Releases June 10, 2010
American Sportfishing Association has submitted comments on the National Park Service’s (NPS) Draft Cape Hatteras National Seashore Off-Road Vehicle Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) stressing the industry’s serious concerns with the NPS preferred alternative which is the most restrictive management option to date.
The statement evaluates the impacts of several alternatives for regulations and procedures that would manage the park’s wildlife and regulate access to the park. Because of the highly unbalanced nature of the preferred alternative and that important socio-economic information is missing or incomplete, ASA urged the NPS to make significant changes to the preferred alternative in order to provide for both reasonable resource protection and reasonable public access to public lands.
The comment period on the DEIS ended on May 11. The park will next review comments, make revisions to the DEIS and release a final Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement by the end of 2010.
Independent tackle dealers and representatives from Big Rock Sports met with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) representatives and members from Louisiana’s CCA and the U.S. Center for Coastal Conservation to show first hand the devastating impact the Gulf Oil Spill has had on their businesses and their communities. These coastal tackle dealers are just a few of the 2,300 fishing and shooting sports dealers that Big Rock Sports services in the five states gulf coast region. Over 700 have already been severely impacted economically by this disaster.
Ed Small, President and CEO of Big Rock Sports, voiced his concern for the future of these retailers, “Although we are optimistic the current ‘top kill’ method and cement seal can work, the devastating impact this disaster has already had on our dealers’ business is huge. One dealer told me last May that he purchased $36,000 in fishing tackle from Big Rock Sports and this May to date, his total purchases are just $650.”
He, along with thousands of other Americans running their own businesses in the gulf, are in dire financial conditions if BP and the federal government do not get funds allocated to keep these businesses open.
Traditionally on Memorial Day holiday dealers would have their best sales weekend of the year—but not this year. Many dealers now report they only have 3-4 weeks before they may be forced to close their doors permanently—through no fault of their own. From Big Rock Sports’ perspective, it has already cost millions of dollars in lost sales, with little hope this will be rectified anytime soon.
To give further first hand knowledge of the impact this disaster has had on the lives of people working for local tackle shops, life long Louisiana resident, and area sales manager for Big Rock Sports, Ronnie Cheramie states, “I have been in the business for 24 years and have never seen anything so bad as this. I worked through the mess of Katrina, and the boom days of the Katrina insurance money. Many people, like myself, are concerned with not getting anything from BP or the federal government.
“Like others affected, I have a wife and children and don’t know what to do. With sales as they are, money is not easy to come by. I feel like I am just standing by helplessly and waiting for this to end. I also feel the fear, frustration, and anxiety of this situation. The oil is just making it to the coastline after one month. If they don’t stop the flow, we will see oil coming to the coast and inland marshes for years to come, killing everything in its path.
“I am unsure if the gulf coast and fishing can recoup from this disaster, and I am very concerned about the future of fishing along the gulf coast, especially the Louisiana area. No one really knows what the results of this disaster will be, both environmentally and economically.”
More than 300 coastal managers, scientists, and policy makers will gather in Wilmington from June 13-16 for the 22nd International Conference of The Coastal Society. The conference will be held at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside Hotel in Wilmington, North Carolina. The theme of the TCS 22 conference is “Shifting Shorelines: Adapting to the Future.” Conference sessions will address a variety of coastal and ocean topics, such as climate change, shoreline management, working waterfronts, tourism and recreation, and marine spatial planning.
The conference officially gets underway on Monday morning, June 14. Mike Orbach of Duke University will open the conference with a plenary session on ocean policy and connections across the land-sea boundary. A panel discussion will follow.
The conference’s closing plenary on June 16 will address the issues of translating science into effective policy. In “Making the Connection: Translating Science Into Coastal Policy,” Larry Cahoon and Mike Mallin of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington will moderate a session of experts discussing ways to strengthen the interface between scientists and coastal managers.
Both plenary sessions will include speakers from around the world, as they share their insights and spark lively discussion.
The complete agenda and registration information is on the TCS 22 website at www.thecoastalsociety.org/conference/tcs22.
The conference in Wilmington will feature panel sessions, oral presentations, and poster presentations that will provide scientific information relevant to solving coastal problems. The TCS 22 conference tracks are Coastal Environments; Climate Change; Coastal Economies; Changing Shorelines; and Sociopolitical Adaptation.
Presentations of local interest include Media and Messages: Sorting Signals and Sharing Stories; Developing Effective Tools for TMDLs: Impairment of Coastal Swimming and Shellfish Waters; Rising Tides, Rising Challenges: North Carolina’s Legacy of Coastal Protections at Risk; Coastal Wind: Energy for North Carolina’s Future; and Managing the Coastal Environment: Collaboration at the State and Local Levels.
For more information, please contact TCS 22 Conference Chair Lisa Schiavinato of North Carolina Sea Grant at (919) 515-1895 or lisa_schiavinato@ncsu.edu.
Atlantic coastal states from Maine through North Carolina have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on Draft Addendum II to Amendment 6 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass. The dates, times, and locations of the scheduled North Carolina meetings are:
July 7, 2010, at 6:00 PM at the NC Division of Marine Fisheries Central District Office, 5285 Highway 70 West, Morehead City, North Carolina, Contact: Michelle Duval at (252) 808-8011;
June 29, 2010, at 6:00 PM at the Roanoke Island Festival Park Small Auditorium, One Festival Park, Manteo, North Carolina, Contact: Michelle Duval at (252) 808-8011.
The Draft Addendum proposes two changes to the striped bass management program: (1) an increase in the coastal commercial quota, and (2) revising the definition of recruitment failure based on Technical Committee advice.
The proposal to increase the coastal commercial quota is intended to improve equality between the commercial and recreational fishery sectors. Although Amendment 6 established management programs for both fisheries based on the same target fishing mortality rate, the implementation of state-specific quotas for coastal commercial harvest (and not for recreational harvest) has prevented the commercial and recreational fisheries from responding equally to changes in striped bass population size.
Since 2003, coastal commercial harvest has decreased by 3.6 percent, while recreational harvest has increased by 13.7 percent. Under the option, the Board would select a percent increase to be applied to the coastal commercial allocations assigned in Amendment 6.
The Management Board voted to include a second issue in the Draft Addendum based on information presented at the meeting. As part of its review of the juvenile abundance indices, the Striped Bass Technical Committee recommended to the Management Board a revision to how striped bass recruitment failure is defined. Juvenile abundance indices are an important component of the striped bass monitoring program and are used to determine periods of recruitment failure which can trigger management action under Amendment 6.
Adopting the proposed recommendation would result in a fixed value to determine recruitment failure in each surveyed area rather than a value that changes from year to year. Use of either the Amendment 6 definition or the Technical Committee recommendation for recruitment failure does not result in any necessary changes to the current management program.
Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addendum, either by attending public hearings or providing written comments. The Draft Addendum can be obtained via the Commission’s website at www.asmfc.org under Breaking News or by contacting the Commission at (202) 289-6400.
Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM on October 1, 2010, and should be forwarded to Nichola Meserve, FMP Coordinator, 1444 Eye Street, NW, Sixth Floor, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 289-6051 (FAX) or at nmeserve@asmfc.org (Subject line: Striped Bass Addendum II). For more information, please contact Nichola Meserve, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator at (202) 289-6400 or nmeserve@asmfc.org.
