Releases – August 18, 2016
NOAA Fisheries Southeast is pleased to announce the introduction of our Text Message Alert Program. The program will allow you to sign up to receive important fishery related alerts via text message (SMS).
Text alerts you may receive include: (1) immediate fishery openings and closures; (2) any significant changes to fishing regulations that happen quickly.
You can sign up for one or more of the following groups:
(1) South Atlantic Recreational Fisheries Related Alerts—Text SATLRECFISH to 888777.
(2) South Atlantic Commercial Fisheries Related Alerts—Text SATLCOMMFISH to 888777.
Standard message and data rates may apply. You may opt-out at any time
NOAA Fisheries recently published a final rule establishing regulations to integrate the collection of trade documentation within the International Trade Data System, and requiring electronic information through a single automated portal.
President Obama, by Executive Order in 2014–Streamlining the Export/Import Process for America’s Businesses–mandated the use of a single electronic system, the International Trade Data System (ITDS), to streamline transactions for the import and export of products regulated by any U.S. Federal Agency. The rule just published enables NOAA Fisheries to meet this mandate by streamlining and consolidating its procedures and trade documentation requirements for certain fishery products, establishing regulations which integrate the collection of trade documentation within ITDS, and requiring information be submitted through a single electronic portal.
By consolidating existing international trade permits under the Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR) Program and Highly Migratory Species International Trade Program (HMS ITP), and expanding the scope to include regulated seafood products under the Tuna Tracking Verification Program (TTVP), a single consolidated permit will also provide a more streamlined and cost-effective approach for collecting import and export documentation.
U.S. consumers can have even greater confidence that their seafood is legally caught as ITDS will allow NOAA Fisheries to better identify and stop shipments of illegally caught seafood more effectively. The ITDS is an important step in the longer-term implementation of a risk-based approach to seafood traceability.
NOAA Fisheries has scheduled public webinar meetings on August 18 and September 1, 2:30pm – 4:00pm Eastern, to further engage with interested stakeholders about this regulation and its implications. Details will be posted at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/.
In response to decades of criticism over not examining how the nation’s public marine fisheries resources are divided among fishing stakeholders, NOAA Fisheries released a Fisheries Allocation Review Policy that describes potential criteria for reviewing fisheries allocations. The recreational fishing and boating community expressed appreciation for this long-awaited recognition of the need to have an allocation policy, but also concern about the lack of firm commitments and timelines for initiating allocation reviews.
“We recognize and appreciate that allocation reviews are inherently difficult, but these decisions are too important for managers to continue dragging their feet,” said Mike Leonard, Ocean Resource Policy Director for the American Sportfishing Association. “While the Fisheries Allocation Review Policy represents an important acknowledgement from NOAA Fisheries of the long overdue need to address allocations, the amount of indecision in the policy leaves us questioning whether any meaningful action will result from it.”
In most federally managed fisheries that are targeted by both recreational and commercial fishermen, the formula used for dividing the quota between the two sectors was determined decades ago based on historic catch. Many in the recreational fishing community contend that these decisions need to be updated based on modern criteria that take into account the economic, social, and conservation benefits the sectors provide to the nation.
The Fisheries Allocation Review Policy provides guidance to the Regional Fishery Management Councils on when to revisit allocations and what factors they might consider when making allocation decisions. Within the next three years, or as soon as “practicable,” the Councils are responsible for determining what triggers would prompt a review of specific fishery allocations.
“In many ways, this policy tells us what we already knew: that allocation decisions are controversial and that federal fisheries managers will come up with all sorts of reasons to avoid having to review them,” said Ted Venker, Conservation Director for the Coastal Conservation Association. “While we appreciate that NOAA Fisheries took the initiative to develop this policy, it unfortunately provides a litany of excuses for why not to review allocations, with only minimal recognition of the potential benefits that reallocations could provide to the nation. This reinforces to us the need for legislative action to require legitimate allocation reviews.”
One of the recommendations of the Commission on Saltwater Recreational Fisheries Management, also known as the Morris-Deal Commission named after co-chairs Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, and Scott Deal, president of Maverick Boats, was to require an objective process and regular time intervals for reviewing allocations.
A provision to require allocation reviews in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico that was championed by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) was included in a bill that passed the House of Representatives last year to reauthorize the nation’s federal fisheries management law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Similar language was also included in Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) Florida Fisheries Improvement Act, which was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee last year. However, neither of these bills has been signed into law at this time.
“Based on the significant progress made in recent years in ending overfishing, often with harsh impacts on fishing stakeholders, it’s clear that federal fisheries managers can achieve certain goals when sufficiently motivated,” said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Coastal Conservation. “We are grateful that many in Congress have recognized the need to provide the necessary motivation on reviewing allocations, and we’ll continue to push for Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization to address this and other challenges for saltwater recreational fishing created by the current federal fisheries management system.”
North Carolina’s latest state record for scamp is also a pending world record catch.
Teddy Wingfield, a 9-year-old from Lookout Mountain, TN, reeled in the fish on June 2 while fishing in waters off of Atlantic Beach.
The scamp weighed in at 32 pounds, topping the former state record by nearly 5 pounds and the world record by 2 pounds, 6 ounces.
Wingfield has applied for the all-tackle world record title through the International Game Fish Association. The application is pending approval.
The former state record, a 27-pound, 1-ounce fish, was also caught off Atlantic Beach in 2012. The current all-tackle world record scamp is 29 pounds, 10 ounces and was caught off Dauphin Island, AL, in 2000.
Wingfield’s fish spanned 43 inches total length (tip of the nose to the tip of the tail) and measured 28 inches around the girth.
He caught the scamp using a Barefoot jig and 60-pound test line on a Penn Carnage jigging rod with a Canyon reel while fishing on the “Sunrise II” charter boat.
For more information, contact Carole Willis, with the North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Tournament, at (252) 808-8081 or carole.y.willis@ncdenr.gov.
