Fishermen pushing for state control of offshore fisheries in SC
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - State fishermen, governors and advocacy groups in three states are working together to wrestle control of fishing regulations from the federal government.
They are specifically looking at a group of fish, known as the snapper-grouper complex, that have been protected to a point by federal regulations; they now dominate the fish population.
Gettys Brannon, president and CEO of the South Carolina Boating & Fishing Alliance, said the current model used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been broken for years.
“What we have in our state is a federal overreach. We’re looking at bad science that’s making decisions for people that restrict our access,” Brannon said. “NOAA and NOAA Fisheries admit that their data is up to 40% off, but we’re still using that data to make decisions that affect the livelihoods of people in South Carolina.”
Gov. Henry McMaster and the governors of Florida and Georgia signed a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce asking for management control of the snapper group on June 4. State management has already been approved in the Gulf.
Before that, state lawmakers passed legislation that would open up fishing for snapper in state waters all year and create a framework for a state-controlled management plan. The change only applies to fishing within three miles of the coastline. Federal regulations take over from there.
“What we’re trying to do with that is put up a state framework for if the federal government and when the federal government gives us control of the snapper-grouper species complex,” Brannon said. “That way we already have seasons in place, we already have limits in place and we’re able to move forward as soon as they’re ready to move forward.”
The protections put in place for snapper have led to fishermen being able to take snapper during a season that lasts only two days a year. In the meantime, the population has started to recover since the 1980s, when overfishing decimated the population.
Joel LeVine, owner and founder of RedFin Charters in Charleston, says the number of fish they’re seeing far exceeds the NOAA data.
“When we’re going on offshore trips, we’re catching a ton of snapper. I mean, it’s just redfish after redfish,” LeVine said. “We catch more this year than last year than the year before and the year before. I mean, every year it’s just progressively more.”
Because snappers live near the bottom of the ocean, they are susceptible to injury from changes in pressure. In order to release them, fishermen will use a special descending device to help them return to the bottom.
“We’re descending those fish appropriately, but the federal government said they count those fish being caught,” Levine said, adding that the population of snapper is making it difficult to catch other fish. “Right now, we catch a lot less black seabass than we did in years past. Red snapper eats black seabass.”
Brannon says there’s still a lot of work to be done, but federal policy changes are already happening.
NOAA recently announced it is preparing to implement Amendment 59 to the Fisheries Management Plan that increases the number of snapper that can be taken tenfold. The change increases the Annual Catch Limit to 509,000. However, only 34,000 will be allowed to be harvested by anglers during the two-day season; the rest are considered dead.
“That’s a positive step in the right direction,” he said. “But they’re assuming out of over half a million fish that nearly half a million of those are being killed on days that we’re not fishing for, and so it just doesn’t make sense.”
Changes to snapper limits could mean big business for South Carolina. The Department of Natural Resources estimates that fishing contributes to a $2.7 billion economic impact, supporting more than 30,000 jobs.
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