Morning Star Fish Report

Fish Report 1/30/10

A Dandy

A Wander Among The Explorers

Stop Thief!

Fishing Schedule: Toggin Again - Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday - Light Winds Forecasted - Tog Trips - February 2cnd, 3rd & 4th, 2010 - boat sells out at 12 - green crabs provided - cabin heated - leave at 7:00 for these trips (or a tad earlier) - Return no later than 3 - 3:30 (usually) - $100.00 buys a spot - Reservation a must, that phone number in signature - Email does not work for reservations - call - leave a good phone number, cell, in case of cancellation.

The Protest <> United We Fish: A Rally for the "Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act."

Local Readers: The Ocean City Fishing Center and Sunset Marina have donated a bus to go to the Fisherman's Rally Wednesday, February 24th - some seats left - $20.00 deposit - part of which may get used if more buses are required - Contact OCFC at 410 213 1121.

Hi All,

Entered two more days in the logbook. Wednesday was a great day on the water--for January. Nicked away at 'em but never saw anything pushing even 8 pounds.. an OK day though.

Weather forecast for Thursday had a front passing through late. Marine forecasts are significantly, tremendously, better than what we had decades ago. That's a great thing when scheduling short notice trips: perhaps though another hidden guvmint subsidy for the fisheries.

All along they were calling for westerly gusts to 40 in the late afternoon just north of our region..

Weather Service then changed 'late' to '1 PM' causing a twisting, lifting of an eyebrow..

1 PM, 11:00 AM - what's the difference.

Eh, snuck in a good bit of the day. Ran for home with no limits that I know of but a couple good fish; Greg's dandy nudging, but not quite 16 pounds; dinners, plenty of tags, and 1/2 off another trip for the clients.

We'll try again soon.........

Meanwhile, snow's piling up. Take a few minutes to read through this unique perspective of our marine fisheries management. Allow me to wander through a bit of history and use that to illuminate our errors of today..

I hold fisheries restoration as a young science. It wasn't long ago that 'working in marine fisheries' meant looking for ways to extract more wealth, more catch, from the sea. As such, that this is its beginning and nowhere near the middle, that the science involved is not well-seasoned; we can then compare marine restoration of today to the early discoverers.

Alvero Mendana (Men don Ya) discovered the Solomon Islands in 1568. He certainly took as careful note of its location as was possible. However, due to the great difficulties of finding longitude then, Philip Carteret was the next explorer to see those Islands in 1767.

..199 years later.

Neither explorer nor discoverer, Anson's circumnavigation was solely for killing & capturing--disrupting the Spanish fleet in anyway. Departing England in 1740 with 1,854 men he made good on his task, returning victoriously with treasure--and 188 men; scurvy having caused a great many deaths.

You might have thought political spin was a modern invention.. Anson killed 1,200 some people, left a bunch more behind, and was treated as a hero.

Incredibly too, we know that scurvy was recognized, even prevented, as early as 1614 by the British through ascorbic acid; the dissemination of information just wasn't there. It would be a few years after Anson's voyage that Lind conducted one of the very first clinical trials isolating vitamin C as a cure for scurvy. It would be many years more before that work was widely adopted.

A chain of islands, treatment of a horrid malady: both 2 centuries in cementing upon the world's knowledge.

Copernicus anyone?

Information in our era travels faster and faster, is more easily tested for accuracy.. Then tales of new-found lands, the northwest passage, sea-airs causing a man's gums to rot, even sea-monsters had to be considered no matter how factual or fabricated they were: nearly anything was thought possible.

..speaking of the fabled NW passage, Amundsen first transited it from 1903 to 1906 through arduous exploration: As of 2009 it is now open to navigation for a portion of the year. Much of that cold melt-water flows to the Labrador current..

..eh, I'll leave that segue alone.

Just remember, Mendana's island discovery was shelved for 2 centuries while new scientific tools were developed to find more precise location: That scurvy's cure was nailed down centuries before treatment was widely accepted...

In the late 1990s I was trying to figure out how our black sea bass population had grown so huge in such a short period; why areas that I had fished for long years were getting larger, that the actual fishable reef footprint was increasing--Why I had gone from anchoring with exacting precision over a couple rocks to, in that specific locale, drifting long distances while catching a fish I have yet to catch over sand.

