Brame is a member of the Operations Team for the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) developing the nuts and bolts of the new data gathering program. He is also the liaison between the Operations Team and the Registry Team that is defining what the angler registry must encompass and what the states must do to comply with it.

     Brame holds BS and MS degrees in Fisheries and Wildlife Science from North Carolina State University and worked for several conservation groups before coming to CCA. He served as the first executive director for CCA in North Carolina, from 1989 to 2000 and achieved notable fisheries management goals including passage of the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997. Under his watch CCA NC also successfully banned the use of fly-net trawls in the Atlantic to conserve dwindling gray trout stocks, banned shrimp trawling on weekends in inside waters, and outlawed the use of gill nets in a dozen high-use recreational fishing areas.

American Sportfishing Association
B.A.S.S., LLC
Center for Coastal Conservation
Coastal Conservation Association
Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation
International Game Fish Association
National Marine Manufacturers Association
The Billfish Foundation

Recreational angling community comments on the General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for Biscayne National Park - Oct. 31, 2011
The above organizations are pleased to submit the following formal comments on the draft General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (GMP) for Biscayne National Park (BNP). Our organizations represent the overwhelming majority of recreational boating and angling interests in the United States, collectively a $200+ billion industry. We have been closely following the development of the GMP and the Fisheries Management Plan, which will greatly affect anglers and recreational-fishing dependent businesses in the area and have implications for the broader sportfishing community at large.

CCA urges common sense remedies for black sea bass - Oct. 12, 2011
In a letter to South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Chairman David Cupka, Coastal Conservation Association is urging the Council to take common-sense steps to remedy an unnecessarily restrictive rebuilding plan for black sea bass. The pending closure on black sea bass, proposed for October to June, compounds an already difficult offshore angling environment already reeling from closures on red snapper, groupers and vermillion snapper.
“We are left with very little for bottom fishermen to pursue in the south Atlantic, especially during the winter,” said Bill Bird, chairman of CCA’s South Atlantic Fisheries Committee. “Bottom-fishing trips have been a staple for recreational fishermen and these closures are cascading at a time when coastal communities have fewer tourists and are already reeling from the troubled economy.”

CCA Comments on Amendment 18 to the Coastal Migratory Pelagic Fishery Management Plan for the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic -
April 12, 2011

South Atlantic Council Votes Down Catch Shares - March 11, 2011
Recreational anglers are applauding the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s decision today to “terminate all work relative to catch share development in Amendment 21,” the Comprehensive Catch Share Amendment. In a motion by Council member George Geiger of Florida, the Snapper Grouper Committee yesterday voted to remove catch shares from Amendment 21, setting up today’s action by the full Council. The decision is good news for recreational anglers who have been fighting the concept of catch shares as a one-size-fits-all solution to fishery management problems.

Anglers Share Some Good News on Catch Shares

CCA calls on South Atlantic Council to manage for the future - March 4, 2011

As part of its ongoing effort to encourage the federal fisheries management system to overhaul the way it views the nation’s marine resources, Coastal Conservation Association is urging the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to break with the failed policies of the past and chart new management plans for a series of important recreational fisheries.

In recent months, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission have all opted to explore reallocation of fisheries using forward-looking criteria rather than outdated catch histories. The South Atlantic Council is noticeably absent from that list.

Click HERE for an economic snapshot of South Atlantic red snapper

Fishing for Irony - Feb. 7, 2011
They say that fishing is the world’s second oldest occupation, so it is likely there have been more ironic events in its long, storied history, but the recent letter from Massachusetts’s Governor Deval Patrick to President Obama must rank near the top of the list.
For those of you who missed it, Gov. Patrick expressed his “extraordinary frustration” with the lack of responsiveness the Commonwealth has experienced with the U.S. Department of Commerce and its agencies on the challenges facing commercial fishermen in Massachusetts. The Governor is upset with the severe regulations that have been placed on his hard-working commercial fishing community and the effect it is having on the state’s economy.

NOAA Fisheries Set to Close Another Vital Fishery - Jan. 25, 2011
Federal fisheries managers are set to close another popular recreational fishery in the South Atlantic in the latest example of how chronic lapses in science and data-collection are wreaking havoc on the recreational angling sector. Less than two months after narrowly avoiding a massive closure of all bottom fishing in the South Atlantic to recover red snapper, federal managers have announced that black sea bass are set to become off-limits from February to June due to circumstances that sound frustratingly familiar to anglers.

Click HERE for CCA's Testimony for the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council January/February 2011 Public Hearing and Scoping Meeting Series on the Comprehensive ACL Amendment, the Comprehensive Catch Share Amendment, Snapper-Grouper Amendment 22 and Snapper Grouper Amendment 24 - January 21, 2011
It must be pointed out that this comment process is seriously flawed given the sheer breadth and complexity of the issues that have been presented simultaneously here. This process, which involves hundreds of pages of documents on these issues, is not conducive to allowing stakeholders to develop informed decisions on the dozens of management options presented here, options that could have serious implications on the public’s ability to access these public resources in the future. As presented here today, this process threatens to damage any faith that the recreational angling community may have that the Council is sincere in its efforts to gather and utilize meaningful input from us.