[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
H.R. 3099, ``GULF OF MEXICO RED SNAPPER CONSERVATION ACT OF 2013''
=======================================================================
LEGISLATIVE HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES, WILDLIFE,
OCEANS AND INSULAR AFFAIRS
of the
COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
Thursday, December 4, 2014
__________
Serial No. 113-92
__________
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COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
DOC HASTINGS, WA, Chairman
PETER A. DeFAZIO, OR, Ranking Democratic Member
Don Young, AK Eni F. H. Faleomavaega, AS
Louie Gohmert, TX Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ
Rob Bishop, UT Grace F. Napolitano, CA
Doug Lamborn, CO Rush Holt, NJ
Robert J. Wittman, VA Raul M. Grijalva, AZ
Paul C. Broun, GA Madeleine Z. Bordallo, GU
John Fleming, LA Jim Costa, CA
Tom McClintock, CA Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Glenn Thompson, PA CNMI
Cynthia M. Lummis, WY Niki Tsongas, MA
Dan Benishek, MI Pedro R. Pierluisi, PR
Jeff Duncan, SC Colleen W. Hanabusa, HI
Scott R. Tipton, CO Tony Cardenas, CA
Paul A. Gosar, AZ Jared Huffman, CA
Raul R. Labrador, ID Raul Ruiz, CA
Steve Southerland, II, FL Carol Shea-Porter, NH
Bill Flores, TX Alan S. Lowenthal, CA
Jon Runyan, NJ Joe Garcia, FL
Markwayne Mullin, OK Matt Cartwright, PA
Steve Daines, MT Katherine M. Clark, MA
Kevin Cramer, ND Vacancy
Doug LaMalfa, CA
Jason T. Smith, MO
Vance M. McAllister, LA
Bradley Byrne, AL
Todd Young, Chief of Staff
Lisa Pittman, Chief Legislative Counsel
Penny Dodge, Democratic Staff Director
David Watkins, Democratic Chief Counsel
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES, WILDLIFE, OCEANS
AND INSULAR AFFAIRS
JOHN FLEMING, LA, Chairman
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, CNMI, Ranking Democratic Member
Don Young, AK Eni F. H. Faleomavaega, AS
Robert J. Wittman, VA Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ
Glenn Thompson, PA Madeleine Z. Bordallo, GU
Jeff Duncan, SC Pedro R. Pierluisi, PR
Steve Southerland, II, FL Carol Shea-Porter, NH
Bill Flores, TX Alan S. Lowenthal, CA
Jon Runyan, NJ Joe Garcia, FL
Vance M. McAllister, LA Peter A. DeFazio, OR, ex officio
Bradley Byrne, AL
Doc Hastings, WA, ex officio
------
CONTENTS
----------
Page
Hearing held on Thursday, December 4, 2014....................... 1
Statement of Members:
Fleming, Hon. John, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Louisiana......................................... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Miller, Hon. Jeff, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Florida........................................... 5
Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho, a Representative in
Congress from the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. 4
Statement of Witnesses:
Barham, Honorable Robert J., Secretary, Louisiana Department
of Wildlife and Fisheries.................................. 12
Prepared statement of.................................... 13
Blankenship, Christopher, Director, Marine Resources
Division, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources.................................................. 15
Prepared statement of.................................... 17
Cresson, David A., President and CEO, Louisiana Chapter of
Coastal Conservation Association........................... 34
Prepared statement of.................................... 35
Gill, Bob, Board Member, Gulf Seafood Institute.............. 36
Prepared statement of.................................... 38
Green, Captain Jim, Vice President, Destin Charter Boat
Association, Gulf of Mexico Charter Fisherman.............. 42
Prepared statement of.................................... 44
Pearce, Harlon, Owner, Harlon's LA Fish, Kenner, Louisiana... 45
Prepared statement of.................................... 47
Rauch, Samuel D., III, Deputy Assistant Administrator for
Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration............ 6
Prepared statement of.................................... 8
Additional Materials Submitted for the Record:
American Sportfishing Association, Mike Leonard, Ocean
Resource Policy Director, December 2, 2014 Letter submitted
for the record in support of H.R. 3099..................... 61
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, Jeff Crane, President,
December 1, 2014 Letter submitted for the record in support
of H.R. 3099............................................... 61
Group of Commercial Fishermen, December 3, 2014 Letter
submitted for the record in opposition of H.R. 3099........ 62
List of documents submitted for the record retained in the
Committee's official files................................. 63
LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON H.R. 3099, TO PROVIDE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE GULF OF MEXICO RED SNAPPER, AND FOR
OTHER PURPOSES, ``GULF OF MEXICO RED SNAPPER CONSERVATION ACT OF 2013''
----------
Thursday, December 4, 2014
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs
Committee on Natural Resources
Washington, DC
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in
room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. John Fleming
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Fleming, Duncan, Southerland,
Byrne, Sablan, and Garcia.
Also present: Representative Jolly.
STATEMENT OF THE HON. JOHN FLEMING, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
Mr. Fleming. The subcommittee will come to order. The
Chairman notes the presence of a quorum.
Good morning. Today the subcommittee will conduct a hearing
on H.R. 3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act
of 2013.
As I am sure everyone in this room will agree, the Gulf of
Mexico Red Snapper fishery is a mess. This is a fishery that is
an economic driver for many coastal communities. It is a very
popular sport fish for recreational fishermen and supports a
valuable commercial fishery. In fact, this fishery once
supported a 180-day recreational season, and while it is
currently under a rebuilding plan, both fishermen and NOAA
agree that the fishery is rebuilding beyond expectations.
Despite this rebuilding success, the recreational seasons
have been dramatically shortened, leading to only a 9-day
season in 2014. This increasingly shortened recreational season
has had serious consequences for our coastal communities and,
in particular, for recreational fishermen. I can certainly
understand how recreational fishermen are frustrated. We have a
stock survey system that appears to ignore key areas where red
snapper are known to live, and we have a recreational data
collection program that not only doesn't work but is now going
to undergo yet another revision.
As we have heard at a number of hearings on this
reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Federal
recreational data collections program has been repeatedly
called into question. Two states now have undertaken their own
recreational data collection programs, and both have been able
to collect more accurate information and have highlighted the
shortcomings in the Federal recreational data collection
program.
Added to that mix we had a court ruling calling into
question some of the basic provisions of the Federal fishery
management system. With this as a backdrop, I want to thank
Congressman Miller for his legislation that attempts to address
these problems. I know H.R. 3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red
Snapper Conservation Act of 2013, has raised some concerns
within the various sectors of the Gulf of Mexico fishery
industry, and I know we will hear some of these concerns today,
but I am glad this legislation will allow us to have this
dialog. Hopefully, it will lead to some creative solutions.
H.R. 3099 would transfer management of the red snapper
fishery from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to
the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission. Supporters of this
legislation have cited several examples of other fisheries that
have benefited from moving them from Federal management to
state management.
As you know, many of the members of this committee support
the notion that states can manage their natural resources more
effectively than the Federal Government can. However, there are
a number of issues that will probably be raised here today that
we need to consider.
One of the most perplexing will be the question of how we
fund this new authority for the Commission.
A second concern is whether the Commission will be
susceptible to an increase in lawsuits.
And a third is how the Gulf states and the Federal
Government will enforce a new management regime.
These are concerns that we must be aware of, but through
the hearings we have held in the past, it is clear that there
needs to be more flexibility in how states can manage red
snapper, and it is clear that the Gulf states need to be more
actively involved in the management.
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has been
debating several amendments to the Reef Fish Fishery Management
Plan to deal specifically with red snapper issues. The Council
recently adopted a controversial sector separation plan that
will split the recreational sector into a for-hire component
and a private angle component.
The Council is also debating a plan to reallocate fish from
the commercial sector to the recreational sector.
Finally, and probably most important to the discussion
today, the Council is working on a regional management scheme
that will give each of the Gulf states the ability to manage
red snapper within state waters in a way that benefits their
fishermen. I suspect some of today's witnesses will give us
more information on these amendments and how they relate to the
legislation before us.
As Members know, this is not the first hearing we have held
on these issues and will likely not be the last hearing on how
to improve the management of this important fishery.
I am now pleased to recognize the Ranking Member, the
distinguished gentleman from the Commonwealth of Northern
Mariana Islands for any statement he would like to make.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Fleming follows:]
Prepared Statement of the Hon. John Fleming, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs
Good morning. Today, the subcommittee will conduct a hearing on
H.R. 3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act of 2013.
As I'm sure everyone in this room will agree, the Gulf of Mexico
red snapper fishery is a mess.
This is a fishery that is an economic driver for many coastal
communities, is a very popular sport fish for recreational fishermen,
and supports a valuable commercial fishery. In fact, this fishery once
supported a l80-day recreational season and, while it is currently
under a rebuilding plan, both fishermen and NOAA agree that the fishery
is rebuilding beyond expectations. Despite this rebuilding success, the
recreational seasons have been drastically shortened--leading to only a
9-day season in 2014. This increasingly shortened recreational season
has had serious consequences for our coast communities and in
particular for recreational fishermen.
I can certainly understand how recreational fishermen are
frustrated. We have a stock survey system that appears to ignore key
areas where red snapper are known to live and we have a recreational
data collection program that not only doesn't work, but is now going to
undergo yet another revision.
As we have heard at a number of hearings on the reauthorization of
the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Federal recreational data collection
program has been repeatedly called into question. Two states have now
undertaken their own recreational data collection programs and both
have been able to collect more accurate information and have
highlighted the shortcomings in the Federal recreational data
collection program.
Added to that mix, we have had a court ruling calling into question
some of the basic provisions of the Federal fishery management system.
With this as a backdrop, I want to thank Congressman Miller for his
legislation that attempts to address these problems. I know H.R. 3099,
the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act of 20l3, has raised
some concerns within the various sectors of the Gulf of Mexico fishing
industry, and I know we will hear some of those concerns today, but I
am glad this legislation will allow us to have this dialog. Hopefully
it will lead to some creative solutions.
H.R. 3099 would transfer management of the red snapper fishery from
the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to the Gulf States Marine
Fisheries Commission. Supporters of the legislation have cited several
examples of other fisheries that have benefited from moving them from
Federal management to state management. As you know, many of the
members of this committee support the notion that states can manage
their natural resources more effectively than the Federal Government
can.
However, there are a number of issues that will probably be raised
here today that we need to consider. One of the most perplexing will be
the question of how we fund this new authority for the Commission. A
second concern is whether the Commission will be susceptible to an
increase in lawsuits. And a third is how the Gulf states and the
Federal Government will enforce a new management regime.
These are concerns that we must be aware of, but through the
hearings we have held in the past, it is clear that there needs to be
more flexibility in how states can manage red snapper and it is clear
that the Gulf states need to be more actively involved in the
management.
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has been debating
several amendments to the Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan to deal
specifically with red snapper issues. The Council recently adopted a
controversial sector separation plan that will split the recreational
sector into a for-hire component and a private angle component. The
Council is also debating a plan to reallocate fish from the commercial
sector to the recreational sector. Finally, and probably most important
to the discussion today, the Council is working on a regional
management scheme that will give each of the Gulf states the ability to
manage red snapper within state waters in a way that benefits their
fishermen. I suspect some of today's witnesses will give us more
information on these amendments and how they relate to the legislation
before us.
As Members know, this is not the first hearing we have held on
these issues and will likely not be the last hearing on how to improve
the management of this important fishery.
______
STATEMENT OF THE HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, A
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF NORTHERN
MARIANA ISLANDS
Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I would
like to also note that you are correct; this has been a series
of hearings we have had on red snappers. So I am beginning to
be much more well informed about it, and I actually told my
staff if we have one more hearing for red snapper, and then Mr.
Miller's bill came up, and I said that is all right. It is Mr.
Miller's bill. So we will spend time.
But the bill attempts to actually have Congress provide for
the development of a fisheries management plan for the Gulf of
Mexico red snapper, and as I understand it, the Magnuson-
Stevens Act established the regional councils to prevent
politicians in Washington from dictating how local fisheries
are managed. It seems that we are considering a bill that would
replace the judgment of fishery stakeholders for that of the
House of Representatives.
We have heard a lot about the difficulties faced by red
snapper fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico this Congress, and I am
sympathetic to the frustration felt by anglers who have seen
recreational seasons shortened while the stock shows early
signs of recovery. Unfortunately, unrestricted access,
increasing fishing pressure, and skyrocketing harvest rates in
the recreational fisheries have slowed this recovery and risk a
return to the severe overfishing that ended just 5 years ago.
So it is important to remember that the Gulf red snapper
fishery is only 10 years into a 27-year rebuilding plan, and
the most recent stock assessment data indicates that the
spawning potential is still only 10 percent, which is less than
half of the rebuilt target of 26 percent. So, while there are
signs that the rebuilding plan is working, there is still a
long way to go before this stock is healthy.
In the meantime, the Gulf Council is already taking steps
to improve access and accountability in the recreational
sector. This includes taking final action on a provisional
separation of the recreational sector into for-hire and private
angler components to allow for greater flexibility in how the
quota is managed.
In addition, at its January meeting, the Council will be
considering the final action on Amendment 39 to the Reef Fish
Management Plan, which explores a range of options for
implementing regional management for the recreational harvest
of red snapper, including delegating limited management
authority to the Gulf states to establish individual size
limits, bag limits, seasons, and area closures in Federal
waters.
I am interested to learn what our expert witnesses think
about the Council's recent efforts and to hear their ideas for
other management action that should be taken to rebuild the
stock, improve accountability, and ensure equitable access in
the recreational fishery.
And I want to thank all of you for joining us this morning,
and I look forward to hearing from the witnesses.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Fleming. The Ranking Member yields back.
At this time, I would like to ask unanimous consent that
the gentleman from Florida, Congressman David Jolly be allowed
to sit with this subcommittee and participate in the hearing.
Hearing no objections, so ordered.
We will now hear from our first panel, the author of H.R.
3099, Congressman Jeff Miller, our friend and colleague from
the First District of Florida.
STATEMENT OF THE HON. JEFF MILLER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA
Mr. Miller. Thank the Chairman and the Ranking Member, and
I do thank all the members of the subcommittee for holding this
hearing this morning. I appreciate the chance to appear before
you today on what I, and many of my constituents who continue
to voice their concerns, consider to be been an issue of
critical importance, and that is the management of the Gulf red
snapper.
With the fishery more robust than it ever has been before,
one would think that private anglers and the for-hire
businesses would be elated with the overall management of the
resource, but we all know that that is just simply not the
case.
As a result of the current Federal management of Gulf red
snapper, we witnessed, as has already been stated, lawsuit
after lawsuit while anglers continue to be hit with the
shortest recreational seasons on record.
Furthermore, the failed management has done significant
economic harm to communities along the Gulf Coast who rely on
the billions of dollars that anglers spend on an annual basis.
As a result, I continually hear from stakeholders in my
district and across the Gulf Coast who justifiably call for
reforms to the Gulf Red Snapper Management Program.
Now, by simply continuing to shorten the Federal season for
the recreational sector, which, in Florida, was 9 days this
year, without addressing the failed management of the fishery,
the Federal Government continues to kick the can down the road
at the expense--really, the expense of the entire angling
community, tragically affecting the livelihoods in coastal
communities that depend on the fishery.
Along with 20 bipartisan colleagues, I introduced H.R.
3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act, because
I believe that congressional action is needed to chart a new
course for management of Gulf red snapper for the betterment of
the commercial and recreational fisheries and the entire
economic region. I believe that placing stewardship of this
important resource in the hands of state authorities who are
best positioned to collaborate with local stakeholders to
institute a successful management plan that works for Gulf
Coast residents, anglers and the red snapper alike, is, at the
very least, a step in the right direction.
While some here may not agree with certain provisions of
this bill, I do hope that we can all agree on the fact that
something must be done to address the valid concerns that have
been raised by many along the Gulf Coast.
I, again, offer my thanks to the Chairman and the Ranking
Member, all the members of this committee and those that are
not on this subcommittee that have come here today to highlight
the importance of this particular issue. This is a discussion
that has to take place, and it is my hope that today's hearing
on H.R. 3099 will yield positive results and underscore the
urgent need for a change in Gulf red snapper management.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Fleming. Well, we thank you, Mr. Miller. And we know
that you have plenty of duties apart from your time here. So we
will certainly excuse you for the remainder of the hearing,
unless you would like to stay, we would be glad to have you.
Also a note, we expect a vote probably in the next 15
minutes. So we will try to get through our second panel
testimony, and that way we will be able to return for
questions.
So thank you, Mr. Miller.
Mr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Fleming. We will ask the second panel to step forward.
We are now ready for our second panel, which includes Mr.
Samuel D. Rauch III, Deputy Assistant Administrator for
Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; The Honorable
Robert J. Barham, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries; and Mr. Christopher Blankenship,
Director of Marine Resources Division, Alabama Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources.
Your testimony will appear in full in the hearing record,
so I ask that you keep your oral statements to 5 minutes, as
outlined in our invitation letter to you under Committee Rule
4(a). Our microphones are not automatic, so please press the
button and be sure the tip is close to your mouth, and the way
the lights work, you all are pretty experienced at this, I am
sure, but, basically, you are under a green light for the first
4 minutes. Then it turns yellow, and then when it turns red at
the end of 5 minutes, we ask that you quickly finish your
statement so we can move on. We have plenty to cover here today
and a lot of questions.
Mr. Rauch, you are now recognized for 5 minutes to present
testimony on H.R. 3099.
STATEMENT OF SAMUEL D. RAUCH III, DEPUTY ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR FOR REGULATORY PROGRAMS, NATIONAL MARINE
FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC
ADMINISTRATION
Mr. Rauch. Good morning, Chairman Fleming, Ranking Member
Sablan, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify today.
My name is Sam Rauch. I am the Deputy Director of the
National Marine Fishery Service or NMFS. The Administration
does not have an official position on H.R. 3099, but I do want
to talk about the underlying issues and how NMFS and the Gulf
Council are working to address red snapper management.
The Gulf Council implemented the first red snapper
rebuilding plan in 1990 but has modified the plan several times
in response to new scientific information. The current red
snapper rebuilding plan was designed to phase out overfishing
between 2009 and 2010 and to rebuild the population by 2032.
The 2009 assessment update and the most current assessment
completed in 2013 indicated that we have ended overfishing and
there are more red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico today than
there have been in decades.
Many Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishermen echo the
assessment findings, saying that they are seeing more and
larger red snapper than they have ever seen in their lifetime.
The recreational red snapper quota in 2013 and 2014 was set
at the highest level in history of managing the fishery; 20
percent greater than the next highest quota level on record.
And recreational landings in 2013 were the highest in recent
history. In addition, each fish weighs more than twice as much
as before. Fishermen on the west coast of Florida now have new
opportunities to target this popular species as the population
expands back to its historic range. After decades of
overfishing, the population was concentrated in offshore waters
of the northern Gulf of Mexico, but now catch data indicate
that red snapper landings are increasing both closer to shore
and along the west coast of Florida, with some fishermen
reporting landings as far south as the Florida Keys.
I would like to highlight the three main components of the
Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Management.
First, the commercial sector, which is managed by an
individual fishing quota or an IFQ program; second, the
recreational sector, which we will talk more about, and it
includes both the for-hire, the charter fleet and private
anglers; and third, which is an important component, but there
is an incidental bycatch in the commercial shrimp trawlers of
juvenile red snapper. This has been an important three-part
management structure that we have dealt with over the years.
In 2007, the commercial red snapper sector moved to the IFQ
program. This program allocates participating fishermen a
percentage of the commercial annual catch limit based on their
landings history, and the program has been a success. The
average ex-vessel price of red snapper in 2013 was a third
higher than before the program was implemented. IFQ
participants are now targeting red snapper year round, and the
fishery is reportedly safer than ever before.
Despite these improvements, the current assessment
indicates that rebuilding is not yet complete. There is a new
red snapper assessment under way, which will provide additional
information on the status of the population relative to the
rebuilding target. This assessment will be completed and
presented to the Gulf Council early next year.
The Gulf Council has been considering a regional management
strategy, which would provide the states greater flexibility to
tailor recreational red snapper management to the local needs
and objectives while meeting the Gulf-wide conservation goals.
At the Federal Government, we support regional management
structures as a way to resolve the current challenges created
by inconsistent state jurisdictions and regulations. Regional
management would also stabilize the recreational sector, better
manage the expectations of for-hire fishermen and private
anglers.
Interstate management challenges, though, are not unique to
the Gulf of Mexico, and, in fact, they are present in every
region where major fisheries span multiple state jurisdictions.
Such challenges have been addressed in different regions in
different ways. For example, through legislation authorizing
the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission as a
coordinating body on the East Coast, they have been able to
manage the summer flounder with many similarities to the
current red snapper stock.
While there are a number of models that may work, each
requires the collective involvement and support of the states
and full accountability to comply with the agreed-upon
management strategies.
NMFS believes that the hallmark of any successful regional
management strategy for red snapper would include fair and
equitable allocation amongst all the states and user groups;
sound science-based decisionmaking that accounts for all
sources of fishing mortality, both commercial and recreational;
and recognizing that managing the shrimp trawl bycatch of red
snapper is a critical component of the red snapper rebuilding
plan; coordinated data collection systems which provide
consistent, reliable, and comparable data between states; and
catch accountability, including mechanisms to prevent and
respond to quota overages within individual states.
In conclusion, we have made great progress toward
rebuilding the Gulf of Mexico red snapper population, but this
progress has not come easily, nor will it be sustained without
continued attention. It is a critical time in the history of
red snapper management, and we must ensure that all aspects of
this fishery are able to meet the needs of both current and
future generations.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify before you
today, and I am available to answer questions that you may
have.
Mr. Fleming. Thank you, Mr. Rauch.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Rauch follows:]
Prepared Statement of Samuel D. Rauch III, Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries
Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.