What was going on?

We had our nine inch size limit, that was obviously working. Hook scars & tag returns were conclusive, but live releases didn't explain anywhere near these far-far greater numbers of fish.

Nor the expansion of reef-like habitat..

Inconceivably, according to Kurlansky as early as the year 1376 complaints were made to Parliament about habitat loss from towed fishing gear.. Another author even claims two fishers were executed in 1583 for using chains on their beamtrawls -- too destructive of the seabed.

..The several century information lag stretches to six when the subject of the science is covered with water? Or, is that unfair since fisheries restoration is so new.. Is it new after all?

I think that our region's expansion of sea bass--where in the 1980's we had months when we knew we may only catch 7 or 8 fish a day, to, in those same months, having trips with 7,000 & 8,000 fish caught, but mostly released, by the late 1990s. I think this population explosion was primarily fueled not by our self-imposed catch restrictions, but by seafloor habitat expansion due to meager summer flounder quota regulations that kept trawl effort inshore allowing cobble-sized rocky bottoms further out to recolonize with reef growth.

I promise this, there was a lot of newly grown reef in less than 120 feet of water by 1999.

That good fortune lost, much of it is was again impacted.

Yet other areas are presently regrowing.

It seems to take the better part of a decade of no stern-towed gear impacts for growths to have colonized where the ecological function of reef is fully restored.

I couldn't begin to grasp that until I lowered an underwater camera.. Some videos on my website.. There's a large and growing body of marine science focused on just this issue.

True Statement - Currently our science has no hard-bottom reef habitat in the nearshore waters of the Mid-Atlantic.

Virtually every recreational & commercial fisher will vigilantly man their respective ramparts at the least whisper of 'protecting' areas of the ocean - those wicked Marine Protected Areas - MPAs.

As Anson was held aloft as a hero yet allowed his surgeons to kill so many crew by their ignorance of vitamin C -- So too do we glorify succesful fishery rebuilding by the harshest of catch regulation stemming from poor understanding.

Those who would most benefit from utilizing vitamin C's preventive effects and now habitat protections fight for their right to remain reef-free, No Lemons! No MPAs! We'll never prevent a gear impact via habitat protection through gear protected areas, we'll forever allow the Russian roulette of reef loss and re-growth dictated by the whim of fishing effort in a destructive class: Dogma carved in stone, we shall allow no MPA to pass--except striped bass in the EEZ of course..

Our data-poor science hidden by water, it would never withstand shoreside scrutiny: the parade and applause of rebuilding's victory hides the tragedy of conquest's cost, its celebrants remain ignorant of what heights could be achieved, its users fated to cycle with ill-found regulation.

One of the greatest discoverers, a man who actually did what he was credited with; Cook's famous voyages were, I believe, the first circumnavigations to be completed without serious incidence of scurvy. This the late 1760s, he didn't quite have the reasons down-pat but his efforts of innovation returned rewards that many would try to duplicate. One can assume his charges were glad to have lived.

Anson's voyages seeking conquest and submission, despite the celebration of his trophies on return, resulted in death.

Fishing businesses are going to fold - are folding - despite some fish stocks being considered rebuilt, despite that 'dwindling' is the very poorest choice of adjective for these fish populations. It is now, in 2010, that history will have to decide if fishery managers were, like Cook, innovators utilizing flexibility when tasked with discovering solutions; or as Anson who adhered rigidly to the letter of ill-cast orders, causing subordinates' deaths in pursuit of the King's wants..

Both were well regarded in their time: History has not been as kind.

The great untruth of our present day restoration effort remains as Mendana's islands, discovered but still below our collective knowledge threshold. Lindholm, Auster & Kaufman's "Habitat-mediated survivorship of juvenile cod" should have been enough to pound it into management's thought process.

Fish production--the success of their spawn, that young fish are growing-in to replace what has been taken--can not be separated from habitat.

In the United States, in the 21st century, fishery management has yet to put that simple notion into use in the Mid-Atlantic.

