July 29, 2004

CCA Intervenes to Protect Conservation Victory

HOUSTON, TX ­ Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) has taken action to prevent a lawsuit filed by the Ocean Conservancy from unraveling a compromise agreement governing two areas in the Gulf of Mexico.
The compromise, hammered out among CCA, the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in 2003, allows recreational anglers to troll for highly migratory species on the surface while restricting bottom fishing for stressed gag grouper stocks in the Madison Swanson and Steamboat Lumps areas off the Florida coast. CCA has intervened in the lawsuit on the side of NMFS.

“It is exactly this kind of arbitrary and capricious action that characterizes the entire Marine Protected Area (MPA) debate,” said Fred Miller, chairman of the CCA Government Relations Committee. “This particular issue has run on for more than five years. Expert testimony showing that it is virtually impossible to catch grouper on the reefs using conventional trolling techniques targeting pelagics on the surface hundreds of feet above the bottom is in the record. Yet here we are having to defend a perfectly reasonable solution to a relatively simple problem once again.”

“With this lawsuit, the Ocean Conservancy is demonstrating that the only solution they will accept is one that supports their preconceived objectives,” said Michael Kennedy, chairman of CCA Florida. “This lawsuit is nothing but an attempt to circumvent the process until they find a court that agrees with their views.”

In 1999, it was determined that the Madison-Swanson and Steamboat Lumps areas are home to significant spawning aggregations of gag grouper. CCA supported the initial proposal to close the areas to all bottom fishing to recover those troubled stocks. However, when the proposal was expanded to include banning all fishing in the two areas, CCA filed suit in federal district court. CCA argued that preventing fishing for unrelated and healthy fish stocks in the upper-levels of the water column was unnecessary to conserve gag grouper residing on the bottom, 200 to 400 feet below the surface.
In a settlement agreement between CCA and NMFS reached in 2001, NMFS agreed not to ban trolling for highly migratory species in the closed areas and to conduct research to determine if it was possible for recreational fishermen trolling on the surface for mackerel, billfish, wahoo and other species to catch gag grouper.

Although NMFS never successfully completed the research program mandated by the agreement, the results presented and information provided by CCA’s scientific consultant and expert anglers persuaded the Council to maintain a total ban on bottom fishing in the two areas, allow surface trolling from May to November and close the areas to all fishing during the winter months when gag grouper gather there to spawn and pelagic species are virtually absent from the area.. The Council also adopted CCA’s recommendation to provide an additional conservation measure by prohibiting the possession of any reef fish while in the Madison-Swanson and Steamboat Lumps areas.

“We simply cannot allow the proponents of exclusion to win a precedent in court that could be used to arbitrarily close waters wherever groups like the Ocean Conservancy think it is necessary,” said Miller. “If they cannot accept an agreement like this, it is obvious that they are not interested in compromise.”