Department of Commerce
introduction
Good morning Chairman and members of the subcommittee. I appreciate
the opportunity to speak with you today about red snapper management in
the Gulf of Mexico. My name is Sam Rauch and I am the Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Regulatory Programs at the National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). From
daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, and climate monitoring
to fishery management, coastal restoration, and supporting marine
commerce, NOAA's products and services support economic vitality and
affect more than one-third of America's gross domestic product. NOAA's
dedicated scientists use cutting-edge research and high-tech
instrumentation to provide citizens, planners, emergency managers, and
other decisionmakers with reliable information they need when they need
it.
Today, I will describe the current status of red snapper in the
Gulf of Mexico and the benefits fishermen and fishing communities are
realizing from rebuilding efforts, as well as the ongoing challenges we
face in ensuring those benefits are equitably distributed between all
user groups. Also, I will describe the status of the Gulf of Mexico
Fishery Management Council's (Gulf Council) work to develop a regional
management strategy for the recreational sector and NMFS' views on the
hallmarks of a successful regional management strategy.
historical population trends
Fishermen have harvested red snapper from the Gulf of Mexico since
the mid-1800s, more than a century before the first Federal fishery
management measures were established in 1984. Currently, this species
is one of the most popular and studied in the Gulf of Mexico, and NMFS
has conducted 10 population assessments since the late 1980s. The first
assessment, conducted in 1988, concluded the population was overfished
and undergoing overfishing, meaning there were too few fish in the
water to maximize catches over the long term and fish continued to be
removed from the population at too high a rate. Six assessments
conducted in the 1990s confirmed that conclusion, suggesting
conservation measures such as minimum size limits, commercial trip
limits, and daily recreational bag limits implemented to end
overfishing and rebuild the population, as required by the Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act;
P.L. 94-265) were not sufficient. A congressionally mandated
independent peer review of the scientific and management basis for red
snapper management, completed in 1997, also echoed these findings.
status of rebuilding efforts
The Gulf Council implemented the first red snapper rebuilding plan
in 1990, but has modified the rebuilding schedule and goals several
times in response to new scientific information. A rebuilding plan is a
strategy used to manage catch levels over a specified time period so
that an overfished population can increase in size to a target level.
The current red snapper rebuilding plan was designed to phase out
overfishing between 2009 and 2010 and rebuild the population by 2032.
The time frame to rebuild overfished populations varies depending on
the status and biology of the overfished species. The red snapper
rebuilding schedule is lengthy because red snapper is a long-lived
species, reaching more than 50 years of age, and was severely
overfished for many decades.
Substantial changes to the plan, as implemented in 2007, were
informed by a 2005 population assessment and followed a court ruling on
a lawsuit filed by the Coastal Conservation Association, Ocean
Conservancy, and Gulf Restoration Network, who found previous
rebuilding measures to be insufficient to rebuild the population on
schedule. These changes reduced the combined (commercial and
recreational) red snapper catch limit by 45 percent from 9.12 million
pounds to 5.0 million pounds; reduced the recreational bag limit from
four to two fish to slow the rate of catch; reduced the commercial
minimum size limit from 15 inches total length to 13 inches total
length to reduce regulatory discards in that fishery; and specified a
maximum level for shrimp fishing effort which, if exceeded, would
trigger area closures to minimize the incidental take of red snapper in
shrimp trawls.
Also in 2007 the commercial red snapper sector moved to an
individual fishing quota program (IFQ), which allocates participating
fishermen a percentage of the commercial annual catch limit based on
their landings history. The IFQ program is intended and has been
demonstrated to better align the capacity of the fleet with the
commercial catch limit, to mitigate short fishing seasons, improve
safety at sea and increase the profitability of the commercial red
snapper sector. Participation in the commercial red snapper fishery,
measured by the number of accounts holding red snapper IFQ shares, has
declined by about 28 percent since the program was implemented.
However, the average ex-vessel price of red snapper in 2013 was 33
percent higher than the price prior to instituting the IFQ (inflation
adjusted, 2002-2006). Also, IFQ participants are now targeting red
snapper year round, and the fishery is reportedly safer than it used to
be when fishermen were required to compete for the catch during very
limited season openings.
There is clear evidence the rebuilding measures implemented in 2007
are paying off. The 2009 assessment update and the current assessment
completed in 2013 indicate we ended overfishing and there are more red
snapper in the Gulf of Mexico today than in decades. According to the
current assessment, the total biomass of the population has more than
doubled in the last 5 years. The biomass of the Gulf of Mexico red
snapper population is estimated to have reached 60 million metric tons
in 2014, which is more than half of the rebuilding target (Figure 1).
Many Gulf of Mexico fishermen echo the assessment findings, saying
they are seeing more and larger red snapper than they have seen in
their lifetime. The recreational red snapper quota in 2013 and 2014 was
set at the highest level in the history of managing the red snapper
fishery (20 percent greater than the next highest quota level on
record). Recreational landings in 2013 were the highest in recent
history. In addition, each fish weighs more than twice as much as
before. Also, fishermen on the west coast of Florida now have new
opportunities to target this popular species as the population expands
back to its historic range. After decades of overfishing, the
population was concentrated in offshore waters of the northern Gulf of
Mexico. Now, catch data indicate red snapper landings are increasing
both closer to shore and along the west coast of Florida, with some
fishermen reporting landings as far south as the Florida Keys.
Despite these remarkable improvements, the current assessment
indicates rebuilding is not yet complete because the overall biomass
and reproductive potential of the red snapper population have not yet
reached the rebuilding target. There is a new red snapper update
assessment underway, which will provide additional information on the
status of the population relative to the rebuilding target. That
assessment will be completed and presented to the Gulf Council early
next year.
management challenges
While fishermen, fishery managers and scientists all agree the red
snapper population is making a remarkable recovery, there is also
widespread agreement there are real challenges in the fishery in terms
of ensuring rebuilding benefits are fairly and equitably distributed
among all user groups.
NMFS has increased the combined (commercial and recreational) catch
limit each year since overfishing ended in 2009 and, since 2013, the
catch limit has been the highest ever specified for this fishery--11
million pounds. The commercial sector is flourishing at that limit
under the IFQ program. Unfortunately, the recreational sector is not
sharing the same benefits of stock recovery.
Higher catch rates and larger fish, while improving recreational
fishing experiences and opportunities, are causing the recreational
sector to reach its catch limit much more quickly. As a result, higher
catch limits have not translated into increased fishing days for
recreational fishermen. The recreational red snapper catch limit
increased by 62 percent from 2008-2012 compared to a 148 percent
increase in recreational landings per day during that same time period.
As a result, the recreational season has been progressively shortened
to prevent catch limit overages, in compliance with the Magnuson-
Stevens Act.
Recreational fishermen are understandably frustrated by this
unexpected trend, which has been exacerbated by state jurisdictional
and regulatory inconsistencies. The Federal recreational fishing season
length is further reduced when Gulf Coast states implement less
restrictive red snapper regulations in state waters because both
catches from both state and Federal waters must be counted against the
catch limit. Such state actions also create inequities because not all
fishermen benefit equally from less restrictive state water
regulations.
In response, the Gulf Council set the 2014 recreational red snapper
catch target 20 percent below the limit to reduce the likelihood of an
overage this year. This action, along with extended state-water fishing
seasons and other impacts of the litigation, effectively reduced the
2014 Federal recreational red snapper fishing season from 40 days to 9
days--the shortest ever. Preliminary 2014 catch data indicate
recreational catches were below the quota for the first time in many
years.
management options
The Gulf Council recently approved a new fishery management plan
amendment which, if implemented, would enable them to manage the
private and federally permitted for-hire components of the recreational
red snapper sector for different objectives for a 3-year trial period.
For-hire fishermen are working with the Gulf Council to explore new
tools to increase their catch accounting, stabilize their business
operations, and improve their economic viability. However, developing
solutions for the open access, private angler component of the
recreational sector is more challenging and will require a broad shared
vision of expectations and needs.
The Gulf Council is actively working through its state agency
representatives, fishermen and other stakeholders to identify shared
goals and develop management options that more equitably distribute
rebuilding benefits. These options include reallocating some portion of
future catch limit increases to the recreational fishery to achieve a
more stable fishing season and provide recreational fishermen a greater
opportunity to benefit from rebuilding progress. Also, they include a
regional management strategy, which would provide the states greater
flexibility to tailor recreational red snapper management to local
needs and objectives while meeting Gulf-wide conservation goals.
All Gulf Coast states have expressed some form of support for a
regional management strategy, but have had some difficulty coming to
agreement on a fair and equitable methodology for allocating the
recreational red snapper quota among the states. As a result, the Gulf
Council has not yet finalized a specific regional management strategy
for review and implementation by the Secretary of Commerce. However,
during its October 2014 meeting, the Gulf Council identified a
preliminary preferred state-specific allocation methodology and
requested additional analyses and process options to review at its
January 2015 meeting. NMFS is committed to continuing to support the
Gulf Council's efforts to finalize this plan over the next year.
NMFS supports regional management in concept as a way to resolve
the current challenges created by inconsistent state jurisdictions and
regulations, stabilize the recreational sector, and better manage the
expectations of for-hire fishermen and private anglers. Interstate
management challenges are not unique to the Gulf of Mexico. In fact,
they are present in every region where major fisheries span multiple
state jurisdictions. Such challenges have been addressed in different
regions in different ways; for example, through legislation authorizing
the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission as a coordinating body
on the U.S. East Coast. While there are any number of models that may
work, each requires the collective involvement and support of the
states, and full accountability to comply with agreed upon management
strategies.
NMFS believes the hallmarks of a successful regional management
strategy for red snapper include:
Fair and equitable allocations among all of the states and
user groups;
Sound, science-based decisionmaking that accounts for all
sources of fishing mortality, recognizing that limiting
shrimp trawl bycatch of red snapper is a critical component
of the red snapper rebuilding plan;
Coordinated data collection systems, which provide
consistent, reliable data; and
Catch accountability, including mechanisms to prevent and
respond to quota overages.
conclusion
We have made great progress toward rebuilding the Gulf of Mexico
red snapper population. But this progress has not come easily, nor will
it be sustained without continued attention. This is a critical time in
the history of red snapper management, and we must ensure the fishery
is able to meet the needs of both current and future generations. We
must continue the achievements we have gained in the commercial fishery
while improving stability, accountability, and predictability to the
recreational fishery.
We must not lose sight of the fact that the current management
challenges are a function of success. The red snapper population is
rebuilding and that is a good thing. Now we need to make some reasoned,
thoughtful decisions about how to best distribute the hard-earned
benefits provided by this growing population.
Gulf of Mexico fishermen and fishing communities sacrificed a great
deal to get us here. It is critical that all involved remain engaged
and work together to find a way forward in the cooperative spirit that
the regional fishery management council process promotes.
Thank you again for the opportunity to discuss Gulf of Mexico red
snapper management. I am available to answer any questions you may
have.
Figure 1. Historical and projected trends in Gulf of Mexico red snapper
biomass.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Fleming. Next we have Secretary Barham. You are now
recognized, sir, for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ROBERT J. BARHAM, SECRETARY,
LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES
Mr. Barham. Mr. Chairman and Members, thank you very much
for the opportunity to come today.
In Louisiana, it became clear to us that the system as it
exists was a failure. Last year, as you pointed out, in the
face of fishermen going out in the Gulf and finding more red
snapper and bigger red snapper than they had ever seen before,
to the point that you cannot catch anything else but red
snapper in a lot of locations where you go fish, we were
notified that we were going to have 9 days for recreational
fishing. It was a point where we threw up our hands and said,
``This is a total failure; we've got to do something
different.'' So we, in Louisiana, along with all the other
states, went noncompliant.
Well, if you have a system where the people who are
participating in it, in essence, are revolting from the system,
you certainly need to take a look.
H.R. 3099 does address that. We have to make a change. We
know that we can manage our fisheries much better than it can
be managed from elsewhere. I have complete confidence all of my
fellow directors and secretaries and commissions will do a much
better job than what we have in place.
We are not the only one that took that position. In Federal
court last year, in a suit along with the state of Texas, a
Federal court ruled that the system of management that exists
today with National Marine Fisheries' guidance guided by the
MRIP numbers is an absolute failure.
The numbers that we can provide are so much more extensive
and accurate than what they have. We get a very clear picture.
Because we were noncompliant--or I won't presume to know
everything--they pulled our money for monitoring. Well, the
fishermen in Louisiana banded together, and we passed what is
called the LA Creel program, where our fisherman are paying for
the monitoring. I am going into my 8th year as Secretary of the
Department. It is the only fee increase that I am aware of that
has passed through the legislature in 7 years, and that is
because the fishermen have such confidence that we can manage
that fishery, we will do a better job, and it is because of the
extensive amount of sampling we do.
We do more than 20 times the amount of actual fish
measurement. We do nearly 50 times the interviews and the
follow-up contacts with the fishermen who are catching these
red snapper. So we have a much more extensive program.
Now, I will say, in H.R. 3099, there is also the oversight.
We recognize that there needs to be an oversight provision and
that we need to keep an eye--the Feds need to keep an eye on
everyone to be sure that there is a third party, if you will,
overseeing the states. That is a great plan and another strong
point of this bill.
Mr. Chairman, I won't take the full 5 minutes. I will
summarize. You have my more extensive statement you can all
read. What I will tell you is, the states can do a better job
in managing this fishery than the system we have in place
today.
And I am certainly available for questions.
Mr. Fleming. Thank you, Mr. Barham, Secretary Barham, and
certainly it is amazing, really, just how far off we are on
this. The stories I hear about catching limits within 15
minutes. So thank you for your valuable information.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Barham follows:]
Prepared Statement of Robert J. Barham, Secretary, Louisiana Department
of Wildlife and Fisheries
Thank you Mr. Chairman for the opportunity to speak on behalf of
Louisiana's fishing community before the U.S. House of Representatives'
Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife,
Oceans, and Insular Affairs to present information on H.R. 3099, the
Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act of 2013. Red Snapper is an
iconic American fish, extremely popular with both commercial and
recreational fishermen, especially in Louisiana and the other Gulf
states.
Commercial and recreational fishing have been vital to Louisiana's
economy and culture for hundreds of years. Today in Louisiana, nearly a
million saltwater anglers catch fish for sport and 13,000 licensed
commercial fishermen harvest seafood for a living--both form the
backbone of Louisiana's fishing industry that generates a multitude of
jobs and pumps billions of dollars into our economy. Our fisheries
resources are important to both our fishing industry and coastal
communities because of the socioeconomic benefits they provide.
Through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act of 1976, Congress established the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management
Council (along with seven other regional councils) to conserve and
manage these valuable resources and develop and monitor fishery
management plans that provide for their best use. Congress
intentionally made the councils regional to allow fishery management to
better respond to a region's unique environment and the needs of its
constituents.
Unfortunately, with respect to Red Snapper, the Gulf Council is no
longer doing the job you, as Congress, gave them nearly 40 years ago.
While measures taken to date to stop overfishing and rebuild the Red
Snapper resource have been successful, management has reached an
impasse, especially for the recreational fishery. While there are more
and more Red Snapper and they are growing larger and larger, the
recreational fishing season keeps getting shorter because the Gulf
Council continues to use mediocre data to support inflexible management
of this fishery. This fishery is no longer socioeconomically
sustainable; management is failing. This is not only my opinion; it is
also the opinion of a Federal judge who ruled in March 2014 that Gulf
Red Snapper fishery management is failing and is violating the law.
Specifically, managers allowed the recreational fishery to exceed their
share of the annual combined quota due to faulty science (both data and
assessments) and did not require any accountability measures to prevent
or respond to such overharvests.
The Gulf Council currently relies on recreational landings data
from the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) Marine Recreational
Information Program, or MRIP, to set and monitor the recreational Red
Snapper fishery's quota and season. However, MRIP is not equipped for
this purpose--it was designed to monitor trends over time over a large
geographic area, not provide real-time, state-specific data. For
example, MRIP estimated that Louisiana's 2013 recreational landings
fell somewhere between 265,361 and 942,363 pounds, a range nearly
700,000 pounds. It is impossible to use highly variable estimates like
these to predict, with any certainty, how much can and will be
harvested and appropriately determine fishing seasons to not exceed
quotas. Yet Federal managers continue to use these data, miscalculate
the Red Snapper quota for the Gulf, and underestimate actual Gulf-wide
recreational harvests. In addition, MRIP does not deliver data in a
timely manner--data typically comes in 2-month intervals after an
additional delay of 45 days for data processing. This means data is
often not available to managers until the fishing season is closed,
prohibiting any kind of flexible, responsive management. As a result,
recreational Red Snapper harvests have exceeded quotas in 6 of the past
7 years. Such imprecise, untimely data also forces managers to set
extremely restrictive and inflexible seasons--they do not have the data
they need to effectively manage the fishery and achieve the best use of
the resource.
The Gulf Council could fix these issues--they could demand better
data from NMFS and cooperate with the states to respond to and meet
their constituents' needs. They have chosen not to, and the Gulf states
refuse to sit by while this mismanagement harms our commercial and
recreational fishermen, coastal communities, and economies. This year,
2014, was the shortest Federal Red Snapper season in history--a mere 9
days. All five Gulf states implemented their own state-waters Red
Snapper seasons, inconsistent with Federal regulations, but still in
the best interest of recreational anglers, the economy, and the
resource. The Gulf states do not want to continue to go out of
compliance with Federal regulations or hinder the recovery of the stock
or fishery. We are simply confident we can provide better data to
manage this fishery and provide our fishermen more fishing
opportunities. However, we cannot do so under the current management
framework.
H.R. 3099 would move the management of the Gulf Red Snapper fishery
forward by requiring enhanced collaboration among the states with
respect to fishery data collection and more frequent (annual) stock
assessments to support management. In Louisiana, we have already
invested substantial resources in developing a recreational quota
monitoring survey to provide real-time, in-season Red Snapper landings
estimates for Louisiana. We implemented this survey (LA Creel) last
year; in its inaugural year, our biologists measured 23 times more fish
and interviewed more than 49 times the vessel trips than MRIP. This
more intensive sampling means more precise data--LA Creel estimated
that Louisiana's 2013 recreational landings fell somewhere between
503,171 and 549,987 pounds, a range of only about 45,000 pounds
(compared to MRIP's 700,000-pound range). Armed with more precise data,
managers can develop and implement management measures with more
certainty and take full advantage of the available resource. The other
Gulf states are now following Louisiana's lead and developing similar
systems.
H.R. 3099 also gives management authority for the Red Snapper
fishery to the Gulf states through the Gulf States Marine Fisheries
Commission, creating a framework that allows flexible, tailored
management measures. It does not make sense to have a one-size-fits-all
approach to managing this fishery. Each state's fishery management
agency is more receptive and can be more responsive to the wants and
needs of its own constituents than the council process currently
permits. This bill will allow managers to meet local needs as well as
Gulf-wide conservation goals.
H.R. 3099 still requires management to meet the fishery
conservation and management standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Act,
including fair and equitable access to this public resource, and makes
states accountable for effectively managing their fisheries, with
Federal oversight from the Secretary of Commerce. This bill is not
about reallocating the resource and will not negatively impact the
commercial sector. In fact, to ensure there are no immediate,
unintended, adverse impacts on this sector and the businesses that rely
on this supply, there is a 3-year prohibition on reducing current
quotas (unless something changes with the stock) and ongoing monitoring
and enforcement.
The Gulf states are fully capable of providing the data and
management measures needed to effectively manage the Red Snapper
fishery. It would be no real change from our current responsibilities.
We already collect data on and conduct routine stock assessments for
our inshore species; we also partner with each other and NOAA to
monitor offshore species. This data, coupled with our commercial and
recreational landings data, support Federal stock assessments. We
develop and implement management measures for our fisheries through our
respective legislative and regulatory processes. Finally, we enforce
both state and Federal fisheries regulations in all Gulf waters through
the Joint Enforcement Agreement. Working in Federal waters, Louisiana's
enforcement agents generally contact about 4,500 recreational anglers
each year; they are active on the water and at the dock monitoring
compliance in commercial fisheries. If granted management authority,
the states could actually increase enforcement capabilities in all Gulf
waters because additional resources would be available to support this.
In closing, we have tried to work through the council process, but
the council process is not working. If it was, there would be no reason
for this bill and I would not be standing before you today. NMFS itself
even recognizes that ``new and innovative solutions are needed to
manage the Gulf Red Snapper fishery.'' The Gulf states are that
solution.
______
Mr. Fleming. Mr. Blankenship, you are now recognized for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER BLANKENSHIP, DIRECTOR, MARINE
RESOURCES DIVISION, ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND
NATURAL RESOURCES
Mr. Blankenship. Thank you, Chairman Fleming, Mr. Sablan,
and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to come
here and speak with you today.
Red snapper management is of the utmost importance to
Alabama and the area of the most consternation. Even though we
have the smallest coastline, we land, on average, 30 percent of
the recreationally caught red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. We
have a great red snapper fishery off our coast because we have
the largest artificial reef program in the country. Through
partnerships with many organizations, we have placed over
17,000 reefs in the 1,200 square miles of reef zone managed by
my division.
These reefs have built a large concentration of reef fish.
The city of Orange Beach is known as the Red Snapper Capital of
the World and has the largest charter fleet anywhere in the
Gulf, but this year, they and the thousands of private
recreational fishermen have only had access to this great
fishery for 9 days.
The Gulf-wide single stock Federal management of red
snapper is not working for all the states. There is the need
for management on the regional and state level. Regional
management can be done. We all do it now for species like
speckled trout and red drum, as well as other state-managed
species. I don't see where red snapper would be any different.
Due to changes in the Marine Recreational Information
Program in 2013, the estimated catch of red snapper was
drastically inflated over previous years. The public has lost
confidence in this system, and, frankly, so have the Gulf
states.
Each of the Gulf states has implemented a state-specific
red snapper data collection program because there is no belief
that the current MRIP estimates are correct. In order to
determine the actual catch of red snapper landed in Alabama, we
developed and implemented a mandatory red snapper reporting
system for the 2014 season. This system was very successful in
its first year and shows that individualized data collection
that best fits the geography and circumstances of each state
can be very beneficial.
