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Originally posted by Flatts1b:
I found the following press release regarding Menhaden
You really gotta give the RFA credit, don't you, for this latest example of putting differences aside and working with many in the PEW funded enviro community on forage issues that are so important to recreational and commercial fishermen.
I found this on another website. I felt it was worth mentioning here. Emphasis added...
Enjoy,
Mike F.
===================================================
For Immediate Release Contact: Tom Wheatley, 727-452-5886
March 27, 2008 Aaron Viles, 225-615-0346
Jim Smarr, 361-463-1558
Austin - Today the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission took a crucial step toward protecting the Gulf of Mexico. The Commission voted to cap the annual catch of menhaden at 31.5 million pounds. Menhaden is a small, oily baitfish, which schools in large numbers along the Gulf coast. This important, but often unheard of fish, makes up the base of the food web for marine wildlife such as red drum, sharks, dolphins, and pelicans.
Scientists are increasingly concerned with the possible overexploitation of fisheries such as menhaden which serve a primary role in marine food webs and are collectively known as forage fish. Presently in the Gulf of Mexico there is no annual catch limit and the only two active companies, Omega Protein and Daybrook Fisheries can catch as many menhaden as their highly efficient fleets can find within the 6 month season. The menhaden reduction fishery is only allowed in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi waters, and uses spotter airplanes to find the schools, which are then targeted by purse-seine operations which use two net boats and a mother ship to vacuum up the entire school.
?This action puts Texas in the lead for implementing a proactive, ecosystem-based approach to fishery management in the Gulf of Mexico,? stated Aaron Viles, Campaign Director with the Gulf Restoration Network. In 2004, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a government appointed blue-ribbon panel, described in detail and urged fishery managers at the state and federal level to apply ecosystem based approaches for managing our oceans. This is one of the first actions taken by fishery managers in the Gulf of Mexico region to implement this recommendation.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission also expressed interest in putting independent observers on the menhaden boats to calculate catch and monitor the amount of other sea life (bycatch) caught in their 1,800 foot nets. Gulf-wide catch regularly exceeds 1 billion pounds and managers estimate that 1 percent of all the catch is other sea life that is thrown back dead or dying, an estimated 10 million pounds of marine life.
?One of the most important issues this Commission needs to deal with is bycatch,? said Tom Wheatley, the regional representative for the Marine Fish Conservation Network. ?It?s encouraging that the staff and the Commission at Texas Parks and Wildlife will look into putting observers on the menhaden boats in the near future.?
A coalition of environmentalists, recreational fishermen, and small businesses known as the ?Save the Bait Coalition? asked for this new protective measure. ?We are very pleased that the Commission decided to put conservation first despite the efforts of the menhaden industry to keep the fishery wide-open and unregulated,? said Jim Smarr, the Texas Chairman of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Remember fishery management tends to be about protecting the biggest and most
powerful interests who have the most dollar capital invested in those fisheries."
-- EC NEWELL MAN
This post edited by flatts1b 10:35 PM 04/10/2008
I found the following press release regarding Menhaden
You really gotta give the RFA credit, don't you, for this latest example of putting differences aside and working with many in the PEW funded enviro community on forage issues that are so important to recreational and commercial fishermen.
I found this on another website. I felt it was worth mentioning here. Emphasis added...
Enjoy,
Mike F.
===================================================
For Immediate Release Contact: Tom Wheatley, 727-452-5886
March 27, 2008 Aaron Viles, 225-615-0346
Jim Smarr, 361-463-1558
Austin - Today the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission took a crucial step toward protecting the Gulf of Mexico. The Commission voted to cap the annual catch of menhaden at 31.5 million pounds. Menhaden is a small, oily baitfish, which schools in large numbers along the Gulf coast. This important, but often unheard of fish, makes up the base of the food web for marine wildlife such as red drum, sharks, dolphins, and pelicans.
Scientists are increasingly concerned with the possible overexploitation of fisheries such as menhaden which serve a primary role in marine food webs and are collectively known as forage fish. Presently in the Gulf of Mexico there is no annual catch limit and the only two active companies, Omega Protein and Daybrook Fisheries can catch as many menhaden as their highly efficient fleets can find within the 6 month season. The menhaden reduction fishery is only allowed in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi waters, and uses spotter airplanes to find the schools, which are then targeted by purse-seine operations which use two net boats and a mother ship to vacuum up the entire school.
?This action puts Texas in the lead for implementing a proactive, ecosystem-based approach to fishery management in the Gulf of Mexico,? stated Aaron Viles, Campaign Director with the Gulf Restoration Network. In 2004, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a government appointed blue-ribbon panel, described in detail and urged fishery managers at the state and federal level to apply ecosystem based approaches for managing our oceans. This is one of the first actions taken by fishery managers in the Gulf of Mexico region to implement this recommendation.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission also expressed interest in putting independent observers on the menhaden boats to calculate catch and monitor the amount of other sea life (bycatch) caught in their 1,800 foot nets. Gulf-wide catch regularly exceeds 1 billion pounds and managers estimate that 1 percent of all the catch is other sea life that is thrown back dead or dying, an estimated 10 million pounds of marine life.
?One of the most important issues this Commission needs to deal with is bycatch,? said Tom Wheatley, the regional representative for the Marine Fish Conservation Network. ?It?s encouraging that the staff and the Commission at Texas Parks and Wildlife will look into putting observers on the menhaden boats in the near future.?
A coalition of environmentalists, recreational fishermen, and small businesses known as the ?Save the Bait Coalition? asked for this new protective measure. ?We are very pleased that the Commission decided to put conservation first despite the efforts of the menhaden industry to keep the fishery wide-open and unregulated,? said Jim Smarr, the Texas Chairman of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Remember fishery management tends to be about protecting the biggest and most
powerful interests who have the most dollar capital invested in those fisheries."
-- EC NEWELL MAN
This post edited by flatts1b 10:35 PM 04/10/2008
