The CCA's ALABAMA LOGIC

By FFF's Christina Johnson

Data from the National Marine Fisheries Service show that Commercial Fishers have had a few great years catching Spanish Mackerel. CCA doesn't think that's so great. They are lobbying Alabama Legislators to ban commercial gill nets. Their main argument this time, is that Netters catch too many Spanish Mackerel therefore causing localized depletion.
Unfortunately for the CCA, there is no science to support thier position. The Mackerel Stock Assessment Panel report of 2003 says Spanish are NOT overfished nor are they undergoing "overfishing". National Marine Fisheries Service concurs as does the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.
But despite the experts, CCA stands behind it's argument. CCA claims that since Alabama's commercial landings for Spanish Mackerel were down from 2004 to 2005, that this is proof that local stocks are depleted.
So, I thought, wouldn't it be interesting to apply CCA's own "logic" (or lack there of) to recreationally harvested species and see what comes up.

Each graph shows landings from Alabama as reported by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Red columns represent recreational landings (all methods combined) while blue columns represent commercial landings (all gears combined).

This graph shows several years of enormous recreational bluefish landings, followed by dramatic drops. By CCA's logic, the recreational sector has been "overfishing" bluefish since the early 80's. In 1983 for example, Recs landed over 1 million pounds of bluefish, the following year they only landed 34,136 pounds.That's an approximate deficit of 966,000 pounds!

Oddly enough, I don't recall a CCA "Save the Bluefish" campaign.

Next, let's consider the Spotted Seatrout. This species was taken off Alabama dinner tables at the behest of the CCA back in 1984. Again, CCA claimed commercial fishermen were decimating fish stocks.......all I can say is look at the graph. It speaks for itself.
In 2003, the recreational sector landed 687,498 lbs of seatrout, yet in 2004 landings fell to 393,907! Applying CCA logic to the 03/04 figures, CCA should have been jumping up and down for an emergency closure in order to save the seatrout for future generations. But no such measures were requested by CCA.

King mackerel, a highly migratory species that are a favorite amongst recreational fishers. In 1982, Alabama recs caught a WHOPPING 4,224,435 pounds! The following year landings totalled only 208,308 pounds, a difference of 4,016,130 pounds. Wouldn't that, by CCA logic, be considered localized depletion? Throughout a 24 year period, Alabama's receational King mackerel landings have risen and fallen like the tide. But not a peep from CCA about stocks or localized depletion? It is starting become clear that CCA logic only applies to others.

Now, let's have a look at Alabama Spanish mackerel landings.......

Spanish Mackerel ... Worldwide considered to be the "poor mans" fish.

For many years, the recreational sector has dwarfed commercial landings considerably. There were no mentions of banning rod and reels (or any other recreational fishing gear for that matter) in these years of abundant landings. All was good, that is until the commercial landings began to excede those of the recs.
In comes the CCA to "save the day" and to protect the spanish mackerel stocks from those wretched commercial fishermen. Thanks, but no thanks, CCA, your motives smell quite fishy

Now that we have gone over the statistics of who has caught what in Alabama, let's get back to the net ban issue. There are reports that the Commercial Netters will face emergency weekend closures and quotas, all as a compromise to the CCA. But for once I think it would be nice if the CCA were required to abide by some of their own "logic". Here are some suggestions;
1) CCA must agree to be subject to all the regulations currently in place for commercial fishers.
a. closed areas(no fishing in rivers) see map

Click Here For Map.

b. gear restrictions (live bait vs hooks and lures)
c. tackle will be regulated by species targeted
d. use of chum will be restricted as it gives fishermen an unfair advantage over the fish

2) Due to the alarming recreational landings of King mackerel, an emergency closure followed by bag limits will be put in place to recover from localized depletion.

3) In order to relieve fishing pressure, a closure on Spotted Seatrout shall become effective immediately from 12:00am Fridays to 12:00am Mondays.
a. There will be an exception made to this rule: children 14yrs and under may possess one Spotted Seatrout per day during this time period.
b. Spotted Seatrout are delicate fish that are highly susceptable to disease when taken out of the water. Beginning this year a $5.00 fee will be placed on all Saltwater Recreational fishing licenses in order to fund a study of the catch and release mortality rate of the Spotted Seatrout.

I wonder how all this will go over with Coastal Conservation Association? Probably not very well.......... CJ FFF