Alabama also continued with the current MRIP system in 2014
and conducted both programs simultaneously so that we would
have a comparison of the data for validity. The results were
striking.
The Alabama system estimated that 418,000 pounds of red
snapper were landed during the 2014 season, while the Federal
system estimated that 1,041,000 pounds were landed.
We validated our results in Alabama using video counts of
vessels that were launched at coastal boat ramps. These video
count estimates were a near identical match to the Alabama red
snapper reporting data. We feel that the Federal system
overestimated the catch by more than double. This gross
inaccuracy has a profound effect on the red snapper seasonally
and, consequently, a profound negative effect on the economy of
coastal Alabama.
We are currently working with NOAA fisheries to calibrate
the MRIP system and to explore how the Alabama data can be used
in that system and for future assessments.
In Alabama, we are continuing to explore technology to
improve the reporting of recreational catch. Alabama has shown
that we have the ability to monitor the catch of red snapper
better than the current Federal system.
With the management regime proposed by H.R. 3099, the
Alabama red snapper reporting system will be vital to
accurately estimating the catch and ensure that overfishing
does not occur.
Currently, the red snapper stock is assessed and managed as
a single unit. For true regional management, each region needs
the ability to conduct stock assessments for the fishery within
its region and then manage that stock independent of other
regions.
In some cases, the data collection for NOAA is not adequate
to fully inform the stock assessments. For example, NOAA
fisheries conduct data collection for reef fish using bottom
long lines. They conduct this work from the Texas/Mexico border
all the way to the tip of Florida. However, their sampling
protocols explicitly exclude the Alabama artificial reef zones.
In order to collect this information and have it included in
the red snapper stock assessment, Alabama has funded and
conducts our own bottom long line data collection program in
Federal waters. Alabama is spending the hard-earned money of
our citizens in order to collect that data that NOAA fisheries
is not.
Alabama just completed our own comprehensive population
estimate of red snapper within the Alabama artificial reef
zones, and this estimate shows that we have more red snapper
off the coast of Alabama than is being estimated by NOAA
fisheries.
We are currently conducting a red snapper stock assessment
for the area south of the Alabama coast. When the population
estimate and the Alabama stock assessment are peer-reviewed and
scientifically accepted, it will show that Alabama has the
ability to adequately manage the red snapper fishery in
totality. We can conduct the stock assessments, we can set a
healthy quota, and we are able to accurately monitor the catch
to ensure that the red snapper fishery is not overfished, while
at the same time allowing access to our fishermen.
I feel like Alabama has more of an opportunity to manage
this fishery in totality under the provisions of this bill than
we have under current Federal law.
In my remaining time, I would like to touch on one other
issue that is germane to this topic.
All the Gulf states need consistent water boundaries for
fisheries management. Currently, the states of Texas and
Florida have 9 miles, while the other states have 3. This is
confusing to the public and does not give each state a level
playing field to manage the fisheries within 9 miles of shore.
Thank you again for the opportunity to participate in this
most worthy discussion, and I will be glad to answer any
questions you may have.
Mr. Fleming. Well, thank you, Mr. Blankenship.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Blankenship follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mr. Christopher Blankenship, Director of Marine
Resources Division, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you today to testify on the extremely
important subject of red snapper management. I am Chris Blankenship and
I am the Director of the Marine Resources Division of the Alabama
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Under Alabama Law,
the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR)
has full jurisdiction and control of all seafoods existing or living in
the waters of Alabama and it shall ordain, promulgate and enforce all
rules, regulations and orders deemed by it to be necessary for the
protection, propagation or conservation of the same. The Marine
Resources Division (MRD) is responsible for managing the fisheries in
the Coastal waters of Alabama and advising the Commissioner of
Conservation relative to saltwater fisheries and seafoods.
I am so honored to appear before you today because for the state of
Alabama, the red snapper fishery is the most important recreational
fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. It has also become the most contentious
fishery. Prior to 1997, the red snapper fishery was open 365 days a
year with very liberal creel and size limits or no limits at all. The
red snapper fishery was being overfished and additional management
measures were put in place to protect the stock. In 1997, the season
was shortened to 330 days with progressively shorter seasons in 1998
and 1999 when the season length was 240 days. During the years of 2000
through 2007, the season was stable at 194 days. In 2008, the
recreational season really began to be curtailed when the season was
shortened to 65 days. In 2012, the season was 45 days long, in 2013 the
season was 28 days and in the current year it was an astounding 9 days.
I am happy to report that the red snapper fishery is no longer
considered to be undergoing overfishing, although it is officially
still overfished. The continued reduction and fluctuation of fishing
seasons has placed a real hardship on the recreational and charter
fishermen of the state of Alabama and other Gulf states.
Alabama has a relatively small coastline compared to the other Gulf
states. Even though the coastline of Alabama only makes up less than 5
percent of the total Gulf coastline, we land on average 30 percent of
the recreationally caught red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. The city
of Orange Beach is known as, ``The Red Snapper Capital of the World.''
The charter and for-hire fleet in Orange Beach contains over 200
vessels. This is the largest homeport for charter and for-hire vessels
in the entire Gulf of Mexico. The people of the coastal areas of
Alabama and particularly the people of the cities of Orange Beach, Gulf
Shores and Dauphin Island are proud of the outstanding red snapper
fishery we have in the Federal waters adjacent to Alabama. You might
wonder how a state with such a small coastline could land that many red
snapper. The state of Alabama has built this premier red snapper
fishery through the creation of manmade artificial reefs.
artificial reefs
Alabama has the largest artificial reef program in the United
States. Red snapper, as well as other reef fish, need structure to
thrive. The water bottoms off the coast of Alabama are relatively flat
with very little relief. Until the last 50 years, the only places that
red snapper were caught off our coast were on the very few natural
reefs and outcroppings in the Gulf. Beginning in the 1950s, the Alabama
Marine Resources Division began placing material in the waters offshore
to create habitat for reef fish. The initial placements were so
successful that in the 1970s Alabama worked with the Corps of Engineers
to create the Alabama Artificial Reef Zone. This 1,030-square mile area
in Federal waters adjacent to Alabama is managed by the Marine
Resources Division. Over the past 40 plus years, there have been over
17,000 reefs placed in the reef zone. These reefs include over 100
decommissioned military tanks, concrete bridge rubble and metal bridge
spans, over 1,000 ten-foot tall concrete pyramids, many barges, ships,
tugs, airplanes, dry docks, oil and gas rigs, concrete culverts, and
pipes. There have also been several thousand reefs placed by private
companies and individuals that met reef construction protocols and were
permitted by the Marine Resources Division. This habitat creation has
caused the population of red snapper to increase substantially off the
coast of Alabama.
I would like for my Division to take full credit for the success of
the Alabama Artificial Reef Program, but I cannot. Although the program
is managed by MRD and the state of Alabama has invested millions of
dollars in reef construction, the level of success we have seen would
not have been possible without the partnerships we have participated in
with the charter industry, recreational fishing organizations and
private industry. The Orange Beach Fishing Association has been
instrumental in partnering with us to fund reef construction. Through
the Red Snapper World Championship Fishing Tournament, hundreds of
thousands of dollars were raised to build reefs. The Alabama Road
Builders Association and the oil and gas industry saw the great fishery
we were building in Alabama and provided material and funds to
construct reefs. The Coastal Conservation Association has been a
valuable addition to recent participation in reef building activities
both in state waters and in adjacent Federal waters. The most recent
partnership has been the creation of the Alabama Gulf Coast Reef and
Restoration Foundation. This group was formed to bring together state,
county and local governments as well as coastal chambers of commerce,
coastal businesses and fishing interests to continue to fund reef
building.
The millions of dollars that have been invested in artificial reefs
and the foresight of so many people have created this great red snapper
fishery, but these same people are only able to have access to this
fishery for a few days out of the year due to current stringent fishing
seasons.
regional management of red snapper through the gulf states marine
fisheries commission
The Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council and the National
Marine Fisheries Service are currently tasked with the management of
red snapper. Currently, the red snapper stock is managed as a single
stock in the Gulf of Mexico with an overall Gulf-wide quota. The
overall quota is divided between the recreational sector, with 49
percent of the quota and the commercial sector, with 51 percent of the
total quota. Once the recreational quota is met, or is projected to be
met, the recreational red snapper fishery in the Exclusive Economic
Zone of the Gulf of Mexico must close. The commercial sector is managed
under an Individual Fishing Quota program (IFQ). The IFQ program has
been very successful at constraining the commercial catch under their
allotted quota each year.
As previously stated, currently the red snapper stock in the Gulf
of Mexico is managed as a single unit. This single unit management
includes both fish caught in state waters as well as fish caught in
Federal waters. All of the Gulf states do not have the same area of
state waters. Texas and Florida have 9 miles of state waters while the
states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana only have 3 miles. All
three upper Gulf Coast states have passed state legislation to extend
our waters to 9 miles for fisheries management. It is imperative that
these new boundaries be recognized by the Federal Government in order
to put all five Gulf states on a level playing field. Some of the
states have red snapper seasons in state waters that differ from the
Federal red snapper season, which is within their sovereign rights. The
issue for a state like Alabama is that the fish caught during these
state seasons is deducted from the overall Gulf-wide quota which
shortens the seasons in Federal waters off the coast of Alabama. The
state of Alabama does not have many reefs within 3 miles of the shore
and therefore there is not a sufficient red snapper population in state
waters to have much of a season outside of the Federal season. Until
last year, all of the reefs we have constructed in the Gulf of Mexico
are outside the state 3-mile territorial waters.
The large decrease in the recreational season length coupled with
the inequality of state water area and inconsistent red snapper seasons
by some states has many people looking for solutions. One of those
possible solutions is regional management of red snapper and other reef
fish. There are still many aspects of regional management that are
under discussion but one thing is clear, the current Gulf-wide, single
stock management system through the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management
Council has not satisfactorily served the fishermen of the Gulf of
Mexico or the resource.
As currently proposed under Amendment 39 to the Red Snapper Fishery
Management Plan before the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council,
regional management would divide the Gulf into five regions
corresponding to the five Gulf state boundaries. Each state would be
allocated a portion of the recreational red snapper quota as set by the
Science and Statistical Committee of the Gulf Council. This allocation
would be determined using prior landing history and other factors to
establish a fair distribution of allocation. Once a state receives its
allocation of the total quota, the state could enact management
measures that would best fit the needs of that state. This flexibility
would assist in lengthening the season for most states but the biggest
benefit would be in tailoring seasons and management measures that
would optimize the socio-economic needs of each region. Currently, the
red snapper season begins on June 1 of each year and runs consecutively
until the quota is projected to be met. There are some states that, due
to tourism, weather patterns, or other factors, would prefer a season
at a different time other than June each year. For example, some states
might want a season in April or May, some would like a weekend only
season, some would like a fall season while some would like to have a
split season. Regional management would allow each region to set
seasons that would provide the greatest benefit to the fishermen and
coastal economies within their state while still protecting the red
snapper stock.
Regional management and quota allocation would also solve the
problem of different state water areas and incompatible regulations.
Each region would be allotted a certain amount of pounds to manage. It
would not matter if the fish were caught in state waters or Federal
waters; it would still be counted toward that one regions allocation
without adversely affecting another region. Regions could also use
other measures to better manage the fishery in their region including
setting different bag limits or size limits or assigning different
sectors a portion of the regional quota.
If H.R. 3099 was implemented, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries
Commission would conduct stock assessments for red snapper annually and
then each of the five Gulf states would submit a plan to manage the
fishery adjacent to their state. I think this has a great deal of
potential. If the state and selected NOAA scientists can work together
to produce a comprehensive stock assessment conducted by the Commission
and then manage the resultant quota with the means that protect the red
snapper stock while also allowing greater access to recreational
fishermen that would be a vast improvement over the current system.
The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission does not currently have
regulatory authority. This is something that would have to change in
order for this proposed system to be successful. Another issue concerns
funding, the Commission does not currently employ a stock assessment
scientist and there are no funds in the Commission budget to conduct
stock assessment workshops. There is currently not adequate funding to
hold public meeting in each Gulf state to receive public testimony.
These are issues that can be resolved by transferring a portion of the
funding that is currently being used by NOAA and the Gulf Council to
conduct these activities to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries
Commission.
recreational red snapper data collection
Due to changes in the Federal Marine Recreational Information
Program (MRIP) in 2013, the reported catch of red snapper was
drastically inflated over previous years. The public has lost
confidence in this system and frankly, so have many of the Gulf states.
Each of the Gulf states has implemented a state-specific red snapper
recreational data collection program because there is no belief that
the current MRIP estimates are correct. There has been a consensus in
Alabama from the charter fishermen and many recreational fishermen that
for the opportunity to pursue regional management they would be willing
to take a more active role in the reporting of their catch. In order to
determine the actual catch of red snapper that is landed in Alabama,
the Alabama Marine Resources Division developed and implemented a
mandatory Red Snapper Reporting System for the 2014 red snapper season.
This program required both charter and recreational fishermen to report
their catches of red snapper upon their return to the dock. This system
was very successful in its first year and shows that individualized
data collection that best fits the geography and circumstances of each
state can be very beneficial.
Alabama implanted this new system in 2014 but we also continued
with the current MRIP system and conducted both programs simultaneously
so we would have a comparison of the validity. The results were
striking. The Alabama system estimated that 418,000 pounds of red
snapper were landed during the 2014 season while the Federal MRIP
system estimated the 1,041,000 pounds we landed. Alabama validated its
results by using video counts of vessels launched at coastal boat
ramps. These video count estimates were a near identical match to the
Alabama red snapper reporting system data. We feel that the Federal
system overestimated the catch by more than double. This gross
inaccuracy has a profound effect on the red snapper season length and
consequently a profound negative effect on the economy of Coastal
Alabama. Alabama plans to continue the mandatory red snapper reporting
system in 2015. We will again conduct both the state and Federal
systems concurrently in order to have comparative data. We are also
working with NOAA Fisheries to calibrate the MRIP system and to explore
how the Alabama data can be used in that system and in future
assessments.
The charter fleet in Alabama has proposed 100 percent electronic
trip reporting to ensure compliance and to assist in quota monitoring.
In Alabama we are continuing to explore new technology to improve the
reporting of recreational catch. Alabama has shown that under regional
management we have the desire and the ability to better monitor the
catch of red snapper than the current Federal system. With the
management proposed by H.R. 3099, the Alabama system will be vital to
accurately estimating the catch to ensure overfishing does not occur.
As the Director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division, I am
concerned about the cost of additional data collection. For regional
management, or continued Federal management, adequate funding for
recreational data collection is imperative.
regional management and stock assessments
The proposed concept of regional management through the Gulf States
Marine Fisheries Commission is a step in the right direction. The
flexibility to set seasons and other management measures by region will
go a long way toward providing tailored management that best suits the
socio-economic and fishery management needs of the region. However, not
all regions have the same habitat and therefore not all regions have
the same stock characteristics. As previously stated, Alabama has the
largest artificial reef program in the United States. We have over
17,000 reefs that have been placed in our reef zones. This large amount
of habitat has produced a large amount of fish. Not all states or
regions have this large concentration and population of red snapper and
other reef fish. Currently, the red snapper stock is assessed and
managed as a single unit. For true regional management, each region
needs the ability to conduct a stock assessment for the fishery within
its region and then manage that stock independent of the other regions.
The current Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
(MSA) does not allow this type of true regional management.
In some cases, the data collected by NOAA Fisheries is not adequate
to fully inform the stock assessment models. To obtain a large portion
of the data included in the red snapper stock assessment, NOAA
Fisheries conducts fishery independent data collection for reef fish
using a bottom long line. NOAA conducts this work from the Texas/Mexico
border to the tip of Florida. However, their sampling protocol
explicitly excludes the Alabama Artificial Reef Zones from its data
collection. Attached to this testimony is a chart showing the last 2
years of NOAA Fisheries long line sets south of the Alabama coast. As
you can see, the reef areas off our coast are not sampled. Red snapper
primarily reside near reef structure. To me this is akin to conducting
a census of the United States but excluding all the cities and just
sampling the rural areas. The population of our United States would be
drastically different if the census was conducted in this manner. I
feel the red snapper information collected by NOAA is also skewed by
excluding the areas where over 30 percent of ALL the red snapper in the
Gulf of Mexico are caught. In order to collect this information and
have it included in the red snapper stock assessment, Alabama has
funded and conducted our own bottom long line data collection program
in Federal waters. Alabama is spending the hard earned money of our
citizens in order to collect data that NOAA Fisheries should be
collecting. Again, this is blatantly unfair to the citizens of Alabama.
Alabama just completed our own comprehensive population estimate of
red snapper within the Alabama Reef Zones. This population estimate was
presented by Dr. Sean Powers of the University of South Alabama at the
Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council Meeting in October of 2014.
The estimate shows that we have more red snapper off the coast of
Alabama than is being estimated by NOAA Fisheries. We will continue to
refine this estimate and work to have the information included in the
next benchmark red snapper stock assessment. We are currently
conducting a red snapper stock assessment for the area south of the
Alabama coast. When the Alabama Red Snapper Population Estimate and the
Alabama Red Snapper Stock Assessment are peer reviewed and
scientifically accepted, it will show that Alabama has the ability to
adequately manage the red snapper fishery in totality. We can conduct
the stock assessments, we can set a healthy quota and we will be able
to accurately monitor the catch to ensure that the red snapper fishery
is not overfished while at the same time allowing access to our
fishermen. I feel that Alabama has more of an opportunity manage this
fishery in totality under the provisions of H.R. 3099 than we currently
have under NOAA Fisheries and current Federal law.
Thank you again for the opportunity to participate in this most
worthy discussion. The red snapper fishery is of utmost importance to
the people and the coastal economy of the state of Alabama. If I can
ever assist in any way, please feel free to contact me.
ATTACHMENT 1
grants and sub grants received by the alabama department of
conservation and natural resources/marine resources division
NOAA Fisheries Grants:
Southeast Area Monitoring Assessment Program
2010................................................. $ 195,000.00
2011................................................. $ 222,575.00
2012................................................. $ 272,575.00
2013................................................. $ 213,889.00
2014................................................. $ 196,625.00
Cooperative Statistics Program
2010................................................. $ 88,220.00
2011................................................. $ 77,216.44
2012................................................. $ 88,200.00
2013................................................. $ 79,398.00
2014................................................. $ 79,398.00
Emergency Disaster Recovery Program--Round I (EDRP)
2010................................................. $ 5,903,326.43
2011................................................. $ 2,736,295.86
2012................................................. $ 2,123,432.03
2013................................................. $ 0.00
2014................................................. $ 0.00
Emergency Disaster Recovery Program--Round II (EDRP)
2010................................................. $ 1,346,322.94
2011................................................. $ 823,808.57
2012................................................. $ 404,113.46
2013................................................. $ 1,189,202.79
2014................................................. $ 0.00
Interjurisdictional Fisheries
2010................................................. $ 24,544.00
2011................................................. $ 24,550.00
2012................................................. $ 24,545.00
2013................................................. $ 16,654.00
2014................................................. $ 22,411.00
Joint Enforcement Agreement
2010................................................. $ 499,198.00
2011................................................. $ 562,474.00
2012................................................. $ 515,508.00
2013................................................. $ 476,136.00
2014................................................. $ 484,931.00
Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission Sub Awards from NOAA Fisheries:
Marine Recreational Data Collection
2010................................................. $ 179,109.00
2011................................................. $ 143,579.00
2012................................................. $ 205,475.00
2013................................................. $ 191,259.00
2014................................................. $ 330,000.00
Commercial Fisheries Trip Level Data Collection
2010................................................. $ 151,225.00
2011................................................. $ 173,691.00
2012................................................. $ 169,006.50
2013................................................. $ 138,171.00
2014................................................. $ 197,470.00
Biological Sampling of Recreational and Commercially Important Species
2010................................................. $ 112,406.50
2011................................................. $ 100,264.00
2012................................................. $ 144,650.50
2013................................................. $ 119,029.00
2014................................................. $ 76,971.00
Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council:
Contractual Services to Assist with Council Business
2010................................................. $ 38,474.95
2011................................................. $ 30,746.55
2012................................................. $ 33,402.57
2013................................................. $ 35,000.00
2014................................................. $ 45,000.00
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Fleming. And we are anxious to get into questions.
Unfortunately, we have been called to the Floor for a vote. So
we will go ahead and recess. We expect to return in about 30,
35 minutes. So don't get too far away, and we have plenty of
questions for you.
Thank you, and we are in recess.
[Recess.]
Mr. Fleming. OK. The subcommittee comes to order. At this
point, we will begin Member questioning of the witnesses. To
allow all Members to participate and to ensure we can hear from
all of our witnesses today, Members are limited to 5 minutes
for their questions. However, if Members have additional
questions, we can have more than one round of questioning.
I now recognize myself for 5 minutes.
Mr. Rauch, there is clearly a mistrust with the MRIP, the
MRIP program. At least two states now have conducted their own
recreational data collection programs for red snapper. And, by
the way, it is not just red snapper. We have had other--it is
clear that the data for fish surveys in general under NOAA have
been too old and unreliable. But in the MRIP, results were not
only erroneous but highly inflated. So, in addition, there is a
time lag between when the data is collected and when the MRIP
results are available to fishery managers.
How is NOAA addressing these issues?
Mr. Rauch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the hallmarks of
the Marine Recreational Information Program or MRIP is working
with the states to design the program to get the data that both
the Federal and the state managers need to manage that fishery.
We support localized efforts to try to collect that data. We
actually worked with Alabama on their program, funded part of
that program. We worked with a number of other states to try to
work on these issues to collect the data, calibrate the data,
and to make it usable. We do look forward to that. So
variations in the data are not to be unexpected. We are working
closely with Alabama to align their program and to determine
why there is a discrepancy between the numbers. And that
happens in other states, too. In various places, the survey
could be high or low, and we need to determine why it is high
or low in order to calibrate that long term.
