world is no
longer focused on the Gulf of Mexico, we will still be here, as
we always have been, ready to do what needs to be done.”
Cresson was
one of a handful of Gulf residents invited to testify before the
Subcommittee. For a complete copy of his written remarks, click
HERE.
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Building
Conservation:
CCA's Commitment to Marine
Habitat
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 CCA
Texas San
Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B jumped in to support Texas
marine conservation this week with a $5,000 contribution to the
CCA Texas Habitat Today for Fish Tomorrow program (HTFT). The CCA
Texas habitat initiative was launched in 2009 and has already set
in motion a number of projects important to Texas recreational
anglers, including construction of offshore artificial reefs and
marsh restoration programs.
"We were very excited that our
Austin chapter forged this relationship with H-E-B and are honored
to have them as a partner in our efforts to enhance Texas’ marine
habitat,” said Robby Byers, CCA Texas executive director.
“Enhancing habitat is all about putting projects in the water
where they will do the most good. The dollars that H-E-B has
donated to our habitat program will help us create and
restore more areas in our coastal waters that are essential
for fish habitat. This is a great example of how companies like
H-E-B can make a difference.”
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CCA South
Carolina
As part of its commitment to
improving both coastal habitat and saltwater recreational angling
opportunities, Coastal Conservation Association South Carolina has
announced it will provide $5,400 in for the continued operation of
the water monitoring station at the end of Apache Pier in Horry
County this summer. “CCA South Carolina could not be more pleased
to be working with scientists on a research project that provides
such critical information,” said Michael Smith, CCA South Carolina
state chairman. “This project is another example of CCA’s members
and volunteers continued commitment to science-based fisheries
management as well as the recreational angling community.”
In 2004, unusually large catches of flounder in the waters off the
Myrtle Beach area, often called Long Bay, were determined to have
been caused by a hypoxic, or low-oxygen, zone in the water that
drove fish toward the shoreline. The monitoring station provides
the tools to review oxygen levels, water temperatures, salinity
levels, and other environmental conditions along the coast, giving
scientists a much better opportunity to identify the conditions
that cause such events.
****
 CCA
Mississippi
A joint effort to build a new reef
off Mississippi’s coast from the remains of a jailhouse destroyed
by Hurricane Katrina is nearing completion. The Department of
Marine Resources, U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor’s office,
Coastal Conservation Association
Mississippi and Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks joined
forces to build a new fishing reef in 8 feet of water, close to
Buccaneer and Bayou Caddy. Jailhouse Reef will consist of three
legs built in a half-moon shape. Spaces 10 to 15 feet wide are
being placed between the legs, to facilitate water flow. “With the
looming environmental impacts of an oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico, creating habitat with projects like this has never been
more important,” said Pat Murray, president of CCA.
The structure is being built of old concrete being donated by
various sources, including the cities of Bay St. Louis and
Waveland and Hancock County. Jailhouse Reef is so-named because
its primary source of concrete comes from the former Hancock
County Jail in Old Town in Bay St. Louis. The jail was ruined by
high water and winds from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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CCA Texas
The CCA Texas State
Board recently approved $20,000 for the Galveston Bay Foundation’s
(GBF) Snake Island Cove Habitat Restoration and Seagrass
Protection Project. The funds will be used in Phase II of the
project and will add close to 1,000 more linear feet of geotextile
tube breakwater to the already 4,100 linear feet already placed in
the cove. This is yet another project being undertaken by the CCA
Texas Habitat Today for Fish Tomorrow (HTFT) program. “The loss of
habitat in the Galveston Bay System has been dramatic over the
years,” said CCA Texas Executive Director Robby Byers. “Areas that
were once occupied by flourishing seagrass beds are now barren,
sandy bottoms. CCA Texas is proud to partner with the Galveston
Bay Foundation to help bring back a small, but significant area of
seagrasses through this project.”
