Fishery management is a complex business, and when it comes to fishery management in the United States, the Magnuson-Stevens Act is the Bible.
In the Gulf of Mexico, regulations decisions are made by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (GFMC), composed of 17 voting members appointed by the Secretary of Commerce and made up of commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, academics and a representative from the Fish and Wildlife Department of each gulf state.
The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the council’s ultimate governing document and dictates the decision-making process. In addition to following the mammoth Magnuson-Stevens Act, a 227-page document from NOAA provides an unofficial compilation of federal regulations for the fisheries of the gulf, Caribbean and South Atlantic. From that document, the GMFC prepares easier-to-swallow pamphlets that outline both recreational and commercial regulations for federal waters.
State regulations are prepared by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and apply only to those fishermen who fish only in state waters and do not hold a federal fishing permit. Fishermen who hold a federal permit must always abide by the stricter federal regulations no matter their location.
There is a finite amount of fish that can be harvested and you need to decide who gets it and how much, said Emily Muelstein, fisheries outreach specialist for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. For a lot of our species we have allocations. The council decides how much the recreational sector gets and the commercial sector gets.
Allocations are made based mostly historical catch records and then divided among the fishermen that harvest that resource. With the GFMC’s commercial catch share programs, once the fishermen catch their individual allowances they are done for the year.
(At GFMC) we are mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Muelstein said. It says we have to use the best available scientific information, and that’s really complicated. It’s really hard to study fish.
It is, after all, impossible to count every fish in the ocean.
The GFMC uses what they call the SEADAR Process in which they gather data from every available scientific outlet, Muelstein said, and estimate and model the fishery populations to produce stock assessments for different species.
Muelstein said many deem the system fatally flawed.
It’s a hard subject to study, she said. The fishery science isn’t always great, but we’re using the best science there is, and sometimes that’s not enough.
This year’s short red snapper season, Muelstein said, can be attributed to a horrible depletion of the stock 15 years ago. She said while the fishery is rebuilding, the restrictions remain intact because they are not seeing the older snapper that are more likely to reproduce.
A lot of our stocks are rebuilding to healthier than they’ve been in years, which is a really good sign, Muelstein said. Some of the decisions that are made are not necessarily about the health of the stock; it’s about managing the people.
Muelstein said the council recently held a workshop in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to explore the idea of sector separation, which would remove charter fishermen and other boats for hire from the recreation sector and place them into a sector of their own.
2012 Freedom Communications