Mr. Fleming. All right. So, obviously, we need to do a much
better job, and now with the technology we have, which is so
inexpensive, we need to take advantage of some of the more
creative and cutting-edge ways of making those measurements and
reporting them in real-time.
Under H.R. 3099, Mr. Miller's bill, all data collection and
management functions for the red snapper fishery would be
transferred to the Gulf States Commission.
Concern has been raised that the legislation might waive
the requirements in the Magnuson-Stevens Act that the fishery
be rebuilt and that annual catch limits and accountability
measures be maintained.
So can you comment on that concern?
Mr. Rauch. Well, the administration has not taken any
position whatsoever on the bill. So, to the extent that there
are concerns or praise for the bill, those are opinions of
others.
We do think that it is important--this fishery affects not
just the recreational fishermen in the Gulf, and it is a very
important recreational fishery, it affects a directed
commercial fishery which is providing jobs and resources to
local communities and fish throughout the country.
And also, as I mentioned in my opening testimony, one
significant source of the mortality is the juvenile red snapper
that is caught in the shrimp fishery. So we think it is
important on any type of management structure that they be able
to deal with all of those sources of mortality in a coordinated
manner. It certainly can be done, but it needs to be done
because all three of those components need to be addressed
together, and if you don't look at all three of those
components, you are going to create inconsistencies.
Mr. Fleming. Under the Council's regional management plan,
would states manage and enforce out to 200 miles?
Mr. Rauch. I can't speak to the Miller bill. Currently,
under the council system, the states can enforce out to 200
miles if the regional management is structured accordingly.
States currently can manage their own fishermen regardless
of where they are as long as it is consistent with Federal
regulations. And they could enforce either directly through
some sort of delegated authority or through a joint enforcement
agreement with us, they can enforce Federal laws out to 200
miles.
Mr. Fleming. I have seen various scenarios where that is
divided among states. Is this something that may lead to the
requirement of multiple state licenses?
Mr. Rauch. Depending on how it is structured, if each state
is managing it individually, you could theoretically have each
state licensing fishermen, and so you would need five. You
could design a system where there is a single multi-state
license. So, there are different ways that you can address
that.
On the Atlantic Coast, often when the fisheries are managed
recreationally under the Atlantic States Commission's
authority, there are multiple state licenses that are needed.
Mr. Fleming. OK. My time is up. I yield to the Ranking
Member.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Rauch, let me ask you several questions.
H.R. 3099 does not authorize additional appropriations for
the annual stock assessments it would require the Gulf
Commission to conduct. So, without the funding, how would the
Commission pay for stock assessments?
Mr. Rauch. Thank you. That is a good question.
Currently the Commission does contribute to the overall
science enterprise in the Gulf. If you assign them more
responsibilities, they will have to find those funds from
somewhere. If more funds are not given to them, they will have
to take it away from some of the other funding that they do,
and there is a significant question about whether their stock
assessments could reach things like the commercial landings,
either in the directed commercial fishery or in the juvenile
bycatch in the shrimp fishery.
Theoretically they can do those things. We work with them
closely on data collection, but if you add new responsibilities
without new funding, you would have to take that money from
somewhere. It just doesn't----
Mr. Sablan. So you--they would have to find money from
somewhere----
Mr. Rauch. Yes.
Mr. Sablan [continuing]. Else.
OK. And the bill would also give the Gulf Commission
regulatory authority over red snapper, but that the Commission
does not employ any fishery management plan coordinators or
stock assessment scientists. This is in contrast to the
Atlantic States Commission, which has several fish.
So do you believe the Commission has the capacity to manage
the fishery?
Mr. Rauch. I believe the Commission, if given this
authority, would have to hire new staff to support these
efforts.
Mr. Sablan. So they don't have--we don't believe they have
the present capacity to----
Mr. Rauch. I believe they would have to hire some new
staff.
Mr. Sablan. All right. So, what challenges does NOAA face
when incorporating data collected by the states?
Mr. Rauch. As I said, the red snapper fishery is currently
managed as a unit throughout the Gulf, and so we have to make
sure that data we get from one state is talking the same
language of the data that we get from another state so that we
can understand the health of the overall Gulf-wide population.
Some states we work better with than others. Some states
have a long track history with others. I think collectively we
try to get a uniform picture, but it is challenging. And from
the Federal Government's perspective, we sample for more than
just red snapper. We sample a broad suite of things, and so we
have to calibrate things like a directed red snapper survey
with the overall effort. It is not impossible to do. It
presents challenges to do, particularly as new surveys come
online, but we do encourage states to--we do encourage
localized efforts to get data that we collectively need. It
just creates a calibration challenge.
Mr. Sablan. So let me--just for the record, you also stated
that red snapper stock is only halfway through its rebuilding
target. It is still overfished. Am I correct?
Mr. Rauch. It is still--it is not rebuilt.
Mr. Sablan. It is what?
Mr. Rauch. It is not rebuilt. Yes, it is only halfway to
the rebuilding target.
Mr. Sablan. My question is, it is still overfished?
Mr. Rauch. Yes. That is correct.
Mr. Sablan. So is rebuilding the stock the best way to
ensure the highest quality, highest value for the Nation for
the fishery, destination for the fishery?
Mr. Rauch. We have seen significant increases in
opportunities and in economic value in rebuilt stocks than in
overfished stocks across the country. There are more fish
available for both the commercial and recreational fishermen.
They can have longer seasons for a rebuilt stock. It is the
goal that we are trying to work toward, and we are not there
yet.
Mr. Sablan. OK. Mr. Blankenship, sir. You mentioned in your
testimony that the Gulf Commission would need funds transferred
from NOAA in order to manage red snapper, but the legislation
before us, H.R. 3099, does not allow for such a transfer, and
without that funding, can the Commission manage snapper
effectively? And how much funding would be needed, do you
think?
Mr. Blankenship. The current funding that the Gulf States
Marine Fisheries receives and the current staff, I don't think
that it is adequate to truly be able to manage this fishery,
but if they were given this as a task, money comes to the Gulf
States Marine Fisheries Commission now from NOAA fisheries for
other data collection programs. You know, a lot of the funding
that comes for the data collection in the Gulf that is managed
by the Commission comes through NOAA now. So there is, I could
see the mechanism where that would take place.
Mr. Sablan. I know my time is over, but how much money
would be needed?
Mr. Blankenship. The Gulf States Marine Fisheries
Commission, in response to this bill, is putting together an
estimate, and we will have that at our next meeting in March,
we will have that information.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much.
Mr. Fleming. Gentleman's time is expired.
Mr. Duncan from South Carolina is recognized.
Mr. Duncan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks for holding
this valuable hearing.
Since I have been in Congress for 4 years, we have talked a
lot about data collection, and I remember the gentleman from
Florida, Mr. Southerland, talking about two guys in a lab coat
determining fishing seasons and all based on computer models,
and so my first question is for Secretary Barham from
Louisiana.
I see that your state's data collection and gathering is
producing a much clearer picture for state management and
stewardship of fishery resources. So the question is, how is it
that your state measures 23 times more fish and interviewed 49
times more vessels than the Federal system?
Mr. Barham. Congressmen, thank you.
It is an allocation of manpower and assets to put on the
subject, is what it amounts to. I notice that we were talking
about 2013, the gap between what they estimate, because they
have such a lack in hard numbers, they are extrapolating from
such a small number, they computed--National Marine Fisheries
computed that the catch for recreational landings in Louisiana
was between 265,000 and 945,000 pounds. That is 700,000 pounds
difference. For the same period, we confirmed with our intense
monitoring that it was between 503,000 and 549,000. That is
only 45,000 pounds.
Mr. Duncan. And you were using more actual data and talking
to fishermen and measuring and counting?
Mr. Barham. Absolutely, we were. We have biologists
assigned. What we put in place in Louisiana is a free permit.
It is an offshore landing permit. Anyone who is going offshore
has to have that offshore landing permit. So----
Mr. Duncan. Excuse me just a second.
Mr. Rauch, are you using computer models?
Mr. Rauch. We use a combination of computer models and
actual samplers, data we get from samplers.
Mr. Duncan. All right. I will go back to the Secretary.
Mr. Barham. The sampling we do, we have biologists. We have
biologists in the water and on the docks. We have identified
the primary dock locations where these snapper are coming
onshore. There are probably 20, 25 major docks that we are
physically counting and looking and measuring these fish, so
that we are literally taking thousands more samples for
Louisiana. So that we know what that catch is, and we are
following up with phone surveys and mail surveys to these
people who have these free offshore landing permits so we know
where to pool. It is about assets assigned to the
responsibility. That is the difference. state is going to be a
much better vehicle to assign those intense looks, if you will.
Mr. Duncan. Right. I am from South Carolina, and I don't
even have to take my shoes off to use the digits on my feet to
count that there is a big difference between 40,000 unit
difference and 500,000 unit difference. That is amazing.
So, Mr. Rauch, I notice that Texas has significantly more
state waters than Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and
Texas allowed a year-round fishery with a higher bag limit or a
catch limit than other states. So why did NOAA allow this to
continue for more than 15 years and how does it affect the
potential allocation splits between the states?
Mr. Rauch. Thank you, Mr. Congressman.
The effect of that, there is only a certain number of red
snapper that can be caught recreationally. The more that are
caught in state waters, the less that can be caught in Federal
waters. So when Texas has a longer season than Federal waters,
we account for that--or any other state, frankly. This is what
we did when Louisiana or the other states extend their season.
We account for the state landings in those waters and deduct
them from the Federal season. So the Texas extension has the
effect of limiting the Federal season to less time. The same
would be true in any other state that has a season longer than
the Federal season. We would take those fish out of the Federal
quota, and we would make the Federal season shorter.
Mr. Duncan. All right. Let me go back in the very little
remaining time I have and ask, how do you feel about the
accuracy of the state's data? The numbers that were just spoken
to by the Secretary, how do you weigh that accuracy, and how do
you reconcile the differences, 40,000 versus 500,000? How did
you reconcile that?
Mr. Rauch. Thank you, Mr. Congressman.
It is certainly true if you have an intensive effort that
is expensive and time-consuming and is something that currently
the NOAA fisheries does not have the resources to commit to a
single species in a single state, and states may be better
positioned to do that. You may get a more accurate estimate. We
need to compare that to the historical estimate of fishing in
Alabama before they instituted this landings and compare it to
the rest of the Gulf. We need to calibrate it, but we hope to
be able to do that. I think we were in discussions with
Louisiana about calibrating their survey in the coming years so
that we can compare their landings to both their historical
landings and to other states. So I think that we would welcome
more accurate data as long as we can figure out how it relates.
Is it apples to apples or is it apples to oranges, and that is
what we are working with them now to do.
Mr. Duncan. I will tell you, calibration and historic data
and computer models seem to be out of whack. When you hear
numbers that I just heard from Louisiana and that we have
talked about in this committee numerous times where the actual
data, interviewing the captains at the dock, looking at the
catches, talking to fishermen, and actually doing the field
work, you've got the resources of the Federal Government at
your disposal, and I know we are under tight and austere times
here, but I believe actual data of counting fish and talking to
the fishermen work better than these computer models, and I
yield back.
Mr. Fleming. Gentleman's time is up.
Chair now recognizes Mr. Byrne, the gentleman from Alabama.
Mr. Byrne. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Rauch, what is the budget for the NOAA marine fisheries
this year?
Mr. Rauch. I don't have the exact figure in front of me,
but it is something in the realm of $800 million to $900
million. Somewhere in that realm.
Mr. Byrne. So you have $900 million and you can't give us
any better count of the fish stock than what you have told us
today?
Mr. Rauch. Within that--yes, we manage every fishery in the
country from the Virgin Islands to the Northern Marianas to
Alaska to Hawaii. We also manage the endangered species, and
the amount of money that we can allocate to fish surveys is a
line item in our budget, and so we do the best that we can in
terms of accuracy----
Mr. Byrne. My constituents do the best they can to pay
their taxes that make up that $900 million. Can you explain to
my constituents in the state of Alabama why, with all that
money, NOAA Marine Fisheries explicitly excludes the Alabama
artificial reef zone from its sampling protocols? Can you
explain that?
Mr. Rauch. In the last two stock assessments, in the 2013
stock assessment and in the upcoming stock assessment, we are
incorporating data that is collected on artificial reefs into
those stock assessments.
Mr. Byrne. Well, why didn't you do it before?
Mr. Rauch. Historically, we haven't been able to. We
collect data in these areas by trawling along the bottom, and
you can't trawl--the gear that we have historically used you
can't trawl on artificial reefs. It is bad for the reefs, and
it is bad for the nets. So we have discovered additional ways
either using long lines or other kinds of sampling mechanisms
to actually sample in there, and actually our partners did
that. I don't want to take full credit for that.
Mr. Byrne. Well, Mr. Blankenship and I went out with Dr.
Bob Shipp, who you know, on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, I
think it was in May, and he had these hi-def cameras mounted on
submersible vehicles to look at the actual reefs themselves to
count fish . . . 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We actually caught fish on the
reefs so they can get how big they are, how old they are, all
that sort of thing. He was able to do that with the very
limited budget he has as a member of the faculty of the
University of South Alabama.
Are you telling me a Federal agency that has almost a
billion dollars is relying on using trawl nets to find a fish
that you can only find on a reef? Is that what you are telling
us?
Mr. Rauch. You can find that fish in other places.
Mr. Byrne. I have been fishing the Gulf of Mexico my whole
life. I have never known anybody that has found a red snapper
anywhere but a reef. That is where they grow. They are reef
fish. So why do you not sample on reefs with $900 million at
your disposal?
Mr. Rauch. The commercial fishermen don't set their nets on
the reefs, sir. You can catch these fish off the reefs. The
recreational fishermen tend to do that.
The camera technology is relatively new technology, and we
very much support that technology, and we are trying to work
that into the stock assessments. We believe that this is very
promising to actually do what you have suggested, to actually
look at the reefs, to have actual hard data, and that is the
portion of the data that does actually work into our----
Mr. Byrne. You would agree that there is a large percentage
of this fish stock on reefs.
Mr. Rauch. Absolutely, sir.
Mr. Byrne. Why would you not sample on reefs if that is
where the large percentage of the fish stock is?
Mr. Rauch. We are trying to find ways to do that.
Mr. Byrne. Well, I just told you a way that a very much
lower funded organization has been able to do that. How can the
Federal agency that is charged with this, that has almost a
billion dollars, how come you can't do that?
Mr. Rauch. We are incorporating that data into our stock
assessments.
Mr. Byrne. You are incorporating data that somebody else
has collected not using your funds.
Mr. Rauch. Much of the data that external people use to
collect reefs and technology is using our funds. Much of the
data that goes to the Gulf Commission.
Mr. Byrne. Do you have----
Mr. Rauch. The Alabama survey that we have talked about----
Mr. Byrne. Do you have any problem with letting some of
that $900 million be used by the Gulf States Fisheries
Commission to do its own sampling?
Mr. Rauch. We currently allocate some of that $900
million----
Mr. Byrne. Would you be willing to allocate more if that is
what it took to get an accurate sample of this fish stock----
Mr. Rauch. We believe we have an accurate sample of this
fish stock.
Mr. Byrne. Well, I think that the testimony and evidence
before this committee directly contradicts what you have just
said, and we have lost confidence in you. The people in the
Gulf states have lost confidence if you. You have two of the
most respected men in their fields sitting next to you.
Obviously, from what they have said, they have lost confidence
in you, and you have said nothing today to indicate to me that
we should have confidence in you and provide you $900 million
to do a poor job of what you are charged to do.
I appreciate you being here today. I know that you are the
guy that gets to come here and catch the flack, but, quite
frankly, I think we have come to the point where we need to
take it away from your organization and give it to the people
that live in that area that will do it right and do it with
sound science and in a way that make sense for us all.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Fleming. Gentleman yields his time.
Next the Chair recognizes Mr. Southerland for 5 minutes.
Mr. Southerland. Thank you, Mr. Rauch. I appreciate you
being here, and I know we have met, and I have enjoyed our
conversations.
I am curious, biomass for the red snapper, by some
estimations, has as much as doubled in the rebuild. Is that
accurate, close to accurate?
Mr. Rauch. Yes, sir. From the low point of this population,
it has close to doubled. From historical--if you go back to
historical measurements of the biomass, it is not close to
historic highs. I think if you look at my written testimony,
there is a chart of the biomass that indicates where we are on
the rebuilding trajectory.
Mr. Southerland. We have looked at some data, your own
data, and we have seen that, since 2006, there was evidence
that the red snapper was clearly rebuilding, and that was with
194 commercial days--or, excuse me, recreational days fishing
with a four-fish bag limit.
Now, based on that data that there is, and it is your data,
it is not data we dreamed up, we have estimated that, or have
seen proof that, the snapper was rebuilding. Yet, since 2007,
we have gone from 194 days and a four-fish bag limit down to 9
days, and there has already been discussion at the Gulf Council
that that will be down around, from some estimations, 1 day to
a high, maybe, of 5 days.
So, we know that this year the recreational fishery and
those anglers will be once again penalized for a fishery that
has rebounded and continued to show enormous rebound, and yet
your agency and a director within your agency claims that it
will take until 2035--let me say that again 2035--with no
season, by the way, in the South Atlantic. I mean, crumbs from
the king's table. A weekend, but not a season.
Am I accurate in what I have just explained to you?
Mr. Rauch. So there are two different stocks in the South
Atlantic and the Gulf. Both of them are depressed and are
rebuilding. So I don't want to confuse the two. Both of them
have very short----
Mr. Southerland. But here is the thing. ``Rebuilding'' is a
relative term.
Mr. Rauch. Yes.
Mr. Southerland. OK? I like absolutes. And it is an
absolute fact that the red snapper fishery is healthy, not
overfished. An arbitrarily low-set quota set by relativists is
overfished, but not by individuals who believe in absolutes,
because absolutely the fishery, the red snapper in the Gulf of
Mexico, is stronger, doubled, by your own estimation, and we
see your own data showing that it was rebounding in 2007 when
the IFQ was put into place.
Mr. Rauch. So it is rebuilding. It is rebuilding at a pace
that is much greater than we expected. It is healthier than we
thought it would be at this point in time.
Mr. Southerland. OK.
Mr. Rauch. The management managers that we put in place in
those times, both the commercial IFQ and the bycatch
restrictions in the shrimp fishery have helped. Also what has
helped is the limitations on the recreational fishery, but yes,
it is rebuilding. I will completely agree with that.
Mr. Southerland. So if you are a recreational fisherman and
you work 60 hours a week to take your family, your children,
fishing on Saturday, and 7 years ago, you had 194 days to do
that and the fishery has rebounded, in your own words, you just
said, faster than anticipated, and yet the 2035 date is not
getting any closer or not being edited down, and you are a
recreational fisherman and you are down to 9 days now with a
two-fish bag limit brought down from four, and you are looking
now because of the comments that have been made at the Gulf
Council meeting saying, Hey, we are looking at a 1-day season,
perhaps at the most a 5-day season, if you are a recreational
fisherman that continues to own a boat and pay the registration
and buy the gas and do everything that it takes, the catch is
now two fish, do you see the problem that your agency finds
with maintaining integrity with the general public?
Mr. Rauch. There are fishermen today that can catch a red
snapper that could not catch it 5 years ago because the stock
is moving along the coast of Florida, but, yes, I completely
agree with you that the average fisherman does not understand
why in a rebuilding fishery like this that the season is
shorter. They are allowed to catch more red snapper now than
they have ever been allowed to before. The quota for the
recreational fishery is higher than they have ever been before,
and yet they continue to catch that, even in a 9-day season. It
makes it very difficult to explain to one fisherman who only
sees what they catch how there are thousands of anglers and the
overall Gulf catch is much higher than even the highest quota
we have ever allocated to the recreational fisherman.
Mr. Fleming. OK. Gentleman's time is expired.
And next Mr. Jolly is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Jolly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for allowing me to be here today. I appreciate
it.
Mr. Rauch, to build on Mr. Southerland's comments, you have
acknowledged NMFS' position is that the stock is rebuilding.
You also said that it is still being overfished. You can't
actually have both, because if the stock is rebuilding, we are
not overfishing. The plan is actually working. Right?
Mr. Rauch. The stock is not subject to overfishing.
Overfishing is the act of the fishermen that drives the stock
down. You would be correct that you cannot have overfishing and
rebuilding at the same time. The stock is still overfished,
which is a population estimate, but it is rebuilding and so
overfishing has ended.
Mr. Jolly. Overfishing has ended?
Mr. Rauch. Overfishing has ended.
Mr. Jolly. And so the position of NMFS and the Council for
reducing from 9 days to 6 days or 5 days would be as a result
of weight as opposed to what--why if overfishing has ended, why
do we need to reduce the number of days in a season to continue
on the track that has been successful thus far to rebuild,
taking your data, not even considering the state data yet.
Mr. Rauch. First of all, the stock assessment is going to
look at all these numbers, and we are going to be expecting an
update. So that update will determine how much fish are
available. Every update that we have done recently has
indicated more fish are available to be caught. The stock is
growing. So we have increased the quota, the amount of fish
that the recreational fisherman can catch. That may happen
again. So that is going on now and will be available before
next season.
Mr. Jolly. OK. And I am sorry. I have to move on because I
have additional questions. You indicated NMFS does consider
data, state-collected data. Secretary Barham, do you agree with
that? Do you think that the Louisiana data, or Mr. Blankenship,
the Alabama data, in any real tangible way has ever influenced
decisions by NMFS or the Council? Do you think it is being
appreciably considered?
Mr. Barham. As far as Louisiana, I have my doubts that our
information is getting the consideration it merits.
Mr. Jolly. Mr. Blankenship, Alabama?
