Fisheries Draft Further Limits Snowy Grouper

December 6, 2006

Release from: Patricia Smith
The Daily News (Jacksonville, North Carolina)

ATLANTIC BEACH — A science panel to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council will not analyze changes made to a socio-economic study for federal snapper-grouper rules that took effect in October.

“Because of the lawsuit we were told not to address that,” said Brian Cheuvront, of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, North Carolina’s representative on the SAFMC science and statistical committee.

However, SAFMC executive director Bob Mahood said it was never the intention to have the science panel review the socio-economic analysis as it pertained to the already adopted Amendment 13c of the snapper-grouper fishery management plan.

“We have asked them to look at the material but look at it as to how it applies to (Amendment) 15, not going back to 13c,” Mahood said.

The rules implementing Amendment 13c placed stricter harvest limits on black sea bass, vermillion snapper and snowy grouper. Many believe those limits will severely harm North Carolina’s offshore snapper-grouper fisheries, especially in the Hatteras area.

A draft Amendment 15 to the snapper-grouper plan contains proposals that could place even further restrictions on snowy grouper harvests.

Amendment 13c was contentious from the time it was proposed, and many fishermen, the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Marine Fisheries Commission questioned the scientific conclusions that supported the need for stringent measures.

Controversy also arose following adoption of the amendment, when substantive changes were made to an accompanying socio-economic impact analysis that reversed statements regarding the negative impact the rules would have on North Carolina fishermen.

The North Carolina Fisheries Association, along with two individual fishermen and a seafood business, filed a lawsuit Oct. 20 asking the courts to nullify new snapper-grouper regulations. The Department of Commerce is the parent agency of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The lawsuit claims that the regulations violate several federal laws, including that NMFS illegally and in disregarded to the best available scientific information altered conclusions of the social and economic advisors to obscure impacts on North Carolina fishermen.

Louis Daniel of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries and a member of the SAFMC disagreed with Mahood’s statement that the SAFMC only asked the science panel to review the socio-economic analysis as it pertains to Amendment 15.

He said it was his understanding that by bringing the changed analysis from Amendment 13c into Amendment 15, the science panel would either deem it or the previous study the best scientific information available.

“It would seem that one’s right and one’s wrong,” Daniel said.

The analysis for 13c that was approved by the science panel and the SAFMC said that the rules would have a disproportionate impact on North Carolina fishermen; the version that went to the secretary of commerce said the rules would not have a disproportionate impact on North Carolina fishermen, Daniel said.

“The question remains: Does it or does it not have a disproportionate impact on North Carolina?” Daniel said. “I don’t know who is going to resolve that question if not the science and statistical committee.”

Sean Mckeon, president of the North Carolina Fisheries Association, said he was not surprised the science panel will not address the issue as it pertains to Amendment 13c since a deadline is approaching for the federal government to file an answer to the lawsuit.

“It just happens that this is the week that the answer is due, and they’re meeting,” McKeon said.

McKeon said he thinks a lot of things are playing out behind the scenes.

“I can tell you if I was them I would be trying to fix as much as I could down there before the lawsuit,” McKeon said.

The committee did look at the study as it relates to proposed new regulations in Amendment 15 of the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan, Cheuvront said.

At this point, none of the economic analysis from Amendment 13c, which placed immediate stricter harvest limits on black sea bass, vermillion snapper and snowy grouper, have been run to project impacts for Amendment 15, which will set up a long-term rebuilding strategy for the species.

The science panel specifically asked for more social analysis on such issues as what will be the impacts on employment and loss of fishing infrastructure like fish houses and dockage space, Cheuvront said.

The SAFMC no longer has a social anthropologist on its staff, so the analysis will likely fall to National Marine Fisheries staff, said Roy Crabtree, NMFS southeast regional director.