No, we only use catch restriction.

I hold that Alabama's red snapper fishery--their huge percentage of quota--is solely the product of fishery-manufacture through artificial reef: That, given habitat fidelity, there can not be 'restoration' where previously no fishery existed: That their economic power-house, red snapper, must be thought of as created and not re-created.

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council claims black sea bass are 103% restored, that the fish have exceeded rebuilding measures: Yet the Council has never recognized the existence of natural reef, let alone taken action to protect, enhance and conserve these habitats as is called for in federal statute.

I hold that artificial reef is, in very great part, responsible for the Council's claim of this fishery's restoration here; that without key habitat for spawning success, restoration would remain greatly delayed: That based on my knowledge of this region's sea bass fishery: Were all artificial reef removed, taken away, the fishery would instantly collapse solely from our current catch effort; that the shipwrecks and remnants of natural reef alone could never support even a fraction of our current landings.

I also hold that if all the players in fishery restoration ever seize upon this idea we'll exceed our present concept of what the cbass population could be; that habitat theory transfers directly to many fisheries: Indeed, must benefit nearly all.

On public property, the fruits of our artificial reef building must be shared with those that never help lift, that only lean; that never donate nor work, that only extract. Now these fruits are being taken, denied to us, by those who need claim them for their paperwork too, who need meet a restoration target but fail to understand the underlying mechanics of habitat for their success.

I have cried "Stop Thief!" for some 6 months now trying to recover the fishery which I have worked so hard to restore. In coming weeks we may see the quota doubled; this, thankfully, some extension of our meager two month sea bass season.

But we will not get all of our sea bass season back..

The fishery is now restored from scratch to beyond expectations and was never closed but a week or two -- all while never-ever considering that reef-fish might need reef as squirrels need trees.

Its a disgrace that fishing businesses must now face, even with a doubled quota, a great loss of season.

Despite any plea of ignorance, there is no worse theft than that granted through authority of the Federal Government.

Stop Thief!

There will be many reasons why fishers and their friends will go to the Capitol steps on February 24th. I am going because we must restore flexibility to the Magnuson Act: We must allow science to discover a better method of restoration before all the teeth have fallen from the rotting, scurvied gums of America's fisheries.

Its not about habitat. Its not about recreational/commercial conflict. Its not about MPAs. Its about restoring stability to regulation. Its about calming the waters so that innovation can find its way back into the process: We must have the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act.

Having read this far, you likely have some interest in the outcome of this fight. Write a letter, another letter, to your favorite DC representative. CC your State fisheries staff. I promise this: The all-time king of astroturf -not real grass roots- environmental organizations, Pew, will be steadfast in their opposition. That will cause other--even fully habitat oriented--organizations to meekly toe the line no matter the truth, no matter our ignorance, no matter that the solution to fisheries' scurvy lies well in hand but unused.

I say "Screw you Pew." So long as I have rocks on which to write the truth I shall load my sling

..and press send.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

posted by Monty # Saturday, January 30, 2010

Fish/Trip Report 1/17/10

Some Fine Toggin

A Corner Office

MD. Senate Bill 37

Hi All,

Going again - Tuesday looks best but Wednesday and Thursday might play - Tog trips - 1/19, 20 & 21st - the - boat sells out at 12 - crabs provided - cabin heated - leave at 7:00 for these trips - return no later than 3 - 3:30 (usually) - $100.00 buys a spot - reservation a must, that phone number in signature - email does not work for reservations - call - leave a good phone number--cell--in case of cancellation.

Three pretty days in a row.. Even Wednesday wasn't too bad. We caught the best tog I've seen in a couple years this week. Some anglers limited on dandies though we did not have boat limits. They chewed in the morning each day followed by a fussier bite; quickly less robust.. a toggy "I don't want to eat this bait but maybe I'll just have a tiny taste" - a kind of nudge.. a teasing - "I'm here but you're not going to prove it."

For the serious tog fisher, this is good; there is hope.

Really. With tags to 24 inches already by-the-rail; a bait being pushed around means you're in the game.