Mr. Blankenship. We are currently working with NOAA
fisheries with our Alabama data from the red snapper reporting
program to get that incorporated into the stock assessments and
to make some calibration changes in the future. I will reserve
judgment on how well that is going to go until we are a little
further down the line in our discussions, but I will say that,
in doing our own data collection with our bottom long line work
in our artificial reef zones that were being excluded from NOAA
fisheries, Mr. Rauch is correct that that is being included in
the stock assessment now but not at the same weight as the data
that is collected by NOAA fisheries. So they are discounting
some of the work that we are doing, and it doesn't receive the
same weight in the stoke assessment, so it doesn't affect it as
much as it should.
Mr. Jolly. Sure. And that is similarly what we hear from
our folks in Florida, there seems to be a perfunctory
consideration and a call for data, but at the end of the day,
it seems to be pushing a noodle at times.
Secretary Barham, curious, you mentioned that your
fishermen from all sectors agreed to a fee increase to support
the data collection. Is that right?
Mr. Barham. Yes, sir, we did. We passed it in this past
legislative session, and we termed it our LA Creel program.
Mr. Jolly. And that funds the data collection?
Mr. Barham. It does, and it allows us to do what we
consider a stellar gathering of data for Louisiana, and we are
working with other states now across the Gulf South to tell
them our experiences and problems, and so I think in some other
states you are going to see programs very similar to our LA
Creel.
Mr. Jolly. All right. Thank you.
Mr. Rauch, very quickly, if I may ask you a Rule 40
question. Are you prepared to answer hopefully a pretty general
question on that? With the sector separation between for-hire
and recreational, within Rule 40, are there any protections for
recreational if for-hire overfishes? Because recreational will
tell you that if for-hire overfishes, it is going to come out
of the recreational net.
Mr. Rauch. My understanding is if for-hire overfishes, for-
hire will have to stop fishing, and there is a payback
provision in some manner for them.
Mr. Jolly. Payback from the for-hire sector----
Mr. Rauch. I believe so. You are asking about a level of
detail that I am not aware of. I do know that there is a
section of the Magnuson Act 407(d) which does tie the for-hire
sector quota to the recreational sector and says that, when you
are over, everybody stops fishing, and that is a statutory
provision.
Mr. Jolly. Which is the recreational concern about Rule 40.
Mr. Rauch. Yes, and it is created by 407(d) of the Magnuson
Act.
Mr. Jolly. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Mr. Chairman, thank you again. I yield back.
Mr. Fleming. The gentleman yields back.
In the interest of time, I am going to go ahead and bring
the third panel forward. We had some more questions for the
second panel. I just apologize. We are running out of time, and
I know Mr. Blankenship and Secretary Barham have a lot more
information to provide, but we will need to do that off-line. I
want to thank the panel today and ask our third panel to step
forward.
We are now ready for our third panel, which includes Mr.
David Cresson, President and CEO of Louisiana Chapter of
Coastal Conservation Association; Mr. Bob Gill, Board Member,
Gulf Seafood Institute; Captain Jim Green, Vice President,
Destin Charter Boat Association; and Mr. Harlon Pearce, owner
Harlon's LA Fish, Kenner, Louisiana.
As I already mentioned, your written testimony will appear
in full in the hearing record, so I ask that you keep your oral
statements to 5 minutes as outlined in our invitation letter to
you under Committee Rule 4(a). Also, remember that you are
under the 5-minute limitation, so you will be under the green
light for 4 minutes; yellow light for 1; and when it turns red,
please immediately conclude your remarks.
Mr. Cresson, you are now recognized for 5 minutes to
present testimony on H.R. 3099.
STATEMENT OF DAVID A. CRESSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LOUISIANA
CHAPTER, COASTAL CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
Mr. Cresson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for having
me here today. It is a real honor and thank you Members for
allowing me to present to you today. My name is David Cresson.
I am the executive director, as you mentioned, of the Coastal
Conservation Association in Louisiana. In that role, I have the
honor and privilege of serving 20,000 recreational fishermen in
Louisiana, and I am here on their behalf today.
I have thought a lot about what I wanted to say to you
today, and I could go back on a lot of what you have heard here
today. I think it is very, very clear that this system is
failing. It is not working for anybody really, but specifically
the recreational fishermen. I could talk about other things
that hadn't been mentioned so much, like the fact that the
allocation is so messed up. We could talk about the 75 percent
of the fishery that is now privately held. But I thought,
instead of that or instead of going over what everybody has
already said here today, I would talk to you more from what I
do for a living and that is talk to fishermen every day. I am
out around the state of Louisiana on the coast talking to
fishermen every day, and I am a fisherman. I fish for this
species and others all the time, so I thought I would talk from
that side of things rather than so much about what we have
already heard.
I was in your hometown not long ago, Minden, Louisiana. I
go up there once a year to speak to a Lion's club. You may even
be a member. I think you are. We are up there talking about
fish issues, and it is amazing in Minden, Louisiana, which is
250, almost 300 miles from the coast, where there is not salt
water anywhere nearby. The first question I get from my members
and others in Minden, Louisiana, is what are we going to do to
fix red snapper. They don't ask about trout. They don't ask
about red fish. They don't ask about bass. Those are all state-
managed fish, and they are in great shape. They ask about red
snapper in Minden, Louisiana, which is almost in Arkansas. So
it goes to show you what an issue this is for recreational
anglers all around Louisiana certainly and around the Gulf
Coast. So this is an important fish. It is one that we need to
make right. We need to fix this for the recreational sector. I
appreciate the efforts that are going on here today.
More importantly than any of that, I am a fisherman and I
am a father. I came up fishing with my dad and creating all
these great memories on the water. The clearest memories I have
as a kid are on a boat with my dad, and so I wanted to pass
those same sorts of memories on to my kids. And just recently,
this past summer, I was on a boat with my two sons, 10-year-old
and 7-year-old sons. I took them red snapper fishing for the
first time. It was during the 9-day season. My 7-year-old, and
if you know anything about fishing in Louisiana, you find the
first rig in more than about 60 feet of water, throw anything
you've got straight to the bottom, and you are going to have a
red snapper on your line before you click the button. Well,
sure enough, he hooked into one. It almost pulled him over the
side of the boat. The look on his face as he was struggling and
laughing and crying a little bit to get this fish in was
priceless, and we had a great day. Hopefully this bill will
allow for many more days like that.
Let's go back 2 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago from today, we went
fishing, same, me and my two sons. We were catching trout, red
fish; red snapper is closed, as we mentioned. My 7-year-old
son, who is now 8, looked out in the distance from the marsh,
and he could see an oil rig, which is where we had been fishing
during the summer. We were having kind of a slow day, and he
said, Dad, do you think we can maybe go catch some red snapper.
I said, No, we can't go catch red snapper today. He said, Why?
I said, Well, because we will get in trouble. And he said, Why?
I said, Well, because the Government says we can't. And he
said, Are the fish gone? I said, No, there are more out there
than there ever has been. He stopped for a second, and he
looked up at me, and he said, Well, that is just stupid.
Sometimes it takes simplifying it down to the voice of a 7-
year-old kid to realize that what we are doing here is not
working. Now, I corrected him for being disrespectful, but, in
the end, he is right. This is not working. We appreciate
Congressman Miller's efforts here. We hope that you will give
this every consideration, and I thank you for your time. I am
certainly here to answer any questions you might have.
Mr. Fleming. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cresson follows:]
Prepared Statement of David A. Cresson, President and CEO, Louisiana
Chapter of Coastal Conservation Association
Thank you for the opportunity to comment here today, and thanks
especially to Congressman Jeff Miller for introducing the Gulf of
Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act which is of critical importance to
recreational anglers in the Gulf of Mexico. My name is David Cresson
and I am the president and CEO of the Louisiana Chapter of Coastal
Conservation Association. CCA is the largest marine resource
conservation group of its kind in the Nation, with more than 120,000
members, almost all of whom are recreational anglers.
In 2013, the Governors of four Gulf states, including Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal, sent a joint letter to the U.S. House and Senate
leadership in which they labeled Federal fisheries management of red
snapper ``irretrievably broken'' and called for its management to be
transferred to a coordinated Gulf states partnership. The letter was a
powerful declaration that the people of the Gulf Coast have lost faith
in Federal fisheries management and for good reason. This legislation
is a perfect opportunity to restore some of that faith.
Saltwater recreational angling in the Gulf of Mexico is a huge
business and a critical engine for coastal communities. It drives
billions of dollars in economic activity each year, providing
substantial benefits to the economy at the local, regional, and
national levels. And yet, it was not until just this year that NOAA
Fisheries began the long process of developing a national recreational
fisheries policy to manage it. Historically, the agency has regarded
recreational fishing as an after-thought and has attempted to manage
anglers with the same tools that were developed exclusively to manage
industrial fishing operations.
It hasn't worked.
The Federal management system is characterized by hard quotas and
annual catch limits based on infrequent stock assessments and
notoriously questionable recreational harvest data. It is a rigid
management system designed to manage a relatively few commercial
harvesters; not one that is conducive to creating robust recreational
fisheries that are pursued by an extremely diverse population.
In 2014, the red snapper season in Federal waters was 9 days and
that was set against a red snapper population that many marine
scientists believe is the healthiest it has ever been. In many places
in the Gulf, it is not uncommon to hear anglers say that it is
impossible to get a bait past the red snapper to catch anything else.
And yet, Federal law has created a management regime in which as
the fish become larger and more abundant, recreational anglers are
penalized with shorter and shorter seasons because the recreational
quota is caught more quickly. Conversely, using those same tools, if
management was not working and the stock was deteriorating,
recreational seasons would be extended and fishing opportunity
increased because it would take longer to catch the quota.
As it stands today, Federal management is a confusing spiral of
uncertain regulations and greater mistrust in a management system that
anglers increasingly see as punitive rather than constructive.
Compounding the problem, NOAA Fisheries has embraced catch share
programs to reward businesses that are able to count their catch to the
pound. More than 50 percent of the entire red snapper fishery is
already privately held by less than 400 individual commercial
fishermen, and indications are that another 20 percent could be given
to charter/for-hire businesses. These shares have been given away for
free and the shareholders are allowed to fish year-round until their
personal quota is caught. This, at a time when recreational anglers on
their own boats face single-digit seasons on a booming stock of fish.
It is no wonder that anglers believe they are unwelcome visitors in the
Federal fisheries management process.
Conversely, four of the five marine recreational fisheries that
provide the greatest overall benefit to the Nation--speckled trout,
redfish, striped bass and bluefish--are inshore species that are
managed by the states. The fifth, dolphin, is managed by the Federal
system but is a predominantly recreational species.
The states have succeeded because their fisheries management
systems fit the data they have available and they have made the
investments to obtain current information to apply to that management.
With current information in hand, state managers have more flexibility
to adjust fishing rates and seasons to reflect current conditions.
Whereas the Federal system imposes on millions of anglers a quote
system designed for several hundred, the states have made the
investments to allow fishing opportunity to go up and down with the
health of the stock, while staying within an allowable mortality rate.
State-based fishery management has proven to be far more effective
for recreational fisheries, and has engineered some of the greatest
marine conservation victories in the country. The states have a strong
track record of managing their fishery resources in order to achieve
the right balance between sustainability and quality fishing
opportunities. The Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act would
put proven state-based management approaches to work and solve this
problem for millions of recreational anglers along the entire Gulf
Coast.
______
Mr. Fleming. Mr. Gill, you are now recognized for your
testimony.
STATEMENT OF BOB GILL, BOARD MEMBER, GULF SEAFOOD INSTITUTE
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Ranking Member Sablan, and members of the
subcommittee.
I am Bob Gill, representing the Gulf Seafood Institute,
which was recently formed as a nonprofit organization to focus
on providing the availability of Gulf seafood for all. In
summary, relative to bill 3099, we find it is an overly
simplistic approach that doesn't achieve and improve red
snapper management. I would like to address some of the points
that are germane to that discussion.
First of all, just transferring to the Gulf State's Marine
Fisheries Commission, as has been mentioned, creates more
problems than it solves. The Commission is a fine agency, and
it does excellent work in the Gulf, but what is being tasked
through this bill are beyond its capabilities. It possesses
neither the staff, the resources, the budget, or the expertise
to accomplish that. And, even if these resources were provided,
the learning curve would be extraordinarily steep. You all
understand the difficulty in red snapper management. That is
why we are here today. It is not an easy task. It is a complex
one.
From the scientific side, they have no one on staff to
conduct the assessment, and qualified assessment scientists are
few and far between, difficult to have them. The Science Center
in Miami is having difficulty keeping qualified assessment
scientists on hand.
Another issue, which has been mentioned, is funding. It is
absolutely critical, a vast number of responsibilities being
tasked on the Commission, but no funding is provided. And as I
mentioned, staff, resources, infrastructure, et cetera.
Another concern is that passage and implementation of H.R.
3099 will dismantle the existing commercial IFQ, Individual
Fishing Quota System. It is difficult to understand what will
replace it. All we know is that we have a Federal system that
is working well. The markets are orderly. The supply is
plentiful. It is working well, but something will have to
replace it if H.R. 3099 is implemented. We certainly don't want
to go back to what we had previously. It would be difficult to
conjecture a similar system being established under this bill.
Mr. Fleming. Mr. Gill, can you bring that microphone
closer. We are going out to the Internet. We are having a
little difficulty picking up, so if everyone will remember to
be sure and speak directly into the microphone.
Mr. Gill. My apologies, Mr. Chairman.
So that will create a problem from the market standpoint.
In addition, as you mentioned, the recent changes on the for-
hire sector, they are at peril under this bill. There is no
protection that says the advances being made in that part of
the recreational sector will be maintained, and they are on
their way to counting fish and getting accountability to fish
under their purview.
In addition, the allowance of not following Magnuson-
Stevens Act precisely just to the extent practicable raises the
issue of whether the stock is at risk for sustainability, so we
have concerns in that regard. It would be the only species that
is not fully under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Finally, the fundamental issue that is at hand here in
terms of the red snapper fishery is not being addressed at all.
In fact, it is not addressed in any management plan, be it
Federal or state, and that is numbers. The numbers suggest that
if they are not addressed, it is not possible to have a
reasonable season or time. For example, the coastal resident
anglers in the Gulf are estimated at 3 million anglers. It is
estimated over 23 million angler trips per year. And that is
just coastal residents. It does not include the tourists that
come from beyond the coast. If the average weight of the fish
is 7 pounds, under the current quota, there is 700,000 fish
available, so you have 23 million angler trips from just
coastal residents looking for 700,000 fish. It doesn't work,
and this current system doesn't address that. Future systems
need to, and, without it, there is no real solution.
So, in summary, we do not see H.R. 3099 as being helpful to
the solution. We think the Council process can improve the
situation and come up with a good solution, and I appreciate
the time and opportunity to express our views. Thank you.
Mr. Fleming. Thank you, Mr. Gill.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gill follows:]
Prepared Statement of Bob Gill, Owner, Shrimp Landing, Crystal River,
Florida representing the Gulf Seafood Institute
Chairman Fleming, Ranking Member Sablan, and members of the
committee, my name is Bob Gill and I am pleased to be here to testify
before you today on H.R. 3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper
Conservation Act of 2013. A Naval Academy graduate and Ocean Engineer,
I am the owner of Shrimp Landing, a diversified, dockside wholesale/
retail seafood business located in Crystal River, Florida. I am a
former member and chairman of the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management
Council, a current member of the Gulf Council's Science and Statistical
Committee and a member of its Reef Fish Advisory Panel. For purposes of
today's hearing, I will be speaking as a board member of the Gulf
Seafood Institute (GSI), a broad-based trade group representing all
facets of the Gulf of Mexico seafood supply chain from water to table.
Formed in July, 2013, the Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) came
together to protect the Gulf's unique culture and environment while
elevating the Gulf seafood brand with consumers, customers and policy
leaders through advocacy, education and science. The GSI's board of
directors represents every Gulf state as well as every aspect of our
industry--harvesters, processors, wholesalers, retailers, restaurateurs
and the charter-for-hire community--and is positioned to be a leading
voice on key issues including sustainable management, seafood safety,
disaster mitigation and recovery, and data collection. All our members
share the common value of working to make healthful and abundant Gulf
seafood available to all. Additionally, GSI seeks to bolster fisheries
science and research to help preserve the Gulf seafood resource and
contribute to the longevity of our industry.
Today, I will briefly highlight the challenges we face with the
current recreational red snapper management structure in the Gulf and
ways that the system can and should be improved for the recreational
community. Per the committee's request, I will focus the majority of my
testimony on whether the proposed regional red snapper management
structure outlined in H.R. 3099 is the correct approach to solving this
complex management struggle.
Commercial Red Snapper Management in the Gulf is WORKING:
It is very important to understand that the current red snapper
program on the harvest side is working. The species is no longer
undergoing overfishing and is now being managed under a rebuilding plan
which will allow the species to rebuild back to target population
levels. The commercial red snapper Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ)
program, which began in 2007, has reduced the number of vessels and
improved the operation of this fishery. The IFQ program now provides
the harvesting sector with flexibility to fish during times that suit
their needs and the needs of the market resulting in less pressure on
the fishery, less pressure on the resource and a consistent supply of
red snapper to meet consumer demand. While IFQs certainly are not a
panacea for all species or all sectors, in terms of the commercial red
snapper fishery in the Gulf, IFQs have proven to be a very effective
tool.
Unfortunately, the recreational red snapper sector has yet to find
a similar satisfactory solution and Federal management of this side of
the business remains in turmoil. Fishery managers, still relying on the
antiquated ``days at sea'' model for management, have drastically
reduced fishing days for recreational red snapper leading to serious
economic implications for the entire Gulf Coast economy. While I agree
that we must take steps to improve management of recreationally caught
red snapper, any solution that upsets the success of the commercial red
snapper program is not a solution at all and would only harm the
industry, the markets, seaside communities and the millions of
consumers who depend on the year-round availability of red snapper.
The Need for Focus in the Recreational Red Snapper Fishery:
The enormity of the recreational sector poses unique challenges in
proper fisheries management. Not only are there millions of
stakeholders, but there is broad diversity geographically, in landing
sites, time of fishing and socio-economic differences across the board.
This makes it difficult to determine the impact this sector has on the
resource. Not only red snapper, but all the fisheries in the Gulf. And
that difficulty translates to high expense and questionable accuracy
and precision of the results of attempting to assess the true effect
the recreational sector on the marine resources of the Gulf. The
statistical surveys used thus far have not reliably provided the
information needed for good, let alone proper, fisheries management. It
is clear that we need to change the way we do business if we are to
make any improvement in this area.
Fortunately, one component of the recreational fishing community in
the Gulf is poised to do just this. During its October meeting in
Mobile, Alabama, the Gulf Council voted 10-7 to separate the federally
permitted charter-for-hire community from the private anglers in the
Gulf, setting the stage for the charter fleet to be managed
independently for purposes of red snapper. Concurrently, GSI has been
actively working with charter boat captains across the Gulf to generate
support for a program to collect real-time, verifiable data on reef
fish using technology that can be as simple as a smart phone or tablet
application attached to a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). These
systems, for example the Thorium system developed by GSI member company
CLS America, are ready to roll out and have received overwhelming
support from fishermen, stakeholders and charter captains themselves.
This cost-effective and sleek technology will allow fishermen to
quickly and accurately report their catch to a secure database
administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) thus providing regulators with enough data to more fairly and
equitably manage red snapper for charter boat fishermen and their
customers. In response to overwhelming support from the Gulf community,
the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee
included $2 million in their fiscal year 2015 bill to help Gulf Coast
charter boat captains purchase these electronic data collection
instruments. While the current appropriations process is in flux, GSI
looks forward to continuing to work with this committee and the
appropriators to see ground-breaking data collection programs supported
into the 114th Congress.
H.R. 3099, The Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act:
Overall, H.R. 3099 will not solve the recreational red snapper
management challenges in the Gulf. Simply shifting management authority
from the Council and NOAA to another agency, the Gulf States Marine
Fisheries Commission (the Commission), will not address the fundamental
issues of a lack of data, rapidly increasing participation by huge
numbers of private anglers, and a lack of accountability measures to
address egregious overages on the recreational side. Further, H.R. 3099
does not authorize any new funding for the Commission to carry out its
new responsibilities under this bill, neither does it address how the
resource should be equitably allocated between the five Gulf states--an
issue the five state resource agencies have had great difficulty
solving after repeated attempts. Below are several points of concern
with H.R. 3099 that the committee should understand before proceeding:
H.R. 3099 Tasks the Commission with Tremendous New Responsibilities
with No New Resources:
H.R. 3099 effectively takes management authority of the entire
Federal red snapper fishery away from the Department of Commerce and
turns it over to the Gulf States Marine Fishery Commission (the
Commission) and, ultimately, the five Gulf states. While the Commission
does great work facilitating programs that benefit Gulf fisheries on
the whole, they are not currently equipped to handle the mission of a
de facto fisheries management agency as outlined in this legislation.
Further, given the time lines outlined in the legislation, I question
whether the Commission could, even if given ample financial backing,
meet staff and infrastructure needs required to comply with the
legislation.
Congress established the Commission in 1949 with the mission of
promoting better utilization of Gulf fisheries while promoting and
protecting such fisheries and preventing physical waste of the
resource. The Commission is comprised of three members from each of the
five Gulf states and makes recommendations to the five state
governments regarding management of Gulf fisheries. These
recommendations are based on scientific studies made by experts
employed by state and Federal resource agencies. While I have the
utmost respect for the Commission, it is questionable whether they, and
ultimately the individual states, would be any better equipped than the
Department of Commerce, NOAA and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management
Council to make management decisions for red snapper.
Specifically, H.R. 3099 tasks the Commission with vast new
responsibility, including:
Determining a new data collection plan for red snapper
within 1 year;
Determining a plan to undertake annual red snapper stock
assessments within 1 year;
Preparing a red snapper fishery management plan within 1
year;
Holding public hearings in each of the five Gulf states
within 1 year;
Establishing procedures for and undertaking a public
comment program on the fishery management plan;
Establishing procedures for the five Gulf states to
develop their respective red snapper management plans;
Determining whether the five Gulf states are adequately
adopting and are in compliance with their respective
management plans;
Ensuring each Gulf state is effectively enforcing their
management plans;
Certifying that overfishing is not occurring;
Offering Gulf states remedies in the event of
noncompliance;
. . . and more.
