Okay we have heard the Charter Fishermans Association and Amendment 40 Supporters use the slogan Non-Boat Owning Anglers Well lets really look at that. The Non-Boat Owning Myth Who Really Are the Non-Boat Owning Public? If you have been paying attention lately to the latest in vogue direction at the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, then you may be aware of an amendment to the Red Snapper Fishery Management Plan called Amendment 40. Amendment 40 is designed to divide the recreational fishing sector into two sub-sectors the for-hire and private recreational anglers. The basics are that the Charter For Hire fleet feel that they are being squeezed out of the fishery and want the council to separate them and to give to them a large portion of the red snapper quota, which would be entirely taken from the private recreational anglers. If you have been reading the social media blogs, or listening to the public input, there is an emerging theme from the for hire supporters that they are the “non-boating owning angler’s access to the resource”. It is a slogan heard over and over again in almost identical language form each and every supporter of amendment 40, but this is not the first time we have heard such a slogan. Back in 2006 and 2007, when there was a push to reel in the commercial grouper and red snapper fishery, the commercial guys promoting Individual Fishing Quotas and Catch Shares trumpeted the same mantra; they were providing access to the non-boat owning/non-fishing public. These slogans, like the plans wrapping themselves up in them are the brain children of the Environmental Defense Fund, who has managed to find a way to commoditize our public resources and basically give them to private companies. So this begs the question; just exactly who are the non-boat owning public? Between 2000 and 2013 there was an average of 3.1 million participants (National Marine Fishery Service- MRIP Query for Participation in the Gulf of Mexico). Certainly not all of them own boats, the Charter For Hire has provided approximately 6% of the trips taken by boat into the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding bays, rivers, and estuaries. There has been an average of 14.4 million trips each year from 2000 to 2013, now allowing for the 6% taken by the Charter For Hire industry that leaves 94% of the 14.4 million trips. There is no real data to show who on a private recreational trip is or is not the boat owner, nor is there data showing who on a charter may or may not be a boat owner, but just looking at the data and using common sense we can surmise that based on the data we see that privately owned or rented boats, provide just as much and more likely many more times the access to non-boat owners than the charter for hire fleet does. But a bigger question is; does this really matter? What we are talking about here is recreational angler’s access to the resource by any and all anglers and as such this access under law must be fair and equitable. Giving a huge portion of the access to a small number of Charter For Hire operators to supply their customers is neither fair nor equitable
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 12:35:45 +0000
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