Saturday began especially well despite being among the toughest of days to anchor. Mirror calm & precious little tide, our first set was am almost 180 degree two-anchor straddle. Couple feet wrong would have required resetting the whole mess.. she slowly came tight to her danforths - just up-current of the coral.. first three fish were around 10 pounds.

A 6 year old, Minnow they call him, was aboard. He and I fished next to each other most of the day.. Young Minnow caught three tog over 5 pounds in his first hour of toggin; several more too.

Another youngster, maybe 14, catches two fish close to 12 pounds. While not at all his first trip with me, it was Jeremy's first tog trip.

The tog fishers out there know what kind of bite this was.. Plenty of guys fish 25 years and don't see a 12 pounder.

As for the Minnow.. a six year-old on a MD partyboat slam in the heart of January is probably not a good idea, especially on an all-day boat: Unless its a kid like Minnow. Little guy is already ruined; I guarantee he'll be skipping lectures in college to go fishing..

Perhaps in his time that experience will have created such a different perspective from his peers as to be valuable.

Four days of fishing gave my business a shot at life, a defibrillator's electric shock: yet its in no way ready to leave the ICU.

On a desk in New England -- Gloucester, MA; the Regional Administrator's desk---a corner office I hope is high enough to offer a view of the harbor and ocean---sits a recommendation from every scientist involved with the mid-Atlantic's sea bass fishery to double the 2010 quota.

It awaits action.

If a few day's fishing is as an emergency room's paddles, then on that desk sits a heart; a robust, youthful heart: a ready to transplant heart..

NOAA's NE Regional Administrator, Pat Kurkel; a bright and kind lady I've met in more pleasant circumstance, has the seemingly simple but unenviable decision of believing her cadre of scientists and saving the fishers - or believing Uncle Murfs, the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey. Its MRFSS' assertion that we evil recreational fishers have yet again trashed our resource in the gluttonous fashion that started this trouble; that we've willfully and wantonly overfished our sea bass--but only in one region..

From these two sources of information--her vast staff of Doctors and Nurses who recommend heart transplant -- or the discredited and now replaced MRFSS trying to take fishers with it into the great beyond.. Between them she must chose.

I wish her wisdom.

In a meeting with our newly elected Congressman nearly two weeks ago we ran headlong into the numbness of fisheries conflict..

Its always the data - its always the science.. Always, always, always. Lot of water; easy to hide a fish: Pain in the neck place to do science.

I had asked Maryland DNR to send fisheries staff along with us as we met with our legislator..

As it happens, I am sure the meeting would have fallen flat, the opportunity been completely lost without DNR's presence. I am thankful that leadership allowed having staff present who--while not throwing science entirely off the boat--strongly indicated that the "Data Poor Fisheries" data is loose enough to hide the 2 million pound quota difference: Their presence certainly preserved the integrity of our argument..

Congressman Kratovil spent many years in courtrooms as a prosecutor. He knows when a witness has been discredited.. I hope his picture of MRFSS, Crazy Uncle Murfs, is as a desperate crack addict hauled in to testify before a jury..

This week coming the annual skirmish over our state's flounder regs for the year will begin. Uncle MRFSS has set the tone, again, with severely bad catch estimates like in '07 when fewer shore fishers out-caught partyboat patrons by huge margins: 1,711 summer flounder for Party Boats -- 36,017 for shore fishers in a two month period..

Pure horse-hockey in a less than 100,000 fish quota. We fought it to a review but there wasn't enough data to support our claim that this was insanity.

I can only hope the new program, MRIP, with its much better estimate of the number of people going fishing, will one day allow previous estimate revisions: and perhaps most importantly for quality catch data in Maryland: divide the Chesapeake and coastal effort.

Watch this new angler registry--MRIP--data develop.. Uncle MRFSS being locked in his cell with a good dinner and a piece of rope will have been merciful: Better than death by eating crow.......

...Back over on the other side of Maryland, away from her tiny slice of Atlantic coast; this the big part made famous around the world for its steadfast refusal to respond to efforts of revival: In Annapolis there is now a bill before the legislative body - SB 37 - that would deny DNR control over the method of harvesting oysters and would presumably allow power-dredging and patent tonging wherever/anywhere there are oysters -- Even though there are areas where these 'harvest' methods are already allowed..

