Counter Proposal Ideas

[Candy]

HI All,

As you know, I have been working on some ideas for a Fishery Management Proposal that will fair to all recreational fishermen.

I am doing this as Candy Hansard not Candy the ECRA BOD member.

I will use this thread to share my ideas with you so that you can review them and give me your feedback. Please feel free to share your ideas here too.

[Candy]

As we all know, the need for verifiable data is of paramount importance to bringing about positive change in Fishery Management. If we don’t offer workable solutions, we may not like the solutions that we wind up being forced to live with. My ideas below are designed to have accountability and provide verifiable data at a low cost and 100% participation from all fishermen fishing on open water in the Gulf of Mexico. I will send more of my ideas after you have had time to review and comment on my first 3 proposal ideas.

Other people are working on proposal ideas as well but I will not share those ideas until they are completely finished with their proposals and they give me permission to share them publically. If you would like to share your ideas, Please feel free. I am listening to everyone!

It is my hope that with cooperation of many people and organizations, a mutually beneficial proposal can be submitted to the FFWC, GC and NMFS that will benefit our fishery and provide reliable, verifiable data and accountability systems that will help facilitate better fishery management and insure that Recreational fishermen continue to enjoy access to the fishery.

Idea # 1

We are all familiar with how the Sun Pass system works for toll collecting on our bridges and highways. That system only requires consumers to invest approximately $20.00 for a transponder that keeps track of every time you go over toll bridges and roads. Every time you go through the sun pass system, it records the number of your sun pass transponder and stores a record of your usage. . It is a very inexpensive way that all recreational fishermen could participate in a massive data collection program without much effort or investment. (I am NOT proposing a toll to go through passes. I am simply proposing a reliable data collection system that is affordable and easy for every recreational fisherman to use.) If we implement a system like this, fishery managers will have access to more reliable data and therefore their management will be based on real usage instead of assumed usage.



Install a Sun Pass type system in the passes (For Gulf of Mexico entry logs only, NOT for toll collecting.)


1. It would be used to record who is fishing and how often.

2. It could work as a Reef Fish Permit/Stamp for all Saltwater Fishermen

3. The cost to fishermen would be very small. (My Sun-Pass transponder cost $20.00 once and I’ve had it for years!)

4. The information collected could be used to specifically target who gets contacted for fish catch surveys.

5. This would provide accurate data on the number of vessels that are entering the GOM that Target regulated fish species

6. Having precise data about who is using the Resource should improve the efficiency and quality of data collection surveys.


The low cost of transponders should not meet much resistance from the public especially if they understand that this system is designed to collect verifiable data to better manage the resource. To test the idea, we could do a pilot program in 1 or 2 passes and use volunteers to test the system. To encourage volunteers to participate, a reward system could be temporarily put into place. I would much prefer that fish catch surveys be targeted to people who it is verified have actually fished the GOM instead of random calling that is currently being used. Better data would mean better management.



Idea # 2


Fishing Licenses

1. Require every saltwater fisherman 12 years old and older to have a FWC issued fishing license

2. Require every person that has a license to provide either a phone number and/or e-mail for possible fishery survey data collection

3. Require license holders to update contact information at time of renewal

4. Use the transponder for fishermen that wish to take certain Reef Fish (RS, Grouper etc…) from open water in the GOM

This will provide a new income source to help pay for some new programs and it will also provide more accurate data about how many people have access to the resource and who is targeting which species. (I have other income generating ideas we can discuss later.)



Idea # 3

Incorporate Barcode or Magnetic Strip technology in fishing licenses (Technology already exists….look at the back of your FL driver’s license.)


1. Law Enforcement officers could have a portable barcode / magnetic strip reader

2. Every boat that is stopped, the Law Enforcement Officers could swipe the License of the fishermen and enter Fish Catch Data that would be linked to each fisherman.

3. Benefit for Fishery Management - Data collected by Law Enforcement would be reliable and verifiable


This will simplify data collection and help maintain a comprehensive Law Enforcement stop-log history and violator logs. (This will be helpful in implementing another law enforcement idea, a “3 Strikes and your OUT” program but I’ll outline that for you later.)


Please let me know what you think about these ideas first and then, I’ll outline more for your review and suggestions. Remember, the next FWC meeting is in February in Destin Florida. The next Gulf Council meeting is the 3rd week of January.

[JFG]

Is it time to push for Red Snapper to become a gamefish like Speckel Trout or Red Fish. That would stop commercial harvest. Just like the net ban, we'd have to get it on the ballot. That would take it out of the hands of special intrest and allow the votes to decide.

[Candy]

That idea has been floating around. If all else fails, that may be the way to go. Remember if we take this route to begin with, we will have strong opposition from the seafood industry and the commercial fishermen.

HOWEVER:
I believe we could do that by passing a Florida Constitutional Amendment requiring that all fish that are deemed to be experiencing over-fishing or are over-fished by immediately mandating that those fish be classified as Game Fish in Florida.

The Florida Constitutional Amendment route could possibly remove the FWC, NMFS and GC from the decision process (affecting Florida ONLY) and put the decision in the hands of the citizens of Florida.

People voted to protect pregnant pigs, they would probably vote to protect the average Joe fisherman's rights to enjoy access to the fishery.

Keep those ideas coming in!

[jonesrw]

I REALLY like that idea. Gamefish status has done wonders for trout, redfish, snook, etc. Candy is right, an amendment would by-pass all the special interest groups and their back room deals.

[Candy]

We still need to have a method to insure that the data being used by our fishery managers is valid.

NOAA said we doubled our fishing efforts this year. We know that isn't true but how do we prove it? We have no way to prove that is false.

How did they come to that conclusion? They did random calling. Who knows who they talked to or what was even asked.

If we employ accountability measures that insure they are only talking to people that are documented to have gone fishing that will fix that problem.

If, when Law Enforcement stops us, they are required to log every stop and document every fish in the cooler, that will provide reliable and verifiable data. For accountability, they could require that each fisherman sign the report and push the send button before the officers leave their boat. No changing reports that have been signed and sent with a copy being e-mailed immediately to each fisherman at the same time. Accountability, I love it!

[Candy]

My lightbulb just came on........

If we passed a Game Fish Amendment in Florida and other states didn't follow our lead, we would still have commercial fishing in Federal Waters but Florida wouldn't be getting the fish, it would go to Alabama to be processed and sold.

None of the Commercial Fishers would go out of business, they would just register their boats in Alabama.

Not good for our economy.

The only waters we could protect that way would be State Waters and we all know most the nice fish are in the deeper Federal Waters.

We would need to go through NMFS & NOAA to get Game Fish Status.

Back to the chalkboard.

[jonesrw]

That is a very valid point. An amendment could have the opposite effect that we are looking for.

Last year, I was chosen, I forget how, to participate in a monthly survey of my boating activities. I believe the study was run by the state. For the most, I think they were trying to justify more boat ramps and things like that. Anyways, each month, the survey wanted to know how many times I used my boat, but they only wanted detailed data on my LAST trip of the month. They wanted to know about how much I spent, how many people went with me, if those people bought stuff on the way to my house, how much I caught, if I thought fishing was better this month over the same month last year, etc.

Well, I may have gone 30 miles off shore all month but if my last trip was just a trip to Crab Island or over to Schooners for dinner, well, there was bad data being extrapolated from my answers.

I'm sure there is a lot of that going on everywhere. In a perfect world, we could require each boat owner to log each time his boat got wet, where he went, what he caught, etc. Of course, that will never happen. Most people would not enter the data and even those that do may fudge the data.

I really don't have any good answers for this problem.