Management council meets to address fish population crisis

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OCEAN CITY -- The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council Thursday wrapped up three days of talks in which council members discussed the many, and often times unbelievably intricate, factors that contribute to the region's fish population crisis.


The newly reauthorized and long overdue Magnuson-Stevens Act, which Congress passed in December of 2006 after over five years of on-and-off deliberation, gave the council extra impetus to consider long-term solutions to the potential overharvesting of seabass, bluefish, flounder, mackerel and other species.


The council is comprised of representatives from the commercial fishing, recreational fishing, fishery management and scientific communities, though many grumble that in the past commercial interests have been largely overrepresented. And council discussions at this meeting, as at meetings in the past, became quite spirited at times as onlookers watched the tug-of-war play out between environmental advocates, commercial interests and everybody caught up in between.


Though it might seem natural for the lay person to peg those sympathetic to commercial interests as "the bad guys," it's not quite that simple due to the inexact nature of the science involved, said Mark Sampson, an Ocean City charter captain and tour guide.


"It just seems like the way the tide is moving a lot of commercial fishermen are at their wits end because they are having a harder time making ends meet," Sampson said. One of the reasons those whose livelihoods depend on catching fish are routinely in favor of setting the annual catch limits higher than environmentalists want is due to the inexact sciences involved.
Scientists may determine that stripped bass, for instance, are being over-fished, only to find them return in massive numbers the next season, having mysteriously migrated in the meantime, one panel member hypothesized.


"Researchers look at the catch data and make a population estimate," said Dave Blazer, executive director of the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. "They bring it back to the lab and it takes four to six months to really go through the data, check and double check. The second year has already started by the time analysis is complete. If you were overfishing this year, you don't have enough time to put regulations in to change size limits, catch limits, etc."


It is this waiting period that prompted one representative from the National Marine Fisheries Service to vow Tuesday during the public's question and comment segment that his colleagues would deliver better data faster in the future.


There are also a number of variables that could skew data, including fish disease outbreak, hurricanes or lesser storms, number of fishermen going up and migratory changes, Sampson said.


"We used to joke when I worked at (National Marine Fisheries Service) years ago, 'This ain't rocket science ... it's harder,' " Blazer said.
Despite the indefinite nature of the data this council and similar regional councils around the county have to work with, environmental advocates lean heavily on the data and scientific opinions. They take that information to call for, what others classify as, precautious fishing limits.
"(Environmentalists) err first and foremost on the side of the resource," Sampson said.


Recreational fishermen, such as Sampson, often find themselves in the middle of the argument, but with a sizable voice thanks to millions of sport fishing enthusiasts and a sizable industry.


Though the council, after kicking around ideas the past few days, has yet to make firm recommendations on the region's fishing rules and limits, it seems they will be hard pressed, between the environmental, commercial fishing and sport fishing interests, to come up with compromises that pleases everyone.

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