****
CCA Georgia A coalition of angler-supported
conservation groups, including Coastal Conservation Association
Georgia, Georgia Wildlife Federation and Trout Unlimited, is
calling on Georgia’s fishermen to ensure the future of one of
their favorite catches – the spotted seatrout. Dubbed Operation
ROE (Release Over Eighteen), the groups are asking their
members and the angling public to voluntarily release spotted
seatrout over 18 inches long so that more larger fish have a
chance to participate in the 2010 spawning season. State
biologists and many anglers are concerned that persistently low
temperatures this winter caused widespread kills of spotted
seatrout. “Water temperatures below 44 degrees Fahrenheit can be
lethal to spotted seatrout, and even if the fish aren’t killed
immediately the stress from such extreme temperatures often leads
to death later,” explains Spud Woodward, veteran fisheries
biologist and director of the Coastal Resources Division of the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
“The voluntary release of larger trout is a great way for the
average angler to directly participate in conservation while
helping to ensure there’ll be more fish to catch in 2011 and
following years. We hope all coastal anglers will support
Operation ROE,” said Harry Lowe, state chairman of CCA Georgia.
****
 CCA
Washington
The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (“NSEA”)
a community based nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring
sustainable wild salmon runs in Whatcom County celebrated their
20th anniversary in March 2010 and kicked off the year with one of
several work parties on March 13th. Members of the North Sound
Chapter thought this was a perfect opportunity to help celebrate
their anniversary and give back to restoring habitat on Bell Creek
off the Nooksack River. Volunteers including 11 year old Tessa
spent the morning in conjunction with NSEA, the Whatcom Land Trust
and other local volunteers clearing Japanese Knot Weed,
blackberries, and planting native trees and shrubs along the creek
bed. Delighted by cooperating sunshine, the CCA members and other
volunteers had a tremendous impact in restoring habitat for wild
salmon and steelhead on the Nooksack River.
****
CCA New Hampshire A busy
winter and spring concluded with a coastal cleanup. CCA NH
continues to collaborate with the Blue Ocean Society of
Portsmouth, which organized the event along the entire coast. The
Home Depot of Portsmouth supports CCA NH with volunteers for the
effort and several hundred pounds of trash were picked up in just
a couple of hours. The effort has become a biennial event and will
probably expand to include a fall kayak cleanup of islands in
Little Harbour and Great Bay.
For a complete listing of CCA
habitat projects, click
HERE.
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ASMFC finally cuts bait
At its
May meeting, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC)
directed its Menhaden Technical Committee to develop new options for
managing menhaden more like a critical forage species than a fish to
be industrially harvested. A move that many East Coast anglers would
say is long past due.
“Only in Bizarro World can a stock
reach the lowest point in its recorded history and the reference
points used to manage that stock still indicate that a
All is well and it is not overfished
nor is overfishing occurring,” said Richen Brame, CCA Atlantic
States Fisheries director. “When the reference points you are using
allow the stock to decline continuously since 1984 from an estimated
186 billion fish to 18 billion and no management action is
contemplated, much less triggered, then you need a different set of
reference points, and that’s what the ASMFC has directed the
Technical Committee to do.”
Much of the debate over menhaden
centers over its industrial harvest in Chesapeake Bay, not only the
primary spawning ground on the East Coast for prized gamefish like
striped bass and bluefish, but also where about half the entire
coastal harvest of menhaden for reduction occurs. Historically, the
ASMFC has managed menhaden for yield to satisfy its role as an
industrial fish rather than for abundance. CCA has long argued that
menhaden’s critical role as a forage species for apex predators
meant that every single menhaden has importance as a prey item for
other fish that are greatly valued by anglers.
“This is a forage species and its
abundance is extremely important, not only to maintain the
population but also to serve as food for everything else,” said
Kevin Smith, president of CCA Virginia. “For the main prey item in
the Chesapeake Bay to be at its lowest level ever is a potential
catastrophe for the gamefish that depend on them. All the signs
indicate that something is clearly wrong and managers should have
acted before now, but we are relieved to see them finally moving in
this direction.”
The status of menhaden has taken on
more significance with the prevalence of Mycobacteriosis
infections among striped bass in Chesapeake Bay. The first reports
of Mycobacterium-infected striped bass in the Chesapeake
date back to 1984 and today more than 70 percent of bass display
Myco lesions. There is growing evidence that a lack of suitable
forage, especially menhaden, has stressed the fish and made them
particularly vulnerable to the fatal disease.
