The NCFA WEAKFISH MEETING
on Tuesday, October 11 was well attended and both Preston Pate and Louis Daniel from the Division were here. The drastic reductions in weakfish harvesting being proposed by the ASMFC were soundly rejected by the NCFA members at the meeting and the North Carolina Division head heard one voice on the matter. Louis Daniel’s presentation detailed the effects of both a 50% reduction and a 25% reduction which essentially would eliminate the long hauler/haul seine fishery, a prospect that NCFA flatly refused to be part of. In addition, going to larger fish size, trip limits or seasonal closures would assure that the fishery would cease to exist as a practical matter. The ASMFC meets in New Jersey at the end of the month to decide what action to take with respect to weakfish and we have encouraged Preston Pate, Director of North Carolina’s Division of Marine Fisheries and Chair of the ASMFC and Louis Daniel, Executive Assistant to the Director and Chair of the ASMFC weakfish board, to stand firm and say no to any further reductions in weakfish harvesting until and unless a peer-reviewed scientific assessment is completed showing fishing mortality to be the problem. It should be noted that the ASMFC’s Technical Committee stated during the May 2005 meeting that fishing mortality is not the cause of the decline in weakfish abundance, but rather natural mortality. Minutes from the meeting state: “It’s the rising total mortality driven largely by natural mortality. That would be the conclusion that the technical committee arrived at after reviewing the information from the previous meeting.†After reviewing fishing mortality statistics Mr. Uphoff from the technical committee said on the record, “We reviewed the information, some catch per effort statistics and so on in addition to the modeling that we do for assessment purposes and basically remain convinced that F [fishing mortality] was not rising.â€ÂÂÂÂ
The ASMFC’s recommendations are wholly unacceptable and NCFA is asking North Carolina’s representatives to the Commission to argue for status quo until a new stock assessment (peer reviewed) is completed. To do less will have unalterable and profound negative consequences for an industry already experiencing difficult times.
The NCFA WEAKFISH MEETING
on Tuesday, October 11 was well attended and both Preston Pate and Louis Daniel from the Division were here. The drastic reductions in weakfish harvesting being proposed by the ASMFC were soundly rejected by the NCFA members at the meeting and the North Carolina Division head heard one voice on the matter. Louis Daniel’s presentation detailed the effects of both a 50% reduction and a 25% reduction which essentially would eliminate the long hauler/haul seine fishery, a prospect that NCFA flatly refused to be part of. In addition, going to larger fish size, trip limits or seasonal closures would assure that the fishery would cease to exist as a practical matter. The ASMFC meets in New Jersey at the end of the month to decide what action to take with respect to weakfish and we have encouraged Preston Pate, Director of North Carolina’s Division of Marine Fisheries and Chair of the ASMFC and Louis Daniel, Executive Assistant to the Director and Chair of the ASMFC weakfish board, to stand firm and say no to any further reductions in weakfish harvesting until and unless a peer-reviewed scientific assessment is completed showing fishing mortality to be the problem. It should be noted that the ASMFC’s Technical Committee stated during the May 2005 meeting that fishing mortality is not the cause of the decline in weakfish abundance, but rather natural mortality. Minutes from the meeting state: “It’s the rising total mortality driven largely by natural mortality. That would be the conclusion that the technical committee arrived at after reviewing the information from the previous meeting.†After reviewing fishing mortality statistics Mr. Uphoff from the technical committee said on the record, “We reviewed the information, some catch per effort statistics and so on in addition to the modeling that we do for assessment purposes and basically remain convinced that F [fishing mortality] was not rising.â€ÂÂÂÂ
The ASMFC’s recommendations are wholly unacceptable and NCFA is asking North Carolina’s representatives to the Commission to argue for status quo until a new stock assessment (peer reviewed) is completed. To do less will have unalterable and profound negative consequences for an industry already experiencing difficult times.