How difficult it is to avoid the broad-brush of discrimination.. Pictures of 'oyster sanctuaries' worked in the still of night, the catch unknowingly sold to the public that funded them for pennies on their own millions & millions of oyster restoration tax dollars: An entire eco-region whose health likely hinges on efforts to restore that biofiltering-bivalve in fantastically huge numbers..

Though their image is tarnished by some few among them, many watermen know restoring water quality is key to their legacy, their work far removed from the life most call normal; neither simple nor easy, yet a life many would trade all for.. If only it were working.. Now, in failing all restoration attempts, they may have been the last of a breed that knew the slow pulse of tides..

We will forever want oysters to grace our table; yet it is water quality -- far more so than sea and bay floor habitat -- that has the greatest of effect on juvenile survival in the earliest days of life for every recreational & commercial fishery: It is poor water quality that is hampering so many facets of fisheries restoration; effects which now obviously stretch many tens of miles to sea..

Forests, storm water management, marshes, sea grasses: the oyster is not all of water qualities' restorative remedy: Important though, perhaps 20 to 30 percent..

A difficult & elusive solution.. To restore a vital part of an ecosystem while trying to keep an industry alive..

Perhaps a large part of the solution was first put forth in 1921 by Dr. Reginald Truitt, founder of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, when he tried to get watermen to build artificial reef oyster spawning sanctuaries. I think he was exactly right; his idea's 100th anniversary is in 11 years; we're just starting to try it.

Perhaps Clara Tutt, in her 1935 elementary school text, "Fisheries," nailed it when she wrote for her young charges, "Oysters left to grow by themselves did not furnish enough for the people who wanted them. Men have learned how to grow them. The places where they are raised are called oyster farms."

She finishes this section of the 1935 text with, "The oyster business is worth more than most fishing industries. Millions of bushels of oysters are shipped every year to all parts of the world."

Still true, just not in the Chesapeake since 1982 or so.

I bet guvmint would give watermen a big helping hand were they to attempt farming...

The simple truth of habitat can be found in black sea bass & oysters. Scientists just need to look for it; though in truth, many see it clear as day.

Putting MRFSS data far on a back shelf and forging ahead with an industrial vision of Dr. Truitt's cement oyster spawning reefs will keep us moving ahead..

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

posted by Monty # Sunday, January 17, 2010

Fish Report 1/10/10

Chilly Tog - But Going Fishing

A Brighter Cbass Picture

Hi All,

They're c-c-c-c-c-c-cold! The tog; still nicked a few - Mike had 3 good keepers Thursday. Tagged a bunch too.. Then snow, freezing weather.. Going again Monday through Saturday except Tuesday - warmer this week - west winds - - should work. Hope so.

Tog trips - 1/11 thru 1/16 (but not 1/12) - boat sells out at 12 - (fat chance of that!) - crabs provided - cabin heated - leave at 7:00 for these trips - return no later than 3 - 3:30 - $100.00 buys a spot - reservation a must, that phone number in signature - email does not work for reservations - call - leave a good phone number--cell--in case of cancellation.

Wonderful news with the decision to recommend expanding the sea bass quota. I don't know as I've seen that before.

Be a while before the smoke settles.. if it will even get approved by the regional Administrator.

Assuming it does, the sea bass season will be a whole lot more than June & September - we'll see.

Maybe this conflict will have been catalyst enough to bring about a sea change in how reef fish are managed. I think they can be made--and kept--very abundant..

Below is my "Fish Management Report 1/8/10" in case you didn't see it. For some reason I lost a bunch of email--never delivered--with that last one.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

Fish Management Report 1/8/10

Sea Bass Reopened?

A Step Forward

My sincerest thanks to all in the fisheries community that risked perhaps even their careers to help make this day possible.

Hi All,

The Science & Statistical and Joint Monitoring Committees met today via 'webinar'.

After several hours of evidence from the Joint Monitoring Committee and several more hours of debate by the Science and Statistical Committee, it was decided to recommend a large black sea bass quota increase to NOAA's Regional Administrator, Pat Kurkel.

