LeMieux speaks with fishermen about fishery management

PANAMA CITY — Government regulations imposed on recreational fishing for red snapper, amberjack and other Gulf of Mexico fish have decimated the region’s charter boat industry, area fishermen told Sen. George LeMieux, R-Florida, Tuesday during his Bay County visit.

The fishermen met with LeMieux at the Bay County Chamber of Commerce’s downtown office.

After listening to the fishermen’s complaints about the application of the Reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (RMSA) of 2007, particularly its lack of emphasis on accurate data collection and socioeconomic impacts caused by government regulations, LeMieux said he would push for more flexibility in the law to preserve jobs threatened by reduced fish catches and shortened Gulf of Mexico fishing seasons.

“We need help, sir, and we need it now,” said Chuck Guilford, a former Mexico Beach mayor and charter boat owner, to LeMieux at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.

Part of Tuesday’s discussion between LeMieux and the fishermen centered around RMSA’s national standard 8, a provision of the act that addresses the balancing of conservation needs with a fishery’s social and economic importance to communities affected by management actions.

Several participants at Tuesday’s meeting complained to LeMieux that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failed to acknowledge the economic hardship brought on by its regulations and needed better funding to produce more accurate data.

Capt. Mike Eller, co-chairman of the Destin Charter Boat Association, said he and other fishermen were aware that they needed to be careful to not overfish the Gulf’s fish stocks.

He said that NMFS officials had told him and other fishermen that they were constrained by Magnuson-Stevens, and advised them to go to their congressional representatives for changes in the act or its enforcement.

Eller said that he had been hesitant in the last few years, even in the face of increased economic pressure and shorter seasons, to talk about government regulations “putting me out of business.”

“Now we’re approaching the point where people are going out of business,” Eller told LeMieux.

More than a dozen of Destin’s boat captains have already indicated they plan to join other fishermen Feb. 24 in a “United We Fish” march in Washington, D.C.

Destin City Council member Kelly Windes, also a charter boat captain, said that one of the effects of the industry’s downturn was blight in his city’s downtown area, something he said he was seeing for the first time.

In response to a question from LeMieux, Windes said that parts of the industry’s problems were tied to the general decline of the economy.

He said a major factor for the industry was the amount of fish, particularly amberjack and red snapper, tourists could catch and keep when they went on charter boat excursions in the Gulf.

Pam Anderson, operations manager for Panama City Beach’s Capt. Anderson Marina, said charter boat companies make their decisions on pricing in January and have brochures printed and sent out to potential customers.

Anderson said that if owners don’t know the government-mandated fishing season dates at the time of printing, it makes it difficult to plan ahead and often leads to giving customers the wrong information.

“It makes it very difficult to do business like that,” Anderson said.

Anderson said the Bay County Tourist Development Council estimated that 15 percent of Bay County’s tourist-related economic impact comes from recreational fishing.

She said the length of the fishing season was vital, with the 2010 seasons to be determined by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council later this year.

LeMieux serves on the Senate’s oceans, atmosphere, fisheries and Coast Guard subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D- Washington.

He said he came to Panama City to learn and hear directly from affected charter boat fishermen.

The senator said he had already had preliminary discussions with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco about holding a field hearing in Florida, and had talked to NOAA about creating a liaison between the organization and charter boat fishermen.

He said he would talk more with Cantwell and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, the ranking Republican member of the subcommittee, about fishery management issues when the Senate goes back into session next week.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to alleviate this problem,” LeMieux said.