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More No-Fishing Zones,
And Closer to Home?

    Sportsmen watched from a distance as federal authorities banned fishing in 151 square miles of the Dry Tortugas this year. Now, they have reeled with displeasure to learn of closures looming closer to home.

    The fabled Islamorada Hump off the Florida Keys, Fowey Rocks off Miami, and Blackmars Reef off Jacksonville have been among fishing hotspots identified for potential closure by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, a federal entity that is considering Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

    Billed by some proponents as a global cure-all for threatened fish stocks, the MPA movement singles out certain reefs or fish-aggregating areas for protection while essentially ignoring unchecked taking elsewhere. The idea achieved momentum over the past few years in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Now, a truckload of paperwork being driven up Florida's Turnpike by MPA advocates is heading for a rendezvous with an Executive Order from Washington, D.C. calling for even more MPAs nationwide.

    The combination of these two forces could generate big troubles for recreational fishermen in the future.

    Next stops on the MPA tour-subject to revision at upcoming Council meetings-may also include the blue water off Carysfort Reef in the Keys, two huge areas from the beach to the third reef off Broward County, the south jetty of Lake Worth Inlet, an area off Palm Beach from Sloan's Curve to 80 feet of water, the Hobe Sound Bars (a.k.a. Loran Tower Ledge), several Oculina coral areas, and the Pines area in 55 to 65 feet of water off Sebastian Inlet.

    "The council is moving slowly with this issue to make sure we work from the bottom up, with everyone involved," said Kerry O'Malley, a fishery biologist who coordinates the council's Marine Protected Areas Advisory Panel. O'Malley said a finalized list of proposed MPAs would be brought to public hearings by spring of 2002.

    O'Malley described the utility of MPAs as "insurance for a fishery"-areas where fish populations would be kept healthy in case something happens outside the area to jeopardize the stocks. Certain bottom fish like gag groupers, she said, can be particularly vulnerable to overfishing because they mature late in life and switch sexes. "When gag grouper aggregate to spawn, the larger males become more aggressive and are thus more heavily exploited by fishing," she said. "We believe we can pinpoint and protect these areas."

    An MPA designed to protect spawning aggre-gations might not exclude all kinds of fishing, O'Malley said, although sportsmen note that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council recently sneaked in a no-trolling provision to two grouper MPAs (the Gulf Council has for now shelved the contentious MPA concept.) Other types of MPAs, like the Tortugas zone, are based on outright bans on all kinds of fishing.

    Tony Iarocci, chairman of the advisory panel and himself a longtime Florida commercial fisherman, expressed an interest in protecting spawning aggregations of fish, as opposed to creating more no-fishing zones like the Tortugas area.

    Advocates of MPAs include non-fishing national conservation groups like Reefkeeper International and Center for Marine Conservation, both of which have published papers on the subject and tried to rally support among members.

    What these well-meaning groups miss, sadly, is that overfishing-almost exclusively the market-driven kind-is left out of the big picture.

    The whole MPA movement, in fact, seems predicated on past inactions of regulatory agencies like the South Atlantic Council. Proponents say traditional management-gear limitations, bag limits, size limits, season closures-has failed to adequately protect reef fish, where in reality the failure lies in the managers themselves. Time and time again, they fumbled the ball on fisheries conservation.

    Ted Forsgren of Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Florida has witnessed and documented these failures over the years. His conclusion in regards to MPAs in South Atlantic waters is straightforward: "The council has not demonstrated that other measures won't better solve these problems-for instance closures to commercial harvest and sale during spawning aggregation seasons."

    You could literally fill the pages of this magazine with examples of federal failures. Here are a few:

    The Amberjack Debacle

    When CCA and hundreds of sportfishermen pressed the South Atlantic Council in 1997 to prohibit commercial fishing of amberjack during the March, April and May spawning season, a commercial lobbyist on the council torpedoed the idea. About the same time, shortsighted federal scientists were debating whether the stocks were in any danger at all.

    And so it was with deep irony that just months ago, fearful for the health of the plummeting amberjack stock, the Council began looking at closing the Islamorada Hump-a fishing spot of legendary proportions-to all fishing, whether commercial bandit rig fishing for amberjack or light tackle sportfishing for tunas and dolphin. In the same month, while AJs were ganged up for the spawn, commercial fishers up and down the coast were allowed to nab 1,000 pounds per trip. Recreational fishers were limited to only one AJ per person.

    "When the amberjacks are ganged up and spawning out there on the Hump in March, April and May, they're an easy target," said Richard Stancyzk, owner of Bud 'N Marys Marina in Islamorada and a 45-year veteran angler of South Florida waters. "Commercial fishermen have the technology to outstrip the ability of these fish to reproduce. I've seen the populations and sizes dwindle for sure."