It is possible that we will regain some of our sea bass season - pending action by Ms. Kurkel.

The exact quota recommended is unknown at this time. Further off still are any adjustments to our season.

My thanks to all who lobbied on fishers behalf, who wrote letters crying injustice, who would not let data-poor fisheries science destroy the last vestiges of saltwater recreational fishing's partyboat roots. My sincerest thanks to all in the fisheries community that risked perhaps even their careers to help make this day possible.

Last year's sea bass season was stolen - first by the size limit increase, then by 'emergency shutdown' when a discredited & now discontinued catch estimating system, MRFSS, calculated northern states had caught the whole coast's quota.. Perhaps I now know what a prisoner feels like on hearing that he has been exonerated by DNA evidence - but hasn't yet heard the judge's decision.

My sense is we'll still be under house arrest - that we won't get all our sea bass season back.

Perhaps if we had the "Flexibility in Rebuilding America's Fisheries Act" it would have never come to this.

I hope to be able to open my cbass season reservation book soon - will the moment the dust settles.

One thought I can not escape: I just spent all day listening to brilliant people, people that can do fantastically complex math or understand the intricacies of decades of fisheries law and regulation: They don't think, they cogitate.

In those 6+ hours of discussion about sea bass, a reef fish, the word reef was never spoken.. No mention of habitat's role..

I'm telling you, Alabama has no natural coral reef system and the shortest coastline in the Gulf, yet has a lion's share of the red snapper quota due only to catch history over artificial reef.

That's not fishery restoration; its inarguably fishery manufacture.

We do some of that here too.

The future fishery I envision surely employs catch restriction management: But has at its core habitat; our remnant & to-be-restored natural reefs, plus an artificial reef complex that can stand on it's own.. Fishery restoration and fishery manufacture resulting in bending rods, smiling faces & a day's fishing that doesn't end until the dishes are washed.

Thanks To All,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

Fish/Trip Report 1/5/10

Bites

Couple More Tries

Hi All,

Had a trip scheduled today; canceled. Mike & I snuck out from 1 to 3:30 just to see if the water was OK, not too c-c-cold.

Anchored. No bites. Watched crabs sink straight down.

Current picked up. Bites. Tag returns...

OK, lets go try some more then.

Thursday and Friday 1/7--1/8 - Tog trips - boat sells out at 6 so I can fish all in a wind break - crabs provided - cabin heated - leave at 7:30 for these trips only - return no later than 3 - 3:30 - $100.00 buys a spot - reservation a must, that phone number in signature - email does not work for reservations - call.

If this weather doesn't break soon we'll be iced out.

The joint monitoring/SSC committee meeting is Thursday - - here is the only chance left to get the sea bass quota upped - lot of businesses on the line...

I have tried.

Game on.

Watching CNN this morning - Gal sez if you spend more than 20% of your time lobbying you have to register..

Oops.

Cheers All,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

Fish/Trip Report 1/4/10

Goin Fishin 1/5/10

Reef Fisheries Crisis: Executive Summary

..Alabama has no natural coral reefs and the shortest coastline in the Gulf: Yet Alabama has the lion's share of the red snapper quota--a major reef fishery---with no catch history whatsoever before artificial reef construction began in the 50s.

Hi All,

Its cold and windy.. but I gotta go fishing. NWesterly; should be plenty calm under the beach.. Water temp is still in the zone..

Tog trip - boat sells out at 6 on 1/5/09 so I can fish all in a wind break - crabs provided - cabin heated - leave at 7:30 for this trip only - return no later than 3 - 3:30 - $100.00 buys a spot - reservation a must, that phone number in signature - email does not work for reservations - call.

Minimum passengers required for this trip is zero - I gotta go fishin.

Below is a 'summary' I wrote for meetings with Representatives..

..getting a fresh fish dinner more fun.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

1/4/10

Reef Fisheries Crisis: A 2010 Salem Witch Hunt..

Capt. Monty Hawkins & Capt. Victor Bunting - Ocean City, MD.

Executive Summary:

1) Job Losses - Instantaneous. Affects Texas to Maine - many fisheries - sea bass/flounder worst off coastal Maryland. Bankrupts at least half the industry - could very well lead to collapse of supporting industries.