This is a tremendous level of new responsibility for the Commission
which is already facing significant funding challenges for their
current programs. If the Commission is expected to effectively
undertake the mission outlined in H.R. 3099, Congress must provide
adequate funding and support from the outset.
H.R. 3099 Does Not Address Increased Recreational Fishing Effort:
Based on the current quota and allocation, and assuming a very
conservative average of 7 pounds per fish, there are approximately
700,000 red snapper available to be caught by the recreational sector
in the Gulf. According to the best available estimates (Marine
Recreational Fisheries Statistical Survey--MRFSS/Marine Recreational
Information Program--MRIP), there are approximately 3,000,000 coastal
resident private anglers in the Gulf and another 3,000,000 tourists
that want to go fishing in the Gulf each year. In fact, only fishing
trips targeting catch red snapper more than consume the available
resource with only one person on the boat. It is clear that resource
managers must determine a management plan that addresses the number of
anglers and angler trips or else the limited supply of red snapper will
always fall woefully short of demand.
H.R. 3099 Shuts Down Effective Management of the Commercial Red Snapper
Fishery:
This legislation says nothing about preserving the current,
effective management regime for commercially caught red snapper in the
Gulf. As I discussed earlier in my statement, red snapper management in
the Gulf commercial fishery is WORKING. Consumer demand for red snapper
continues to grow and our commercial community is the primary source
for meeting this demand on the part of retailers and restaurants
throughout the country. As currently written, H.R. 3099 would take the
entire fishery, recreational and commercial, and turn it over to the
Commission and the five Gulf states. Without some explicit language
preserving the current commercial management structure and the funding
to replicate the existing infrastructure, this legislation threatens to
roll back the clock on a management program that has brought the red
snapper fishery back to life and onto a solid road toward recovery.
Additionally, H.R. 3099 states that quotas may be altered 3 years
from enactment. I am concerned that this leaves the door open for
reassessment of the current allocation between recreational and
commercially caught red snapper. The current commercial allocation
based on historic catch numbers must be preserved to ensure consumer
demand for red snapper can continue to be met.
H.R. 3099 Needs More Thorough Economic Analysis:
Section 10 calls for the Commission to perform biannual economic
analyses with corresponding reports of the beneficial impacts of the
red snapper fishery. While I applaud the intent to incorporate economic
considerations in the program, the section fails to achieve its
purpose. In the first place, the economic analyses are directed to
consider the impacts of the red snapper fishery. This is not helpful to
understanding the benefits to the Nation of this fishery which is the
heart of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). The MSA calls for managing to
maximize the net benefits to the Nation which is not the same as
economic impact. The MSA has it right. We need to detail what the
positive benefit results from this fishery, not what the net cash-flow
to the Gulf as called out for in this section. Second, all the called
out for activities are for recreational activities. There are none
specified for the commercial benefits such as dealers and processors.
Finally not included in the required analysis are the social
consequences of the red snapper fishery. Surely the effect on the
people of this Nation and in the Gulf are as important as the dollars
that result? I note that the Commission will probably lose its current
economist position before implementation of this bill, if passed, and
will have no economists on staff to accomplish this task, requiring yet
additional funds to effect Section 10.
H.R. 3099 Does Not Maintain Federal Sustainability Standards Under
Magnuson-Stevens Act:
Section 5 of H.R. 3099 requires the Secretary of Commerce to
determine if the Commission's red snapper fishery management plan is
compatible, ``to the extent practicable'' with the sustainability
requirements outlined in the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). This loophole
may render red snapper as the only major fishery in the entire United
States that is not fully compliant with important Federal
sustainability guidelines needed for both preservation of the stock as
well as utilization of the species. Should red snapper come out of
compliance with MSA standards, it would be questionably sustainable
with the resulting devastating impact to the resource and all citizens.
Accountability Measures Remain Unclear:
Under H.R. 3099, the remedy for states that do not comply with the
new fishery management plan as reported by the Commission is possible
closure of Federal waters adjacent to the affected state(s). This
strategy leaves state waters open, and possible continued fishing with
significant impact to the overall stock, as well as inevitable cross
boundary issues of Federal waters of an adjacent state, further
imperiling stock status. In effect, the proposed remedy is a small slap
on the wrist, but not effective in protecting the stock. Stricter
accountability measures must be explicitly stated in the legislation.
Enforcement Challenges:
H.R. 3099 turns management of the red snapper fishery over to the
five Gulf states and grants the Commission oversight of these state
management programs. As previously stated, the Commission is comprised
primarily of representatives from the five Gulf states and is,
effectively, run by these states. As such, enforcement and oversight of
the red snapper management plans put forward by the states would be, to
a certain extent, self-enforced leaving the door open for a slippery
slope of missed deadlines, loose enforcement and future mismanagement.
I hold the Commission in the highest regard, however when it comes to
preservation of resources as precious as red snapper, only the
strictest standards for management and enforcement should prevail.
Unknown Outcomes for the Charter Fleet:
As mentioned previously, the Gulf Council recently voted to
separate the federally permitted charter-for-hire fleet from the
private angling community for purposes of red snapper management in the
Gulf. This is a huge step forward in providing effective and
accountable management for the charter community and their customers
who come to the Gulf from all over the country to go fishing. Turning
management of the entire red snapper fishery over to the Commission and
the states threatens to dissolve this new charter program and rope
professional for-hire fishermen and their customers back into the
current unmanageability of the private angling community. Language
should be included in the legislation that preserves this new charter-
for-hire sector and keeps its management as part of the Federal/Council
process.
While clearly H.R. 3099 is not the right solution for the
management concerns facing private anglers in the Gulf, there are
options that the Council can consider, without any intervention on the
part of Congress. However, private anglers must be willing to
participate in the management of this stock in same way as demonstrated
by commercial harvesters and professional for-hire harvesters. One such
method for accomplishing this is the issuance of separate and limited
numbers of red snapper permits which would allow the take of a limited
number of fish per person per year. These could be sold by lottery or
in some other way deemed to be fair and equitable by the state and
Federal fisheries management authorities. Fish landed without
possession of this license would be equivalent to landings after the
season is closed. These permits/licenses should be sold at a
significant premium to the state recreational licenses and could work
similar to the Federal Duck Stamp Program which allows hunters to
harvest migratory waterfowl. In this way the private recreational
fishing effort for this particular species can be reduced or at least
limited and will allow private fishermen to harvest red snapper
whenever is most convenient to them rather than during a brief derby
period in the middle of the summer. H.R. 3099 offers nothing toward the
development of a similar system for red snapper. A more cynical view of
the intent of H.R. 3099 therefore is that it is an attempt to hand the
management of this species to entities which will simply allow greater
harvest and therefore the potential for wholesale mismanagement of the
fishery. Two of the Gulf states have repeatedly and systematically
allowed harvest beyond quotas established by NMFS, to the detriment of
their fellow states. One additional state in agreement with this method
of management would establish a majority for that approach within the
Commission.
Furthermore, if red snapper is allowed to be overfished by the
states or the Commission, then NMFS/NOAA Fisheries may be pressured to
more stringently regulate those fisheries remaining under their
jurisdiction, in particular the Gulf Shrimp Fishery. Shrimp trawl
bycatch has been sufficiently regulated and tied to red snapper stock
abundance that it is a minor factor in the recovery of the red snapper
stocks. Ironically the shrimp fishery and shrimp trawl bycatch would be
the only real means left available to NMFS for controlling the harvest
of the stock if this bill were to be implemented.
With this testimony, I hope I have provided the committee with more
clarity on how H.R. 3099 will impact the Gulf of Mexico seafood
community and the consumers who depend on them. While I applaud the
sponsors of H.R. 3099 for their effort to take some action, it seems
that a satisfactory solution for managing the recreational sector of
this fishery is still a long way off. However, serious strides have
already been made in terms of the commercial and charter components of
the fishery under the current Council-run process. I firmly believe
that a solution to the challenges facing private red snapper fishermen
can be developed without much change in Federal law as it is currently
written. What it takes is committed leaders from the region addressing
the real issues and hammering out a middle ground that works for the
resource and all the stakeholders. No easy chore, but attainable if the
right minds are set to it.
I look forward to working with the committee on these important
issues and I welcome any questions you may have.
______
Mr. Fleming. Mr. Green, you are now recognized for 5
minutes. Be sure that microphone is close by.
STATEMENT OF CAPTAIN JIM GREEN, VICE PRESIDENT, DESTIN CHARTER
BOAT ASSOCIATION, GULF OF MEXICO CHARTER FISHERMAN
Mr. Green. Thank you, Chairman Fleming, Ranking Member
Sablan, and members of the committee. My name is Captain Jim
Green, and I am honored to be here today to testify before you
on H.R. 3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act
of 2013. I am 33 years old and a lifelong resident of Destin,
Florida. Reef fish management in the Gulf of Mexico is
incredibly important to me as it predicts my future. I am a
third-generation fisherman out of Destin. I have worked on
charter and head boats for 25 years, and I have been a captain
for 12. I manage a company that has three federally permitted
vessels that carries around 15,000 anglers a year. I am also
the chairman of the Ad Hoc Red Snapper For-Hire Advisory Panel
for the Gulf Council.
I am speaking to you not only as a federally permitted
business operator but as the vice president of the Destin
Charter Boat Association, which represents more than 70
federally permitted vessels. The for-hire fishing industry is
an established part of Florida's Gulf Coast economy, and Destin
is a prime example of that. With red snapper being a
cornerstone fishery, it deserves careful management, but I
don't believe that H.R. 3099 is the best way to move forward.
We can all agree that recreational red snapper management
is failing. While all recreational fishermen have suffered,
federally permitted businesses and our customers have borne the
brunt of it. Federal seasons are steadily being reduced,
despite the recovering snapper stock, and for-hire fisherman
have had a hard time trusting the data. We have had huge
overages in our quotas and now have to deal with significant
buffers to prevent these overages. These buffers, combined with
unprecedented, noncompliant state seasons, have shortened the
Federal season to the shortest in history. Americans who are
not fortunate enough to own their own boats were almost
completely shut out of this fishery this year since federally
permitted vessels are not allowed to fish in the far more
generous state water seasons. This year, in Florida, state
waters were opened for private anglers and state guide boats
for 53 days. Federally permitted vessels had 9. Our industry
appreciates the interest in helping recreational fishermen
access a growing red snapper population, but this legislation
would hurt the efforts of charter captains like me trying to
make things better.
For-hire management must move in a new direction. A lot of
the leadership in our industry has worked since 2008 to move
toward a sustainable and accountable management plan for for-
hire vessels.
The Gulf Council recently separated two components of the
recreational fishery, private and for-hire. The for-hire sector
wants to be able to continue to work with the Council and all
stakeholders to map our way forward. This bill would eliminate
our ability to do so by transferring the responsibility of red
snapper management out of the Council's hands.
Separating the charter and private angling sectors by
itself does not solve the recreational management problem, but
it gives the Council the ability to create management plans
that maximize fishing opportunities, improve data collection,
and prevent overharvest for each component. Because the two
sectors have different needs out of the fishery, separate
management plans are the only way to do this. We know that
status quo management with restrictive seasons and bag limits
isn't working, and we are working hard to find better
approaches to our sector, including a real-time data reporting
system.
The Destin Charter Boat Association, as well as many other
charter captains across the Gulf, do not want to be a part of a
state-based system like the one set up in H.R. 3099. We are
Federal permit holders and want a Federal management plan.
Transferring authority of red snapper to the Gulf State
Commission would create another layer of bureaucracy to
navigate through. Giving authority for red snapper management
to the states might be a solution for private anglers, but the
Council is currently considering an amendment on this topic,
and they are in the best position to refine the details of that
plan through the stakeholder process that was set up through
the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
I am not in a position to suggest what is best for private
anglers, but I am confident there are ways to solve the
problems of short Federal seasons and ultimately data for these
anglers. We just need to focus on solutions that do not hurt
the other components of the fishery. I hope my testimony today
has helped the committee better understand the challenges
facing this fishery and how we might resolve them in ways that
respect all stakeholder needs. The charter industry wants to
continue to work with the Council and design a Federal
management plan that works for our industry. We need your
support as we work to modernize data collection and also
develop and test new management methods to that end.
We would like to especially thank Congressman Whitman for
his legislation to ensure fishermen are more involved in data
collection, H.R. 3063; and Congressman Byrne for his bill to
eliminate Section 407(d) from the Magnuson-Stevens Act. I, and
the rest of the Destin Charter Boat Association, look forward
to working with the committee and the Council on these issues.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward
to answering any questions you may have.
Mr. Fleming. Thank you, Captain.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Green follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jim Green, Gulf of Mexico Charter Fisherman, Vice
President of Destin Charter Boat Association
Chairman Fleming, Ranking Member Sablan, and members of the
committee, my name is Capt. Jim Green and I am honored to be here today
to testify before you on H.R. 3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper
Conservation Act of 2013.
I am 33 years old and a lifelong resident of Destin, Florida. Reef
Fish Management in the Gulf of Mexico is incredibly important to me as
it predicts my future. I am a second generation fisherman out of
Destin. I have worked on Charter and Headboats for 25 years and have
been a captain for 12 years. I manage a company that has three
federally permitted vessels that carry around 15,000 anglers a year. I
am a voting member of the Ad Hoc Red Snapper For-Hire Advisory Panel
for the Gulf Council.
I'm speaking to you not only as a federally permitted business
operator, but as the Vice President of the Destin Charter Boat
Association, which represents more than 70 federally permitted vessels.
The for-hire fishing industry is an established part of Florida's Gulf
Coast economy, and Destin is a prime example of that. A 2014 study
commissioned by the city of Destin shows that in 1 year, over 300,000
out-of-region tourists injected over $90 a day into Destin's economy.
More importantly for this committee to know, of those 300,000 visitors,
over 44 percent stated they made Florida their destination choice due
to the opportunity to go fishing on charter boats. With Red Snapper
being a cornerstone fishery it deserves careful management, but I don't
believe that H.R. 3099 is the best way to move forward.
We can all agree that recreational red snapper management is
failing. While all recreational fishermen have suffered, federally
permitted businesses and our customers have borne the brunt of it.
Federal seasons are steadily being reduced despite the recovering
snapper stock, and for-hire fishermen have a hard time trusting the
data. We had huge quota overages for years, and now have to deal with
significant buffers to prevent these overages. These buffers, combined
with unprecedented noncompliant state seasons, have shortened the
Federal season to the shortest in history. Americans who are not
fortunate enough to own their own boats were almost completely shut out
of the fishery this year, since federally permitted vessels are not
allowed to fish in the far more generous state water seasons. This year
in Florida, state waters were open for private anglers and state guide
boats for 53 days; federally permitted vessels had 9 days.
Our industry appreciates the interest in helping recreational
fishermen access a growing red snapper population, but this legislation
would hurt the efforts of charter captains like me to make things
better.
For-hire management must move in a new direction. A lot of the
leadership in our industry has worked since 2008 to move toward a
sustainable and accountable management plan for for-hire vessels only.
The Gulf Council recently separated the two components of the
recreational fishery--private anglers and charter-for-hire vessels. The
for-hire sector wants to be able to continue to work with the Council
and all stakeholders to map our way forward. This bill would eliminate
our ability to do so by transferring responsibility for all red snapper
management out of the Council's hands.
Separating the charter and private angling sectors by itself does
not solve the recreational management problem, but it gives the Council
the ability to create management plans that maximize fishing
opportunities, improve data collection, and prevent overharvests for
each component. Because the two sectors have different needs out of the
fishery, separate management plans are the only way to do this. We know
that status quo management with restrictive seasons and bag limits
isn't working, and we are working hard to find better approaches for
our sector, including a real-time data reporting system.
The Destin Charter Boat Association, as well as many other charter
captains across the Gulf, does not want to be a part of a state-based
system like the one set up by H.R. 3099. We are Federal permit holders
and want a Federal management plan. Our Federal permits are for
multispecies, and dealing with one set of regulations for red snapper
and another set for everything else would be extremely confusing.
Transferring authority for red snapper to the Gulf States Commission
would also create another layer of bureaucracy to navigate through.
Giving authority for red snapper management to the states might be
a solution for private anglers, but the Council is currently
considering an amendment on this topic, and they are in the best
position to refine the details of the plan through the process that was
set up by the Magnuson-Stevens Act. I am not in a position to prescribe
what is best for private anglers. But I am confident that there are
ways to solve the problem of short Federal seasons and untimely data
for these anglers, we just need to focus on the solutions that do not
hurt the other components of the fishery.
I hope that my testimony today has helped the committee better
understand the challenges facing this fishery and how we might resolve
them in ways that respect all stakeholders' needs. The charter industry
wants to continue to work with the Council to design a Federal
management plan that works for our industry. We need your support as we
work to modernize data collection and also develop and test new
management methods. To that end, we would like to especially thank
Congressman Rob Wittman for his legislation to ensure fishermen are
more involved in the data collection process (H.R. 3063) and
Congressman Bradley Byrne for his bill to eliminate Section 407(d) from
the Magnuson-Stevens Act (H.R. 4464). H.R. 4464 would give recreational
fishermen more flexibility to try different management approaches that
work best for us. Both of these bills would allow everyone to truly
benefit from the recovery of red snapper.
I and the rest of the Destin Charter Boat Association look forward
to working with the committee and Council on these issues. Thank you
for the opportunity to testify, and I look forward to answering any
questions you may have.
______
Mr. Fleming. Mr. Pearce, you are now recognized for 5
minutes, sir.
STATEMENT OF HARLON PEARCE, OWNER, HARLON'S LA FISH, KENNER,
LOUISIANA
Mr. Pearce. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member
Sablan, and members of the committee.
My name is Harlon Pearce, and I welcome the opportunity to
speak with you today on the issue of recreational red snapper.
I am going to kind of focus on the legislation at hand and also
focus on what the Council has been doing and what we have been
trying to do to move ahead.
As Mr. Gill has said, House Bill 3099 really doesn't have
the funding source; it doesn't have the personnel in place; and
it is a problem that could jeopardize within 3 years all the
hard work in the harvesting component, all the hard work in the
shrimp component of the fishery that has helped grow this red
snapper fishery to where it is. We want to make sure that any
legislation that passes--first of all, I don't believe any
legislation is necessary, I think we can solve our problems
with the Council--it doesn't jeopardize anything, only the hard
work that has been done now and in the past and what we will be
doing now. So, with that said, I am not in favor of H.R. 3099
for lots of reasons.
At the council level and at the fishery level, we have
three components. We have a harvesting component. We have a
charter-for-hire component. We have a private rec component.
All these components prosecute their fisheries differently, and
they deserve a different fishery management plan. With the
passage of Amendment 40, we now have an independent charter-
for-hire component that can begin to develop a business plan
for that component of the fishery, all fisheries, hopefully,
which is sorely needed.
In the past, the charter-for-hire component would come to a
meeting and the National Marine Fisheries Service would say, by
the way, amberjack is closed on Friday. These guys would have
bookings out for months in advance and have to figure out what
to do. They clearly needed a way to develop a better business
plan.
Yesterday and the day before, the charter AP chaired by Mr.
Green met and came up with some excellent ideas. They wanted
the Council first off to begin development of an electronic
monitoring program for the fishery. The Council has also been
involved with the South Atlantic Council in working together to
put all the parts of that puzzle together to get that
electronic monitoring program for the charter-for-hire
together, so that is in the works and could be moving ahead
very quickly. The charter-for-hire component clearly wants to
stay accountable, stay within our allocation. The way they
would want to do that is, first off, they suggested that the
Council go to one fish rather than two-fish limit for the
charter-for-hire. They suggested that the Council split the
season for the charter-for-hire component so that 66 percent of
the season would be done now, and then they would see what they
have caught so they would not overharvest their allocation.
They clearly wanted to stay within their allocation, so they
are working hard to do that. And then electronic reporting to
me is a necessary component of that. We have also been working
on funding sources through the Senate committee and through
NMFS to try and find money to buy VMSs so that hopefully we
could find some funding sources to count fish into 2015. That
is definitely necessary.
Regional management, I am in favor of regional management
for the private rec fishery. Louisiana, my state of Louisiana,
is submitting programs as we speak to the Council to see if we
can get that done. I am in full support of that. I think that
the way to manage the private recreational fishery is through
regional management, and I think that we will be discussing
that at the Council in January. So I hope that that will
happen.
I am chairman of the Data Collection Committee, and that is
where the chink in our armor is. There is no doubt about that.
Our dependence on MRIP needs to change. We need to go to real-
time electronic reporting to solve our problems. MRIP just had
a recalibration workshop that basically said it is still a work
in progress. We don't need a work in progress. We need numbers
that we can manage our fishery with, and we just have to take
the attitude of the East and West Coast and say let's just do
it and get it over with.
Again, I don't really believe that legislation is
necessary. I think that we can get our job done at the Council
and that we are trying to get the job done now. The Council is
a tedious and cumbersome process at best. It takes time. When I
first got on the Council, my first battle cry was, I want to
move at the speed of business, not the speed of government, but
that is very difficult at the Council. But I believe we are
actively trying to work in that direction, and the Council
needs to consider the development of a private recreational
fishery management plan to help them move into the future and
help them do the things necessary to grow their fishery into
the future, but we have to start with the right numbers. We
have to start with the right data so we can manage it. I am a
firm believer in the LA Creel program in Louisiana. I am a firm
believer in what Alabama and these other states are doing. We
don't need to reinvent the wheel. We just need to add grease to
get it moving quicker.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Fleming. OK. Well, thank you, Mr. Pearce, for your
valuable testimony.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pearce follows:]
Prepared Statement of Harlon Pearce, Owner, Harlon's LA Fish, Kenner,
Louisiana
Chairman Fleming, Ranking Member Sablan, and members of the
committee, my name is Harlon Pearce and I welcome the opportunity to
speak with you today on the issue of recreational red snapper
management in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as on H.R. 3099, the Gulf of
Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act of 2013. I am the owner of Harlon's
LA Fish, a seafood wholesaler based in Kenner, Louisiana. I am a member
of the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council, and I am president
of the Gulf Seafood Institute, a non-profit organization representing
the entire Gulf Coast seafood supply chain, including professional and
recreational fishermen, processors, retailers, restaurateurs and the
consumers who depend on them.
red snapper is important to consumers and the gulf coast economy
Effective and fair management of Gulf red snapper is not only a
concern for the recreational fishing community, but for the broader
Gulf Coast economy and consumers nationwide. While red snapper is a
highly coveted sport fish, consumer demand for red snapper at the
retail and restaurant level remains high. Red snapper is an iconic
American favorite, and according to the National Restaurant
Association, seafood sales are one of the biggest drivers of the
important tourism industry in Louisiana, Florida and the other Gulf
states. Consumer surveys indicate that tourists closely identify the
delicious and mild flavor of red snapper with the American Gulf Coast.