    Stancyzk added that local sportfishermen-who on an individual basis take a tiny percentage of the jacks compared to the commercials-have expressed willingness to stop fishing for amberjack during the spawning period, but that most would resist a closure of all fishing in the area. Also captured on the Hump are blackfin tunas, dolphin and other migratory fish that cover hundreds of miles of open ocean in a season.

    "It's unreasonable and unfair to prevent fishing for species that aren't even the reason for the zones," said Forsgren of CCA Florida.

    Moreover, for amberjacks and other species biologists say need added protection during spawning seasons, many anglers wonder why the federal government won't simply eliminate high-volume catches everywhere during times when those fish are aggregating to reproduce. "I think that's the way to go, and I don't see how anybody could object to that," said Ebbie LeMaster, Florida member of the South Atlantic Council.
Piecemeal closures of a few areas may be more difficult to enforce-and in the long term less effective.

Gag Groupers on the Run

    Gag groupers face a similar plight. While the South Atlantic Council looked into closing Blackmars and Tanzars reef areas off Jacksonville to protect spawning gag stocks, it has dragged its feet in curtailing a northeast Florida commercial powerhead spear-fishery that many local observers say is out of control. Further, commercial fishers with the right permits are allowed to keep as many gag groupers as they like (except during a March and April spawning closure-a shining credit to the management system). Recreational fishers are allowed to keep only two gags.
"The problem isn't habitat, it's harvest," said Jacksonville angling expert Rick Ryals, who has witnessed powerheaders take boatloads of spawning-size gags off nearshore reefs. "We've got to find a way to keep more of these fish in the population, and it doesn't make a difference where they're caught. Reduce the bag limit if you need to, make it one fish per person-for commercial powerheaders or anyone. But as far as closing reefs, there's really no way to pin down where these fish are going to be and what they're going to be doing when they get there."

    Gags are noteworthy for long-distance migrations, particularly off northeast Florida, where coldwater currents can send fish scooting from an MPA through a gauntlet of commercial fishing gear. Far better, it would seem, to protect the fish throughout their range, instead of within one limited reef area.

    Authorities have many tools besides MPAs, but as one observer noted, MPAs are the "Gucci of fisheries conservation"-an alluring fad that promises easy solutions to complex problems. Because of this enthusiasm among some sectors of the conservation community, the publicity machine is running overtime, and it's likely you'll see more glowing reports of MPAs in the general media. But look outside the boundaries and different stories emerge.

    In the Gulf of Mexico beyond the recently implemented Tortugas MPA, a limited group of commercial fishers using bottom longline gear have been racking up annual red grouper catches soaring into the 4 million pound range-four times that of other user groups. Red grouper are now considered overfished. (As a bizarre footnote, some of the same organizations in favor of MPAs have reportedly opposed measures to limit bottom longline fishing!) Fish traps-long associated with bycatch of tropical fish and undersize fish-are still used in Gulf waters. You can thank the federal National Marine Fisheries Service for the traps. In 1999, NMFS rejected an accelerated phase-out of the thousands of fish traps in the Gulf.

    Shrimpboat trawls in the Gulf-though equipped in many areas with bycatch reduction devices-continue to lay siege to stocks of red snapper and forage fish. Menhaden, a prime forage for virtually all higher-level predators in the Atlantic, are just now set for recovery from years of netting abuses.

    It's left to the educated conservationist to imagine what reef fish stocks would look like in these areas if in fact "traditional management measures" were fully implemented-and not just talked about.

    Florida inshore anglers, of course, have plenty of case studies. In the years following the constitutional net ban of 1995, there has been a ripple effect of resurging marine life throughout state waters-from huge mullet schools not seen in years, to giant seatrout in the Indian River and Tampa Bay, pompano schools running through passes statewide, and even more higher level predators like dolphin and pelicans.

    State size and bag limits, as well as other new restrictions, also have had a positive impact on inshore stocks, as well as many reef fish such as yellowtail snapper.

    On the federal level, moreover, there have been several landmark improvements, including the elimination of Atlantic-side fish traps, gamefish status for marlin and sailfish and, now taking effect, a ban on most ocean longlining.

    In short, while the federal system is still floundering and suffering from conflicts of interest, there is momentum for progress through traditional methods.

    Florida Sportsman continues to support conscientious, science-based management and strict law enforcement, focusing on the specific causes of problems rather than leaping to sweeping bans that would cause unneccessary harm to the welfare of the great majority of citizens.

--Jeff Weakley