2) Fishers will then turn to every form of Federal & State Relief - including Federal Disaster Relief.

3) Collapsing businesses is wholly unneeded to restore fisheries; especially sea bass & flounder which are considered fully rebuilt. Regulations are based on data terribly flawed - Even referred to by fisheries science professionals and every sector of Govt. associated with fisheries as Data-Poor: Sea bass are the most data-poor fishery.

4) Regulations impact two near-shore fisheries most responsible for MD's coastal fishers' economic stability - sea bass & flounder. Closing them forces fishing pressure on tautog which will either collapse that species or force regulators to close that too because of overfishing.

5) The Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) has, as of January 2010, been replaced by the Federal Government with the Marine Recreational Informational Program. (MRIP) In Sept/Oct--Wave 5--2007, MRFSS has landings for summer flounder in MD at 1,711 for Party Boats (boats that frequently fish more than 50 passengers a trip) And 36,017 for shore fishers.. Further incriminating these data sets, according to MRFSS in Sept/Oct of 2006 shore fishers caught zero flounder. These are real examples of data accepted by MRFSS.

The MRFSS survey has black sea bass @ 1,355 for all of MD 2009. They "know" party boats caught them all. Private and charter boats caught none. In fact party boats likely caught that many in one May weekend; the charter & private boats caught sea bass too. These data sets are terrible.

6) Not only can NMFS not estimate well how many we caught: the MRFSS data is thought to be much better than the data-poor fish population assessments. The data-POOR stems from using trawl-nets to count fish that live where you can not pull a net. Those in fisheries know these stock assessments can never be right.

Every single reef associated fish--all of them--are proving difficult to manage.

7) A major failure by regulators is to not recognize the futility of managing fish in vast areas that remain in small areas: Habitat Fidelity is the rule, not the exception in reef fisheries; its not too complex a theory..

To wit: Alabama has no natural coral reefs and the shortest coastline in the Gulf: Yet Alabama has the lion's share of the red snapper quota--a major reef fishery---with no catch history whatsoever before artificial reef construction began in the 50s.

Despite the glaringly obvious truth associated with Alabama's artificial reef construction, there still has been no effort by fisheries staff to discover, protect & enhance the natural corals--Essential Fish Habitat--of the mid-Atlantic region as is called for by every update of the Magnusson Act.

8) Release mortality figures are so wrong that their use results in over half the recreational sea bass quota being killed by throwing fish back. If remotely true, release based fishery management would have failed years ago.

From Maine to Texas fisheries are being closed. The recreational fishing industry is dying because of hard, unforgiving use of Science & Statistics. These reef fish, such as red snapper & black sea bass, closed or so restricted as to be economically lost despite being referred to by fisheries science professionals and every sector of government as the "Data-Poor Fisheries."

Scientists are incapable of estimating reef fish populations well and know it. They still pull nets to gather population estimates. Nets get stuck on reefs.

The MRFSS (Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey) is so-very well known to be a poor estimator of recreational catch that it has been replaced by a new program, MRIP.

These failed data elements simultaneously combine as federally mandated fishery rebuilding timelines expire -- forcing the gravest of fishery closures yet seen in the reef fisheries.. just as these species are being declared rebuilt.

The reef fisheries are where managers must trust their gut; reach for other sources of information. Yet the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnusson Act now gives the greatest of powers to the fisheries' Science and Statistical Committees: Management's weighing of other information, even considerations of economic & cultural importance, are removed via the hard "Science & Statistics" of these fisheries. That very data that is no better than evidences brought forth in 1692 against women thought to be witches.

The modern day result of accusation is similar economically...

Do not allow science & bureaucracy to blindly destroy legacy, custom & culture with science no more soundly formed than a witch hunter's professings.

posted by Monty # Sunday, January 10, 2010

Fish/Trip/Management Report 1/8/10

Looking for the weather to break - get some more tog trips in. Water is c-c-c-c-cold - bite was slow Thursday. See the 1/5 report below for more tog trip info. Email to get added to the reports list. Cheers!