For these reasons, preserving the commercial harvest of red snapper is
of the utmost importance to the entire seafood supply chain across the
Gulf.
commercial red snapper management in the gulf is working
Fortunately, the current management structure for commercially
caught red snapper in the Gulf is WORKING. Starting in 2007, the Gulf
Council and NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) implemented an Individual Fishing
Quota (IFQ) program for the harvesting component of the Gulf fishery
with initial allocations to active commercial fishermen based on
historic catch data. While IFQs may not be a panacea for all sectors or
all species, in the case of commercial red snapper, this system has
proven a huge success. The species is no longer undergoing overfishing
and is now being managed under a rebuilding plan which will allow the
species to rebuild back to target population levels. The current
commercial red snapper IFQ program provides fishermen with the
flexibility to fish during times that suit their needs and the needs of
the market resulting in a safer, more efficient fishery. With the
ongoing successes happening in the commercial red snapper fishery, it
is imperative that any changes to current law be designed NOT to
undermine these important advances.
management advances in the charter-for-hire community
Another very important development in the Gulf red snapper
community is the newly formed, separate charter-for-hire component.
During our October meeting in Mobile, Alabama, the Gulf Council voted
10-7 to pass Reef Fish Amendment 40 which separates out the federally
permitted charter-for-hire community from the private angling
community. This action, widely supported by charter boat captains and
their customers, the seafood community, and conservationists, will
increase stability for the for-hire component, increase flexibility in
future management of the recreational sector, and minimize the chance
for recreational quota overruns which could jeopardize the rebuilding
of the red snapper stock. By managing the charter component separately,
state and Federal managers can be more responsive to the needs of
professional fishermen and their hundreds of thousands of non-boat
owning customers who must plan their travel to the Gulf Coast months in
advance.
importance of electronic data collection
A key benefit of separating out the charter-for-hire component in
the Gulf is that the stage is now set for a comprehensive electronic
data collection program that will revolutionize the way in which we
capture and process data on red snapper in the Gulf. For years,
stakeholders across the Gulf have prodded NOAA and the Southeast
Fishery Science Center (SEFSC) to utilize real-time, verifiable
electronic data collected by fishermen at sea in order to better
understand the abundance of this resource. Unfortunately, the Federal
Government still relies on a system of regional telephone surveys
administered by the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) to
determine the status of this important species. Meanwhile, new
technology as simple as a smart phone app connected to a Vessel
Monitoring System (VMS) on a charter boat exists and must be
incorporated into the Federal Government's data collection program.
GSI member company CLS America is working closely with
representatives from the Gulf charter-for-hire community, NOAA and
other stakeholders to identify ways to incorporate their Thorium
product into an electronic data collection program for the Gulf charter
community. GSI also worked with Congress to include $2 million in the
Senate version of the FY 2015 Commerce, Justice and Science
Appropriations bill to help cover the cost of such an electronic data
collection program. We look forward to working with Congress to see
this funding included in future Federal appropriations bills and have
this important electronic data collection program off the ground in
2015.
private angling community in need of management solutions
While both the commercial and charter-for-hire communities are
seeing great management improvements in red snapper, there is no
question that red snapper management in the private angling community
in the Gulf is in dire straits. In fact, in March, the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Federal Government
violated the law by failing to properly manage the red snapper fishery
in the Gulf by allowing recreational fishermen to exceed their share of
the red snapper quota in 6 of the past 7 years without holding the
sector accountable. One fundamental issue at play that of simple
numbers: there is a huge demand on the part of fishermen and a very
limited resource. Even if there were a significantly increased quota,
the numbers still don't work. Based on current figures that estimate 3
million recreational anglers in the Gulf, if 25 percent of those
fishermen caught one, 8-pound fish each, the entire recreational quota
would be caught leaving nothing for the remaining 75 percent of
fishermen. Clearly, this formula is simply unsustainable. We must
determine a way to equitably divide up the fish in a way that allows
anglers continued access while also preserving the resource for the
future.
At present, the Council's primary tool for management on the
private angling side is the ``days-at-sea'' model. This year's 9-day
season caused great frustration among fishermen and policymakers alike,
but strategies are on the table for moving past this limited management
regime, such as regional management, tagging systems and more. The
Council process as outlined under Magnuson-Stevens provides the Council
and its stakeholders with the appropriate tools and authority to
develop innovative solutions without any changes to Federal law. While
the process may seem lengthy and tedious at times, I have full
confidence that an equitable solution will be devised. As a Council
Member and President of GSI, I look forward to working closely with our
allies in the recreational community to develop alternative management
systems for the betterment of all stakeholders and preservation of the
resource itself.
h.r. 3099: a misguided approach
While an overhaul in the management of recreationally caught red
snapper in the Gulf is needed, I have serious reservations about the
plan outlined in H.R. 3099, the ``Gulf Red Snapper Conservation Act of
2013.'' Based on my experience as a seafood business owner and Member
of the Gulf Council, I would like to bring the following concerns to
the attention of the committee:
H.R. 3099 Does Not Take into Account Red Snapper Abundance
in Federal vs. State Waters: As you know, red snapper
primarily occurs and is caught in Federal waters, not state
waters, which is why it was originally placed under Federal
management. The legislation inaccurately states that red
snapper ``ordinarily are found shoreward of coastal
waters.'' The five Gulf states already have the authority
to manage fishing in state waters. If red snapper were
``ordinarily'' caught in ``coastal waters,'' there would be
no need for Federal management at all, not to mention new
legislation.
Enforcement at the State Level will be Insufficient: H.R.
3099 proposes to turn over management of an overfished
species to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (the
Commission) and, ultimately, the Gulf states, thus removing
the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)'s authority to
close Federal waters based on the determination that
overfishing is occurring. The Federal Government will also
lose its authority to preempt a state that allows a harvest
level that jeopardizes the sustainability of the stock.
This authority is critical to preservation of this
important stock. Under this proposal, effective management
and enforcement authority over red snapper will become even
more ineffective, again threatening the rebuilding of this
once overfished stock.
State Sustainability Standards Must Adhere to Federal
Standards under MSA: The Gulf states (primarily Florida and
Texas) have not adopted regulations for red snapper in
their state waters that are consistent with the Fishery
Management Plan (FMP) and rebuilding plan. Although not
explicitly stated, it is apparent that the standards for
determining ``sustainable harvest'' would be substantially
decreased under a state-run program.
Fisheries Enforcement at the Commission Level Unclear:
H.R. 3099 grants the Commission authority to enforce new
state red snapper programs. While the Commission is highly
qualified to make recommendations to the Governors and
legislatures of the five Gulf states regarding fisheries
management, the Commission has no regulatory or enforcement
authority, nor is it provided with that authority under
H.R. 3099. Under this bill, the process by which the
Commission would address overfishing in any one state could
allow for substantial overfishing to occur before any
enforcement measure, if any, is taken. This is not
conservation.
Serious Implications for the Commercial Fishing Community
and Consumers: Under H.R. 3099, the states would be allowed
to completely eliminate commercial red snapper fishing
after 3 years, with no protections for fishermen's
investments, including vessels, infrastructure, Federal
permits and quotas. Further, the entire commercial IFQ
system, administered by NMFS, would be eliminated leaving
commercial harvesters and the consumers who rely on them at
risk for losing their entire allocation, not to mention
leaving the red snapper stock, which is rebounding under
the commercial IFQ system, at risk. Additionally, the
Commission and the states would then have to develop a new
management plan for commercial red snapper, with little or
no additional resources. H.R. 3099 seems to provide
benefits only to private recreational anglers at the
expense of professional fishermen whose entire livelihoods
depend on their access privileges.
H.R. 3099 Does Not Provide Any Resources for Data
Collection: Current red snapper data collection and stock
assessment efforts are limited due to funding and staff
resources. H.R. 3099 simply reorganizes the
responsibilities of management without providing what
improved management actually needs: the funding and human
resources to do the necessary data collection and stock
assessments.
In addition to the concerns listed above, I also fully support the
points outlined in my fellow witness and GSI board member Bob Gill's
testimony. Mr. Gill and I have served together on the Gulf Council,
make our livings in the seafood community and understand fully the
importance of preserving red snapper in the Gulf.
While drastic management solutions are needed, it is clear that
programs outlined in H.R. 3099 are not the right approach. In fact, of
all the red snapper bills introduced during the 113th Congress, very
little could be improved with passage of any one. On the contrary, most
of these bills will result in a worsened, not bettered, management
system.
In closing, while the Council's process can be tedious and
cumbersome at times, it does work. The drastic improvements to
commercial management of red snapper and the new charter-for-hire
program underway now illustrate that the transparent, regional
management approach as administered by NOAA and the Gulf Council with
authority granted under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) is the most
effective means to preserve our delicate fishery resources while
ensuring access for all Americans. The Council is also currently
discussing the possible benefits of a regional management approach for
the red snapper private angling community similar to what the East
Coast is developing for summer flounder. On the East Coast, the
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has divided the
summer flounder recreational management area into several smaller
regions, each with their own size and bag limits designed to best meet
the needs of their respective states. The overall intent of this
regional management regime is to provide more equity in recreational
harvest opportunities along the East Coast--an outcome that the Gulf
Council could also pursue without any action from Congress. In
addition, my state of Louisiana has also submitted to NMFS a plan to
follow the summer flounder model for red snapper in state waters, which
is yet another indication that congressional action here is unnecessary
at this time.
Thank you for welcoming my testimony today and I look forward to
your questions.
______
Mr. Fleming. At this point, we will begin Member
questioning of the witnesses. To allow all Members to
participate and to ensure we can hear from all of our witnesses
today, Members are limited to 5 minutes for their questions. If
we have additional questions, we may have a second round.
I now recognize myself for 5 minutes.
Mr. Cresson, in your opinion would H.R. 3099 still work if
it only applied to the recreational sector of the red snapper
fishery? You gave a very inspiring discussion about the
multigenerational effect of fishing and really sportsmanship in
general. The slogan of our state is, ``A Sportsman's
Paradise.'' It is so valuable, and as Secretary Barham so
eloquently discussed how we put resources into getting it right
for the constituents in Louisiana. So how would this work for
recreational anglers?
Mr. Cresson. Thank you for the question, Congressman
Fleming. I hadn't thought about it specifically the way you
asked it--Would it work if it were only for the recreational
sector? My guess is that since our state in Louisiana and
apparently the other states as well, have the best data, it
would work best for all the sectors. So you never hear people
fuss in Louisiana about the state-run commercial seafood
businesses because they are very well run. They are very
accountable. They are very well sustainable. They are doing a
great job. Those are state run. So as far as whether we should
separate this out and let red snapper commercially stay with
the Federal Government and recreational go to H.R. 3099 or to
the Gulf State Commission, I hadn't thought about it, but it
seems to me the best data is with the state, so all the sectors
should go under there. So I think this would work very well for
recreational fishermen, regardless, because as we have heard
very clearly here today, the best data is being collected on
recreational fishermen by the state agencies, boots on the
ground, biologists at the dock, phone calls, emails after the
fact. The data is unquestionably better, so certainly H.R. 3099
would get us to a point where that is the system we are using,
and it would certainly be a better system than what is going on
now.
Mr. Fleming. OK. Thank you.
In NOAA's testimony, Mr. Rauch noted that under the red
snapper commercial catch tier system the number of vessels
participating in the fishery has been reduced by 28 percent. As
the for-hire sector moves ever closer to a catch tier system of
management, is there concern that there will be a similar
reduction in vessels and jobs?
Mr. Cresson. Absolutely, yes, sir. As a matter of fact, not
long after the vote at the Gulf Council to approve sector
separation came out, there were already solicitations going out
to those in the charter industry to buy their permits or to buy
their quotas or whatever it might be. So the design of that
program is to reduce the fleet and reduce the effort. We
certainly don't want to see that happen to the charter
industry. You have great gentlemen, like Mr. Green, who are out
here working hard providing a great opportunity for
recreational anglers who don't have boats. We need to make sure
that they are all able to sustain their businesses. And I can
tell you, I don't know so much about Alabama and Florida, but
in Louisiana, we have small, single-boat charter captain
operators that don't necessarily have the resources to put into
things like electronic reporting. And when people talk about
the fact that the entire charter industry is in favor of
electronic reporting on their boats, I can tell you they
haven't talked to the vast majority of the charter captains in
Louisiana because none of them that I have talked to are.
Mr. Fleming. Right. And as I understand, it is quite a
problem in the charter industry when seasons are so small, so
short, are unpredictable because oftentimes, the charter
process takes months for reservations and other things. People
don't just suddenly walk on a boat in one single day. This is
something that requires planning.
Mr. Cresson. Yes. Certainly most of the charter captains in
Louisiana are booking their trips for summer 2015 right now.
People are making long travel plans to get down there. They
can't come on the drop of a hat. When you have 9 days, keep in
mind, 9 days, 4 of which are weekend days, 5 of which are
weekdays, it is hard for people to get off during the week and
go snapper fishing, so you really have only 4 days, and if only
2 of those are fishable because it is windy or for other
reasons, you are talking about very few fishable days, very
hard for charter captains and others to make plans.
Mr. Fleming. And somehow they have to cover their costs
just in that brief period of time, the cost of the boat, the
insurance, the licenses, all the other things that go along
with that.
Well, I see my time is up, so I will now recognize the
Ranking Member for questions.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good
afternoon, everyone. Let me start with Mr. Gill. I am glad you
referenced the Federal Duck Stamp, the program that Chairman
Fleming recently bolstered with the passage of H.R. 5069. You
mentioned that red snapper management must address the number
of anglers, the number of trips to be successful. Can the Duck
Stamp be used as a model for a snapper stamp? Could proceeds be
used to fund stock assessments much like Duck Stamp funds are
used for wetland conservation?
Mr. Gill. Thank you Ranking Member Sablan. I believe it
could. I think the important factor here is that the discussion
of the numbers side of the problem, the inequity between the 40
anglers and the one fish for the 40 anglers needs to be part of
that discussion, and one approach might be the Duck Stamp
approach, not necessarily the only way to approach it. But if
we don't recognize that there are a lot of angler trips looking
for one fish, we won't ever find a solution.
Mr. Sablan. So would moving to a snapper stamp system have
the potential to create the year-round red snapper seasons that
Mr. Cresson complains private anglers do not have but which
commercial boats and now charter vessels enjoy. If anglers have
a certain number of stamps or tags, couldn't they use them any
time?
Mr. Gill. Correct. That is one approach that has been
mentioned. Tags, stamps in some fashion recognizes the number
problem and attempts to address it and permits the holder of
the tag or stamp to fish when they would like.
Mr. Sablan. Mr. Green, would you please discuss the
benefits of sector separation to the charter fleet in the Gulf
Coast economy?
Mr. Green. Yes, sir, thank you for the question,
Congressman. The benefits would be that the American public
that relies on the for-hire vessels for access, their
allocation got locked in. They are no longer at this point
being squeezed out of the fishery no matter what management
practice is in place for sector separation. By breaking away
and giving us our allocation, it helps us to explore different
management alternatives that might not be accepted in the
private angling community where as it might benefit our
businesses and the tourists that frequent our coastal
communities.
Mr. Sablan. OK. Would you elaborate please on the
difficulty of separating red snapper out for regional
management when your Federal permit covers a number of reef
fish?
Mr. Green. Yes, sir. Thank for the question. On my boat,
anglers catch red snapper, Vermilion, Gag Grouper, Red Grouper;
it goes on and on. All these species, almost all of them,
except for one, has a compliant season when you are talking
about state and Federal. As you know, red snapper doesn't. And
by moving that to the state commissions, Federal permit holders
would have an even further disadvantage as our needs in the
fishery differ from the private angling community. It would
also add another burden to the for-hire stakeholders as they
would have to deal with two governing bodies to conduct
business and representation at those levels. It would also
undermine the opportunity that the Gulf Council has now given
us to manage ourselves in a manner which is pliable for all
for-hire fishermen.
Mr. Sablan. Mr. Pearce, is the Gulf Council already set to
consider a regional management concept for red snapper in
January? And if so, is this legislation necessary, sir?
Mr. Pearce. Yes. I think regional management has been on
the table for a year or so now. And part of the problem we had
was the inability of the states to solve an allocation problem
among the states. That has been solved now. The states have
figured out a number, a percentage of the allocation for each
state, so that throws it back on the table. Something else that
puts it back on the table is that part of the problem with
regional management in the past is we needed a three-quarter
majority vote to delegate the authority for the state.
Mr. Sablan. So is the legislation we have before us still
necessary?
Mr. Pearce. No.
Mr. Sablan. No. All right. Would you please describe the
importance of the commercial red snapper fishery to the West
Coast economy and the benefits it provides to the Nation as a
whole, and could you make it quick, Mr. Pearce?
Mr. Pearce. Yes. Real quick. It is clear we have to take
care of the citizens of this country. The harvesting component
clearly takes care of the citizens in Chicago, New York, San
Francisco, as well as the Gulf Coast, but when it comes to the
Gulf Coast, in New Orleans in particular, no one comes to New
Orleans to eat a steak. It is a fish. And fish is a very
important part of the tourism across the whole Gulf Coast of
the United States. And so it is very important that we have a
consistent, reliable source for the American public, for the
restaurants, for the consumers and the retailers, and have one
that can be fished year around as it has been fished now.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Fleming. The gentleman's time is up.
The Chair recognizes Mr. Southerland from Florida.
Mr. Southerland. Mr. Green, thank you for being here. I
live about 45 minutes from you, so I know you know who I am,
and I know the Destin fleet. Have you all identified the 28
percent of your fleet that is willing to go out of business?
Yes, I didn't think so. Because that is exactly what is going
to happen, OK, and you know it and I know it.
Mr. Green. If I may, Congressman, 28 percent of us have
already gone out of business and that was due to----
Mr. Southerland. Right. And that was before sector
separation.
Mr. Green. An insufficient management plan for our sector.
Mr. Southerland. So have you identified the additional 28
percent, once they go into a catch share system, IFQ, have you
identified the additional 28 percent, on top of the 28 percent
now that you have already admitted, so now we are up to 56
percent of family businesses, generational businesses, have you
identified the additional 28 percent or have you had 28 percent
volunteer and say, you know what, we are going to take one for
the team, so we are going to go out of business? Have you done
that?
Mr. Green. Congressman, thank for the question.
Mr. Southerland. I am sure you appreciate that question.
Mr. Green. It is quite all right. There is the issue----
Mr. Southerland. It is the answer that is wrong, that is
not all right. The question may be fine.
Mr. Green. I would appreciate it if you would listen to my
answer before you call it wrong.
Mr. Southerland. Sure.
Mr. Green. In the for-hire management, in our limited
access privilege program of permits, we have a number of them
that aren't necessarily actively fishing in it, so we believe
that 28, 20, 30 percent of those permits are what we determine
as laden and possibly not actively in the fishery anyway. So if
those numbers are being counted against us and we set up a
registry or a data collection program that proves that, then
possibly nobody would go out of business, and we would quit
being penalized for the number of permits that aren't actually
actively fishing in the fishery.
Mr. Southerland. Were you in favor of repealing 30(b)?
Mr. Green. At that time, without Amendment 40 on the table
and a chance to manage myself, I certainly was, sir.
Mr. Southerland. So you were in favor of repealing 30(b).
Were you in favor of sector separation?
Mr. Green. In the beginning, no, because there were a lot
of uncertainties, but as we moved into the reduced amount of
access because of state noncompliant seasons, I moved to find a
way to manage myself than to rely on others.
Mr. Southerland. OK, and you and I would agree there. So
you must have felt somewhat corralled when Mr. Crabtree was
stated as saying, Hey, if we repeal 30(b), we will never get
sector separation. You must have felt like maybe the healthiest
horse in the glue factory as you moved toward the refusal and
the change in direction by Mr. Crabtree to repeal 30(b)?
Mr. Green. I appreciate that. That is an interesting way of
putting it. I didn't feel corralled. I felt like it was a time
to move forward, and 30(b) offered, it was not a solution for a
long-term plan. It was a short-term solution to an access
problem that we were getting pushed out of. Amendment 40 to me,
after digesting it and seeing exactly how that would play out,
that became more apparent to me that that might be a good thing
since the growth of the user groups of the private recreational
anglers have become more politically expedient to push for a
bigger season for them and us get pushed out. So it was a
developing thing. I don't know if it was corralled, but it was
definitely a feeling of needing to take some action to assert
ourselves, and to me, Amendment 40 did that by securing the
allocation for our businesses.
Mr. Southerland. I have talked to commercial fishermen who
brokered the deal back in 2007, and you are on the similar
path. We don't have to relive history, and if we ignore
history, we are destined to repeat it. You are moving down the
same path as commercial fishermen, and they all used the word
``coral'' back in 2007. And you say, move on and it is time for
a new day. I don't think the 56 percent or the 28 that have yet
to be identified would admit that.
I am curious, do you own catch shares?
Mr. Green. Catch shares to me is a very broad term. My plan
and what I have put forward is a permitted fishing quota where
an allocation would be designated----
Mr. Southerland. Do you have IFQs?
