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[mdangler]

Fish Report--Special 11/17/09
Possible Black Sea Bass Regulations for 2010
The release mortality rate is what?!
MRFSS vs. VTRs

Good Folks,
I had the highest black sea bass release ratio in my 18 years of regulation this year. I have tagged over 5000 black sea bass. I have float-timed thousands for natural, unvented, depressurization & survival. I carried biologists twice this year without charge to get a sense of this barotrauma effect--coming up from the deep--in 125 feet of water: And could not kill a fish - none. A big fat ZERO in release mortality.
Now I find that we are charged with Twenty Five Percent --25%-- of our releases as mortality - recreational release mortality... where's the humanity.. We are surely charged with killing more by release--by throwing them back-- than what we box in a cooler. Its a fantastically high number and needs to come down.

Vessel Trip Report files, VTRs: These are the mandatory reports filled out daily by party/charter captains.
Different is the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey, MRFSS - its estimated in two month waves and now updated for 2009 - available online with the usual 'don't trust this data' qualifiers.
As you may know, all recreational regulations are based on MRFSS estimates.
And no, I don't trust that data.
At all.
With bloody good reason.
A comparison of these two data sets follows as well as comments on the nature of the fishery and failings of management.

For Party Boats in VA, MD, DE, NJ, NY, MA fishing sea bass altogether - The MRFSS (Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey) estimate is 17.17% higher than VTRs (Vessel Trip Reports) for '09 --- MRFSS was 21.09% lower than trip reports in '08 --- the MRFSS estimate was 49.2% higher than these federally required reporting forms in '07 --- and 22% lower in '06.

Important states in this year's suppositious overage of recreational sea bass quota--where over-fishing was said to occur:
In NY there is a gradual uptick--smooth--in partyboat VTR reports from 60 to 70 thousand sea bass from '06 to '09. In the MRFSS estimate there is a +118,000 fish variance.
In MA it is not as smooth, but VTR data remains under 13,500 fish. However, their MRFSS partyboat sea bass catch estimate is 98,546 this year: the mandatory VTR report is 4,324 cbass.
In NJ over the last 4 years there been as much divergence as 81,969 cbass over the VTRs--never under--with a virtual tie this year.

MA & NY, are trending to much higher private-boat catches in '08 & '09. There is no other data than MRFSS for this private-boat group. It is the slipperiest data set. MA has climbed from 53,566 privately caught cbass in '06 to 192,539 in '09. NY has climbed from 121,350 in '07 to 236,920 this year.
NJ too has gone from 241,160 to 374,638 between this year and last - a 55.35% increase in catch.
These guys have out-fished the professionals in a big way and run their catch numbers up too in a time when fishing effort is down across the board...

That's not fish you smell.

But we are supposed to be far over-quota..
So much so that we must reduce the catch 66%.

As bad data must lead to poor management, it now reaches crescendo.
The recommendations for this coming sea bass season are going to be catastrophic to business - some offering as little as 7 weeks of fishing.

I invented sea bass regulation above Cape Hatteras; was enforcing boat regulation for 6 years before any state regs kicked in, another year still before federal.

I have been monitoring these fish carefully. They are absolutely the life's blood of my business. There is now a cycle in place that will remain until the fish are regulated regionally. No MA sea bass will ever see NJ's coast. No NY cbass will ever see MD's coast. They migrate offshore and perhaps south in winter and then return with extreme accuracy to their home reef.

If the stock is doing well up north as is suggested in the catch estimates, they shall soon see a sharp decline as the spawning stock grows through the size limit. We are 4 years into the up-cycle here and would have had a much better year at 12 inches than 12 1/2.

Ensuring regional stocks do not get over-pressured in winter--as was well evidenced in VTR area 626 in the first 3 months of 2004: maintaining a sub-legal spawning stock; and preserving & enhancing habitat are what need to be done now - the fantastic growth of the stock with simple 9 & 10 inch size limits and no creel remains unmatched since the oscillation began.

I have videoed our natural corals and live bottoms. I have written extensively of them and told management and science the locations I know of.
They continue to remain unclassed as Essential Fish Habitat despite fitting no other definition.
Management is well aware of habitat fidelity in the species: Each reef area is colonized separately. This is why a well known wreck or reef will have far fewer keeper fish than a more secretive one 1/4 mile away - and also why there are obvious pressure zones around inlets - reduced pressure through distance equals more fish.
This habitat fidelity is why every square meter of any manner of reef has a production value - and is also why management's laissez-faire toward habitat discovery/protection has cost us dearly in reduced rebuilding potential.
And is very much why artificial reef works so fantastically well in the region.

Management now looming as the guillotine's diagonal steel blade tracked so long ago: it threatens sea bass fishers as meanly.
Many will be laid in its neck-cradle.
I helped forge the blade; stand perhaps first in line...

Its not just sea bass; summer flounder, scup, tautog: many others - Our system has mastered a reliance on fisheries restoration writ-simple through catch restriction. It must not be allowed to continue.
Though its most likely that no thought has been given to it at all, the manager that thinks sea bass of 40/50 years ago can be restored to the reef footprint of today needs to get a head-check.
Its time to simplify regulation and make management's task harder.
Focus on habitat - preserving sub-legal spawners - monitor closely high risk fishing pressure points.. more..

Catch regulation has done what it can.
If we only threw out the disingenuous 25% release mortality rate we'd be a little further along.
The least hiccup of habitat theory and we'd really start moving.
And - the folks that actually manage this fishery wanted to--based on new stock assessments--double the quota for the fishery. That move was blocked by the science and statistical committee who hold far greater power of late.
Lord Acton's "Power tends to corrupt & absolute power corrupts absolutely.." comes to mind..

Find your state's fishery director - google MAFMC and ASMFC for your Council & Commission representatives & the technical committees & science and statistical committee that advise them. Higher up too, the federal chief of all this is Dr. Jane Lubchenco - her boss is Commerce Secretary Gary Lock - Googles easily - email 'em all.

Soon.
We're really late.

Regards,
Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/