“The stock has been declining for over
25 years and we still allow thousands of metric tons to be harvested
every year,” said Scott McGuire, chairman of the CCA Maryland
Government Relations Committee. “Managers have to realize we can’t
continue to manage menhaden as we have in the past, and expect
different results. It is long overdue, but we applaud the ASMFC for
beginning this process.”
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ASMFC Continues
Effort to
Increase Commercial Bass Harvest
Anglers will soon have an
opportunity to comment on an attempt to increase the coastal
commercial harvest of striped bass by 20 to 50 percent after the
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Striped Bass
Management Board voted this week to send the proposal out for public
hearing.
Conservationists were stunned when the Board
directed staff in February to draft the proposal,
choosing to ignore a litany of significant concerns from scientists
and enforcement officers about the health of the striped bass
population.
“This is the wrong message at the
wrong time for striped bass, but it is not surprising,” said Charles
Witek, chairman of CCA’s Atlantic Fisheries Committee. “When
recently faced with similar situations involving weakfish and the
southern New England stock of winter flounder, both very badly
depleted and both faced with apparent increases in natural
mortality, ASMFC ignored clear scientific advice and voted to
maintain harvest at unsustainable levels. Our greatest conservation
challenge may be simply convincing managers at ASMFC to do their
jobs.”
Unlike the 1970s when rampant
overfishing was the primary cause of the stock collapse, the current
wide variety of factors that are negatively impacting striped bass
will be much more difficult to address.
CCA will deliver testimony in
opposition to this proposal during the upcoming public hearings. For
a list of public hearing times and locations, click
HERE, and check
the
Atlantic Coast page of the CCA
Newsroom for a copy of the testimony when it is posted next week. |
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CCA Position on Amendment 17A to the SAFMC Snapper Grouper Fishery
Management Plan
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Meeting
Orlando, Florida
June 7-11, 2010
At this point, CCA does not support the adoption of any of the
proposed bottom closures in Amendment 17A. We do not believe it is
reasonable to support any of the alternatives currently before this
Council until the results of the assessment currently underway have
been released and are fully analyzed. CCA has long called for
additional review of the science before making any additional
management changes for this fishery, and we commend the Council and
NOAA Fisheries for the decision to conduct another full, benchmark
assessment for South Atlantic red snapper. Re-examining the entire assessment, from the data used to a
new review panel, provides a public forum for all concerns to be
openly addressed. We believe this further review is necessary
before any final action is taken.
We would like to draw
special attention to the mention of the need for fishery independent
surveys in this fishery. CCA views fishery independent data as
critical to the establishment of a better assessment process that is
not solely dependent on recreational and commercial catch for data.
Many of the questions that were raised with the previous stock
assessment would have been avoided through the use of fishery
independent data. We encourage the adoption of such survey methods
as quickly as possible.
CCA is fully aware of the tenets of the Magnuson Act that are
forcing this issue, and while we fully support ending overfishing to
restore abundance, we do not believe that closing huge areas of the
ocean to all recreational fishing was what Congress had in mind when
it reauthorized the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 2006.
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
press release:
Council Approves Measures to End Overfishing
of Red Snapper
June 9, 2010 |
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Look for the
July/August issue of TIDE magazine.
 The Shrinking Gulf
of Mexico – By Dr. Larry
McKinney
Bonefish and Tarpon Puzzle –
By Aaron Adams
The Eye of an Innovator
– By Patrick Murray
Buoy 10 Bonanza
– By Dave Schamp
Flying into the Teeth of a Storm –
By Brandon Schuler
South Texas Monsters
– By
John N. Felsher
Playing Long Ball on Long
Island – By
Angelo Peluso
Fin-Addicts
– By Del Stephens
CASTING
COMMENTS - Battered Champ Needs a Helping Hand |
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Coastal Conservation
Association
6919 Portwest, Suite 100
Houston, Texas 77024
www.JoinCCA.org
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