Mr. Green. I would not want an IFQ. I would not want an
individual to take ownership of the resource. Now, as owning a
permit and being accessed to that, I believe that the
allocation should be tied to the permit, and as that permit is
a privilege, it can be taken away, as where an IFQ program, if
I had IFQ and passed away, my wife would now be the owner of it
and then our children and their children. I don't believe the
ownership of a resource is a good thing, but I believe that we
can develop a plan that will put the allocation with the
permit, and, therefore, that permit could be sold to the next
generation to ensure the generational transfer of this industry
or, in a bad situation, be totally removed and expire and those
fish be put back into a pool that the ones that are actively
fishing can participate in.
Mr. Southerland. I see my time is expiring, but I think you
just admitted that the Government actually owns the property of
the fish.
Mr. Green. I believe the people which make the Government
own the fish, sir.
Mr. Southerland. I yield back.
Mr. Fleming. The gentleman yields back.
Mr. Jolly is recognized.
Mr. Jolly. No questions.
Mr. Fleming. You do not have any questions?
Mr. Jolly. I do not have any questions. I would be happy to
yield my time to Mr. Southerland, but I would leave it to the
discretion of the Chair.
Mr. Fleming. Basically, what we are going to do is offer
another round. We are slow adjourners around here. I think what
we will do at this point is have another round but just open it
up to whatever lingering questions. I just have one question,
and I will just offer to other members to ask questions as
well. So I recognize myself for one question.
Again, Mr. Cresson, several witnesses cite the growing
recreational sector and the increasing need for more fish for
this sector. Several witnesses also cite the demand for
commercially caught red snapper at Gulf restaurants and hotels.
While H.R. 3099 would protect the current allocation of red
snapper between the commercial and recreational sector for 3
years, would it be better if this legislation included a
schedule for increasing the recreational quota as the overall
biomass increased, as the Council is currently debating, while
maintaining a floor for the commercial sectors quota?
Mr. Cresson. Well, that is a good question. And, again, it
is one that I haven't put a lot of thought into, but I can tell
you this, I want what is best for our seafood industry and for
our recreational industry, of course. So if the plan you are
discussing here would be the best way to make sure we have
sustainable seafood on our tables in Louisiana and across the
country, then that is great. I love Louisiana seafood. I love
going to restaurants and making sure that they have good, fresh
Gulf-caught seafood. I have never walked out of a restaurant
because they didn't have red snapper that day, but if they had
grouper or amberjack or mahi, then I am just fine. But,
nonetheless, we need to make sure that whichever plan we put in
place, and if it is H.R. 3099, that it includes at its core
using the best available data to make all those decisions. I
hope that answers your question.
Mr. Fleming. Sure. We will go down the panel.
Mr. Gill, would you like to comment?
Mr. Gill. I think it is of the utmost importance, as Mr.
Cresson said, that we maintain the equity for all factors. That
says that there is food for America's consumers, because 98 or
so percent of American red snapper are consumed domestically.
Likewise there needs to be as much as possible a quota
available for private recreational and charter-for-hire. So
maintaining that equity and that balance is difficult, and
obviously, the perspectives of some are different than others,
but if that plan accomplishes that, then we can support that.
Mr. Fleming. Captain Green?
Mr. Green. I believe that, as Mr. Gill stated, I believe
there needs to be a balance. And I believe that seafood is a
major protein that is desired across the country. Like Mr.
Cresson, I have never walked out because red snapper wasn't on
the menu, but, then again, I get access to red snapper more
than most. I think that when we approach these issues, that
equality be brought out and make sure that each sector has an
acceptable amount and that nobody is getting gluttonous in the
allocation.
Mr. Fleming. Mr. Pearce?
Mr. Pearce. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, even as it
may seem in the harvesting component, we still don't have
enough fish. We are always searching for more production. Just
as a recreational fisherman needs to catch more fish than what
he has. So any change in that allocation would not help us in
that end. Also the Socioeconomic Committee on the Council
basically said that any reallocation isn't economically
feasible. It doesn't help. It doesn't do anything. So I really
think that the best way for us to do this is to develop a
better management scheme for the private rec.
Mr. Fleming. Thank you. That concludes my questions.
Ranking Member, Mr. Sablan?
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Pearce, as a current member of the Gulf Council, can
you discuss the different responsibilities of the Council and
the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, and what resources
and authorities does the Council have that the Commission
lacks?
Mr. Pearce. It is clear the Council has regulatory
authority. It has enforcement authority. It has a lot of the
authorities that are necessary to manage any fishery. It has
the ability to develop it. Whereas I am a big proponent of the
Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, they are basically a
depository, and they take ownership of all the data in the
Gulf, and they make sure that that data gets used correctly
into the state and into the Federal management system. They do
some minor stock assessment work, but clearly, they are not
geared up to do the job that the Council is doing right now.
And I think that with H.R. 3099, that responsibility becomes
even tougher because in a couple or 3 years, everything is
going to change. And then the Magnuson may not be considered at
that time. The harvest component can be done away with at that
time. So I think that the clear focus of Gulf States Marine
Fisheries Commission is to advise the states as to what to do
to be a depository and control the data as it comes in from the
different states through the states' organizations and through
the trip ticket programs that all the states happen to have
right now that help us manage those fisheries, but they are not
set up or geared up or financially sound enough or have the
ability to do what the Council can do.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Pearce.
Mr. Gill, even if with its regulatory authority and
additional staff, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission has struggled to manage some stock sustainability,
particularly striped bass, which is on the brink of becoming
overfished again, H.R. 3099 would exempt the red snapper
fishery from requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, such
as ending overfishing, setting annual catch limits and the
rebuilding the stock. Would this help or hurt the fishery?
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Ranking Member Sablan. I believe it
would hurt the fishery because the bill currently has language
that compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act is to the extent
practicable. It doesn't define what that extent is. So, with
the exception of the definitions that define overfishing, et
cetera, the compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, as you
mentioned for annual catch limits or any of those sorts of
things, could not be held. And Magnuson-Stevens Act has
demonstrated that, if managed properly, the species under MSA
are fully sustainable. You take sections away from that, and
you can no longer make that claim.
Mr. Sablan. All right. You also mentioned in your testimony
that the charter sector is working toward providing real-time
verifiable data on snapper landings. The commercial sector
already lost this, but private anglers are not required to and
have shown little interest in doing so, even though there are
complaints about weak data. Do you think that private anglers
have a responsibility to contribute to data collection efforts?
Mr. Gill. I think all users of the resource have that
responsibility, be they for-hire, be they harvesting sector, be
they private recreational fisherman.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you. My last question, Mr. Chairman, is
for Captain Green. I am sure that there are costs to running a
business, charter business or for-hire, plus for gasoline,
maintenance of a boat, slip fees, insurance and everything, but
are only red snappers caught by recreational fishermen, or are
other fish also caught by recreational fishermen? Do they only
go for red snappers or for just recreation, or do they go for
other fish? It looks like if we stop red snapper fishing, if we
reduce it down to 9 days, that the whole thing is going to
collapse?
Mr. Green. Yes, sir, we do catch other fish, and it is
important to also collect the data on those, too. I run a head
boat, and I am required by the National Marine Fisheries to
report my data weekly. There are 68 of us out of 1,100 that do
that. It is extremely important. There is more to the Gulf than
red snapper, but it is a cornerstone fishery. And it is
important that we make sure that we collect data properly on
all of it, and I think the data collection is really polarized
with the red snapper because of how much it is sought after by
the Gulf entirely.
Mr. Sablan. OK. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, my time is up. I think this is going to be
the last hearing we have in this Congress. Right?
I want to thank everybody. It is been a great 2 years, Mr.
Chairman.
Actually, I have learned so much about red snapper. I have
seen some of the pictures Mr. Southerland brought. Beautiful
fish. I think I am going to find a way to come down to
Louisiana. Maybe not Florida yet, but Louisiana, just to try
some of the fish. Seriously, I am from the Islands, and your
fish look so wonderful. And in the islands, we only catch fish
to eat. We don't catch and release. We catch and eat. Thank
you.
Mr. Fleming. Thank you. I want to thank the Ranking Member
for his great work and friendship, and we visited his beautiful
Saipan just the other day and enjoyed that, and you are welcome
to Louisiana any time. Come see us, and we will show you a good
time and a lot of good eating fish.
The Chair now yields to the gentleman from Florida. Before
I yield to him, I also want to say to him how much we
appreciate his service here. He is going to be leaving us for a
little while, but we think we may see him back sooner than
later, and I just want to thank you for this being the last
hearing of the 113th Congress, all the great work and personal
friendship that I have enjoyed with you, Steve Southerland.
And I yield to your time.
Mr. Southerland. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
It has truly been an honor and I want to say to you, you
have done a great job, Mr. Sablan.
Thank you. You are a wonderfully kind man, very generous,
very kind, and want always to do the right thing.
So thank you very much for the spirit in which both of you
conduct yourself in leading our discussions here.
I want to ask a couple more questions, and I want to say I
have reserved judgment on the bill, the H.R. 3099. So, contrary
to what some that own catch shares would like to say, I am not
on this bill yet, but I do feel like asking some questions.
And, you know, Mr. Green, you and I had a healthy exchange
here a few minutes ago, and I want to ask you--I want to ask
you and Harlon, who I have enjoyed working with over the last
several years, what happens to a $5.50 pound price for red
snapper if a healthy fishery is determined in the South
Atlantic and the red snapper is opened up? What effect would
that have on a $5.50 price?
Mr. Green. I believe that is you.
Mr. Pearce. Well, supply and demand, of course, is what
affects any market you get into. So any increase in supply
could affect price, but the demand for snapper is so strong
right now that I don't think you are going to see a whole lot
of price problems or price drops with any snapper fisher right
now. It would have to get a whole lot more production to really
affect this price with what is going on right now.
Mr. Southerland. But, I mean, if there is great evidence
that people are chumming snapper to the top and catching them
on the top water lures in the South Atlantic, and even though
we haven't--it has been closed for 5 years and, you know, we
have a weekend to fish in the South Atlantic, one would have to
conclude that there is a reason for that.
Mr. Pearce. A reason for the prices?
Mr. Southerland. Well, no, no, no. I mean, there are some
that certainly could speculate that there is a reason for not
opening up or even having a survey in the South Atlantic. So I
know it expands beyond where you currently are in the Gulf, but
it is a South Atlantic issue as well and there seems to be
great aggravation--and there seems to be, I guess, some
economics at play here that--listen, I am assuming we all are
somewhat familiar with economics. If you are in business, you
certainly are. Supply and demand. And if the numbers grow, if
you have greater numbers of fish going into a market, typically
the market price of that fish will be decreased, that seems to
be a law of nature as well as a law of economics. Is that true?
Mr. Pearce. If things are as they are, you are probably
right, but things aren't going to be as they are, Mr.
Southerland.
First off, there are different programs in play right now.
The Gulf group that is doing a tag fishery for red snapper that
is in high demand, high demand, and we are looking at different
mechanisms to manage our fisheries in the Gulf in a different
way. We are not in the commodity marketplace with this fishery.
We don't want to be in the commodity marketplace with any of
our fisheries. So we have to create better programs that
continue to increase the price to continue to get it done, and
we are doing that with specialized programs.
Mr. Southerland. But you have to admit that there are some
that are inside of the fisheries world that have expressed the
desire for a commodities market.
Mr. Pearce. I can understand that. I really do.
Mr. Southerland. Well, no. They are there. Correct? You
admit that.
Mr. Pearce. Oh, yes. I mean, in every market there is, but
there is a commodity market of different fish and different
species, but yet with red snapper, as prized as it is by
everybody at this table, our ability to not change that and
make it like with the Gulf Wild Program that it is something
that is special, that something that is better, which it really
is. We only catch 2 percent of the fish in the Gulf of red
snapper. That is all--2 percent. So we are talking about a
fishery that is 2 percent of what we do across the board. All
of us here, recreationally and commercially, in the harvesting
sector. So our job, not only with snapper, with all of our
fisheries, shrimp, you name it, is to take it to a different
level and to make sure that our fishermen maintain the price
levels no matter what happens, and you are going to have a
commodity market for a lot of stuff, but you still have to be
able to develop that market that maintains the price structure
that we have to have for our fishermen.
In Galveston, for instance, right now there sushi bars that
are demanding 2-hour-old fish, and they are paying $15 a pound
for that 2-hour-old fish. So there are differences and
different ways to create markets, create different things, and
in this country, our goal is to do a better job with what we
have and to try and stay as far out of the commodity market as
we can.
Mr. Southerland. What I am saying, though, is I would say
if you have a sushi market that is going to pay you premium
dollar for a red snapper, there are some in this industry that
are happy to take that red snapper away from a recreational
fisherman like Mr. Cresson down here to line their pockets to
sell that fish to the sushi man.
Mr. Pearce. I disagree. I don't want----
Mr. Southerland. Now, come----
Mr. Pearce. Mr. Southerland, you and I are good friends,
but I am going to tell you, I don't want to take a fish out of
his pocket. I want to put more in his pocket, and my goal as a
harvesting component is to do our job and do it correctly and
to help Mr. Cresson, help him have a better day and help him
catch more fish.
Mr. Southerland. One thing I have learned here, Harlon----
Mr. Pearce. Yes.
Mr. Southerland [continuing]. You are my friend.
Mr. Pearce. Yes. You are right. We are going to go hunting.
Mr. Southerland. Four years. Follow the money.
I yield back.
Mr. Fleming. Gentleman yields back. Mr. Jolly still has no
questions.
Therefore, I just want to say before closing, again, to
remind everyone, this is our last hearing in the 113th
Congress, and I want to thank, first of all, our witnesses for
all of the time, travel, investment that you have made both
into this issue and also in helping us learn more about what is
really a very complex issue, one in which we all agree that
there are more red snapper than we think there are by way of
many ways of measuring that, and we need to have more access to
that, and that states need to have more input into this.
I also want to give a special thanks to our staff, our
committee staff on both sides of the aisle, for doing a
splendid job throughout the 113th Congress and look forward to
working with you all in one capacity or another at that time.
I also ask unanimous consent to include in the hearing
record the following documents: a letter from the Congressional
Sportsmen's Foundation and a letter from the American
Sportfishing Association.
There being no objection, so ordered.
I want to thank Members and staff for their work today, and
wish everyone happy holidays going forward, and with that there
is no further business.
[Whereupon, at 12:46 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
[ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD]
American Sportfishing Association,
Alexandria, VA,
December 2, 2014.
Hon. John Fleming, Chairman,
Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Ranking Member,
House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs,
Washington, DC 20510.
Dear Chairman Fleming and Ranking Member Sablan:
On behalf of the nation's recreational fishing industry, the
American Sportfishing Association (ASA) offers its support for the Gulf
of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act of 2013 (H.R. 3099). This bill
will help to ensure the long-term conservation of Gulf of Mexico red
snapper while concurrently improving the economies of the Gulf states.
As the nation's recreational fishing trade association, ASA
represents sportfishing manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, and
angler advocacy groups, as well as the interests of America's 46
million recreational anglers. ASA also safeguards and promotes the
social, economic, and conservation values of sportfishing in America,
which result in a $115 billion-a-year impact on the nation's economy.
With a fishery characterized as more robust than ever before,
federal management methods have nevertheless resulted in inexplicably
and severely shortened recreational red snapper seasons, causing
substantial harm to the economies of Gulf coast communities.
Consequently, in 2014, all five Gulf States were non-compliant with
federal regulations on red snapper in state waters and have requested
that state management of the red snapper fishery replace the current
federal management.
State management would result in improved management of Gulf red
snapper for the betterment of the fishery and the entire regional
economy in which recreational fishing contributes more than $10 billion
in annual economic activity.
On behalf of the recreational fishing industry, I respectfully
request that you support H.R. 3099 and work toward its passage.
Sincerely,
Mike Leonard,
Ocean Resource Policy Director.
______
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation,
Washington, DC,
December 1, 2014.
Hon. John Fleming, Chairman,
Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Ranking Member,
House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs,
Washington, DC 20515.
Dear Chairman Fleming and Ranking Member Sablan:
As president of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF), I
would like to thank you for holding a hearing on the Gulf of Mexico Red
Snapper Conservation Act (H.R. 3099) and for the opportunity to discuss
the important issue of red snapper management that effects millions of
recreational anglers. CSF, which works with the largest bipartisan,
bicameral caucus in the U.S. Congress, supports H.R. 3099, which
currently has twenty bipartisan cosponsors and aligns with a call from
four Gulf States Governors for Congress to take action to reverse the
damaging economic impacts currently resulting from an ``irretrievably
broken'' system of federal management of Gulf red snapper.
Despite the healthiest population of red snapper on record, June 1
of this year signaled the start of the shortest federal recreational
red snapper season in the history of the Gulf of Mexico. The inability
of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Gulf of Mexico
Fisheries Management Council to provide angling opportunities
proportional to the rapid growth of the red snapper population is
symptomatic of a fatally flawed federal management system that is
systematically failing Gulf Coast anglers and the communities they
support.
Ultimately, the on-going red snapper debacle in the Gulf is the
result of a larger problem with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act (MSA). Currently, MSA's overall
management system is designed exclusively for commercial fishing and
lacks a formal process and incentive to update allocations based on the
best value for our nation. Collectively, this management strategy
continues to penalize the growing recreational sector and stifles the
otherwise overwhelmingly positive economic impacts recreational anglers
have on local communities.
H.R. 3099 offers the best solution by establishing a coordinated
Gulf States partnership for red snapper management through which the
states would fully comply with a management plan approved and adopted
by the Gulf States Marines Fisheries Commission (GSMFC). The
partnership would be similar to how the Atlantic States Marine
Fisheries Commission manages striped bass and how the GSMFC
cooperatively manages red drum and spotted seatrout. Like these
examples, state-based fisheries management has proven to be far more
effective than federal management at balancing the needs of the
commercial and recreational sectors, while ensuring sound species
conservation.
Finally, H.R. 3099 includes provisions requiring that the
Commission develop and execute a strategy for increasing the number of
stock assessments, improve interstate collaboration in the collection
and utilization of fishery data, and work with the Secretary of
Commerce to develop an economic impact report for the red snapper
fishery on a biennial basis. Taken as a whole, these legislative
proposals will result in improved management of Gulf red snapper for
the betterment of commercial and recreational fisheries, the entire
Gulf Coast economy, and the nation.
Respectfully,
Jeff Crane,
President.
______
December 3, 2014.
Hon. Doc Hastings, Chairman,
Hon. Peter DeFazio, Ranking Member,
House Committee on Natural Resources,
Washington, DC 20515.
Dear Chairman Hastings and Ranking Member DeFazio:
As commercial fishermen from across the Gulf of Mexico, we are
writing to share our perspective on two pieces of legislation
introduced in Congress that would have a significant impact on our
fishery and our industry. In particular, we are writing in opposition
to H.R. 3099, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act of 2013,
and in support of H.R. 3063, the Healthy Fisheries through Better
Science Act.
The current management of the commercial red snapper fishery is
working. Not long ago we were restricted to fishing a few short weeks
of the year on days set by regulators, and the red snapper population
was in decline. Today, we fish year round and the fish stock is
rebounding. This flexibility allows us to provide fresh, quality
seafood to meet growing consumer demand for fresh U.S. fish. We also
provide better paying jobs and are not forced to put ourselves or our
crews at risk fishing during dangerous storms. This success is critical
to our industry because red snapper is such an important species to our
businesses.
Red snapper and all other fisheries that occur mainly in offshore
Federal Gulf waters are currently managed by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Management Council (the Council) as authorized by Congress. However,
H.R. 3099 would move the responsibility for red snapper management to
the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (the Commission). While the
bill is intended to increase the role of states in management, it would
simply create more layers of government. Sixteen of the 17 voting
members of the Council are already nominated or appointed by Gulf state
governors. Moving management to the Commission would not increase the
states' role, but it would disrupt the successes we have had because
the Commission is not as well equipped to manage offshore fisheries as
the Council. In addition, H.R. 3099 would strip the conservation and
accountability requirements put in place under the Magnuson-Stevens Act
(MSA). This would hurt all Gulf fishermen and could take us back to the
days of overfishing. Finally, we are deeply concerned with a provision
in the bill that would allow for the reduction of commercial red
snapper quota. This is a critical species for our industry since the
Gulf's recreational fishermen already take home 80% of the most popular
fish in the Gulf, including overwhelming majorities of amberjack, red
drum, speckled trout, king mackerel and triggerfish. The current
allocation of red snapper quota is shared roughly 50-50 between the
commercial and recreational sectors and we believe it should stay that
way.
Reforms are needed to improve the performance of the recreational
red snapper fishery and the benefits it can receive from the rebuilding
population. Delegating more responsibility to state agencies could be
the right approach for recreational fishermen and the Council is
currently considering a proposal (Amendment 39) to do that. We would
look forward to working with you and your committee if our experience
could assist in exploring options and making these difficult decisions.
However, we strongly believe that the commercial industry should remain
under the oversight of the Council.
Instead, we ask Congress to adopt H.R. 3063, the Healthy Fisheries
through Better Science Act, sponsored by Representative Rob Wittman
(VA). This bill maintains the conservation standards in the MSA,
requires the Secretary of Commerce to set a schedule for stock
assessments and ensures that fishermen, academics and other experienced
parties contribute to the data collection and analysis process. H.R.
3063 would improve the information available to managers and fishermen,
and we urge Congress to approve it.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our views on these important
issues. We look forward to working with you.
Sincerely,
Buddy Guindon,
Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders' Alliance.
Jim Zurbrick,
Fish for America.
Glen Brooks,
Gulf Fishermen's Association.
Wayne Werner,
Gulf Coast Professional Fishermen's Association.
______
[LIST OF DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD RETAINED IN THE COMMITTEE'S
OFFICIAL FILES]
City of Destin, Florida, Economic Impact Analysis of
Charter Fishing and Recreational Boating Along the
Destin Harbor, Submitted for the Record by Captain Jim
Green