South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council held the first in a series of public comment meetings in Charleston at the Hilton Garden Inn on Monday, January 26. The SAFMC "scoping" and public hearings touched on a range of issues that concern fisherman including a Comprehensive annual catch limit, a Fishery ecosystem plan and Amendment 18 that deals with the snapper grouper complex of fish. SAFMC is based in North Charleston and their staff gave several different presentations on specifics like coral protection areas and trapping (or using pots) for black sea bass - an increasingly popular industry. Kim Iverson is the SAFMC Public Relations Officer and her office number is 571-4366 - but don't tell Kim that scoping is what happens when students intersect at The College of Charleston and Starbucks. All kidding aside, SAFMC makes recommendations to the federal government, and then Washington decides whether to implement any changes. On December 19 The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) decided not to implement a four-month spawning season ban on some species of grouper. Then, in a startling jolt to the fishing community, the federal government decreed that it would close eight Marine Protected Areas off the Atlantic coast encompassing 529 square nautical miles, effective February 12, 2009. The power to close parts of the ocean to commercial harvests may be great for conservation of marine species, and clearly no one wants to see the ocean emptied of her natural resources, but many are concerned about closures that are yet to come. Besides recreational fisherman, journalists, and concerned commercial fisherman, SAFMC welcomed NGO's Environmental Defense Fund and Oceana to their meeting. Government watchdogs seem warranted in the case of ocean closures because the bureaucratic process is so convoluted. You can wade in to the morass on your own at www.safmc.net, or you can keep a check here at Lowcountryoutdoors.com for the straight talk. SAFMC will have its next annual meeting March 2 - 6 at Jekyll Island, Georgia and more public comments will be welcomed then. The photos depict the SAFMC logo and the map of the proposed Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment management area that proposes to close the Stetson-Miami terrace (in blue), which is 23,528 square miles, from bottom disturbance like bottom longlines, pots, traps and use of anchors. Thanks to Myra Brouwer for the map.