GULF OF MEXICO FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL
REEF FISH MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
Hilton Key Largo Hotel Key Largo, Florida
August 11, 2008
VOTING MEMBERS
Kay Williams Mississippi
Kevin Anson (designee for Vernon Minton) Alabama
Roy Crabtree NMFS, SERO, St. Petersburg, Florida
Robert Gill Florida
Julie Morris Florida
Robin Riechers (designee for Larry McKinney) Texas
William Teehan (designee for Ken Haddad) Florida
Susan Villere Louisiana
Bobbi Walker Alabama
NON-VOTING MEMBERS
Karen Foote (designee for Randy Pausina) Louisiana
Joe Hendrix Texas
Elizabeth Keister (designee for RADM Whitehead)
8th Coast Guard District, New Orleans, LA
Harlon Pearce Louisiana
William Perret (designee for William Walker) Mississippi
Michael Ray Texas
Ed Sapp Florida
Bob Shipp Alabama
Larry Simpson GSMFC
STAFF
Steven Atran Population Dynamics Statistician
Assane Diagne Economist
Trish Kennedy Administrative Assistant
Rick Leard Acting Executive Director
Shepherd Grimes NOAA General Counsel
Charlene Ponce Public Information Officer
Cathy Readinger Administrative Officer
Carrie Simmons Fishery Biologist
Wayne Swingle Executive Director
Tina O’Hern Travel Coordinator
OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Dave Allison Oceana, Washington, D.C.
Trip Aukeman CCA Florida
Cliff Beard USCG
Sean Black Marco Island, FL
Heather Blough NMFS
Steve Branstetter NOAA Fisheries
Glen Brooks GFA, Bradenton, FL
Jim Clements Carrabelle, FL
John Cole Bryan, TX
Carmen DeGeorge USCG
Chris Dorsett Ocean Conservancy, Austin, TX
Leda Dunmore Key Largo, FL
Tracy Dunn NOAA
Libby Fetherston St. Petersburg, FL
Ted Forsgren Tallahassee, FL
Benny Gallaway LGL Ecological Associates, Bryan, TX
George Geiger SAFMC
Susan Gerhart NOAA
Keith Guindon Galveston, TX
Rick Hart NMFS, Galveston, TX
Fred Lifton Marco Island, FL
Ron Lukens Omega Protein, High Springs, FL
Vishwanie Maharaj Environmental Defense, Austin, TX
Koyel Mandel Ocean Conservancy, Austin, TX
Jim Nance NMFS, Galveston, TX
Russell Nelson CCA, Oakland Park, FL
Dennis O’Hern FRA, St. Petersburg, FL
Pat O’Shaughnessy USCG
Larry Perruso NMFS SEFSC
Bonnie Ponwith NOAA SEFSC
Dean Pruitt FL
Karen Raine GCEL/SE
Tracy Redding AAA Charters, Foley, AL
Tom Rice Panama City, FL
Whitney Robmick Environmental Defense, Washington, D.C.
Odin Smith DOC OGC
Bob Spaeth Southern Offshore Fishing Association, FL
Andy Strelcheck NMFS
Brian Sullivan USCG
Ed Swindell Hammond, LA
Bill Tucker Dunedin, FL
Donald Waters Pensacola, FL
Wayne Werner Alachua, FL
Tom Wheatley Marine Fish Conservation Network
Larry Yarborough USCG
Bob Zales, II, Panama City Boatmen’s Assoc., Panama City, FL
Scott Zimmerman Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association
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The Reef Fish Management Committee of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council convened in the Largo Ballroom of the Hilton Key Largo Hotel, Key Largo, Florida, Monday morning, August 11, 2008, and was called to order at 9:00 o’clock a.m. by Chairman Kay Williams.
CHAIRMAN KAY WILLIAMS: Good morning. The Reef Fish Committee will come to order. Kevin Anson will be filling in for Vernon Minton. Welcome, Kevin. I am here, Crabtree is here, Gill, Morris, Riechers, Teehan, Villere, and Bobbi Walker. All the Reef Fish Committee members are here.
ADOPTION OF AGENDA AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES
That brings us to the Adoption of the Agenda. Are there any additions to the agenda? Hearing none, the agenda is adopted. Approval of Minutes, are there any changes to the approval of the minutes, Tab B, Number 2? There’s no changes to the minutes and without objection, the minutes are approved. That brings us to Item III, which is Amendment 30B, and we’re going to start with -- Steve is going to go ahead and take us through the AP and SSC Recommendations.
FINAL ACTION ON AMENDMENT 30B/EIS
AP AND SSC RECOMMENDATIONS
MR. STEVEN ATRAN: Thank you, Madam Chairman. The Reef Fish AP Recommendations are in Tab B, Number 4 and the SSC Recommendations are in Tab B, Number 5. I’m just going to briefly go through their recommendations and you might want to keep these in mind as you go through the amendment itself.
On Tab B, Number 4, one thing before we get started on the Amendment 30B recommendations. I’m not really sure what to do about this, but we’ve had complaints from both the AP and the SSC that oftentimes they’ll make a recommendation or a motion on some item, and it often occurs under Other Business, on some issue that they feel is important that the council should look into and in the council meeting, it never comes up for discussion, because we tend to break these meeting summaries down into just the components and we just look at the Amendment 30B portions of them when we’re covering Amendment 30B and the 29 portion when we’re covering Amendment 29.
On Tab B, Number 4, the very first item was a hold-over from the previous AP meeting in which they got into a discussion on bag limits for warsaw grouper and it was in relation to talking about discard mortality, a question about why there was a bag limit for the recreational fishery and no trip limit for the commercial fishery, and they ended up with a recommendation that the recreational bag limit for warsaw grouper be increased from the current one fish per vessel limit. That never came up for discussion and so they reiterated that motion at their last meeting.
For Amendment 30B, just quickly going through their recommendations, this was the second time that the Reef Fish AP has looked through the entire amendment and so in most of these cases, they simply reiterated what their previous recommendation was.
For Action 1, which is set gag thresholds and benchmarks, in the previous meeting they had received reports from Dr. Kenchington, suggesting that gag were no longer undergoing overfishing, and based on that, their previous recommendation, which they reiterated last week, or the week before last, was that in light of that information, the reef fish recommendation is to take no action on Action 1.
However, they did realize that the council probably is going to take action and so they made a couple of other motions. They voted that for minimum stock size threshold -- They felt that the formula that we use, the one minus M times BMSY, was too precautionary and that we didn’t need to be that precautionary and so they recommended that instead that MSST be set at Option B, which is 75 percent of SSBmax.
That’s just about the halfway point between -- That is the halfway point between maximum yield per recruit, which is our proxy for MSY, and one-half of maximum yield per recruit, which is the minimum we’re allowed to go to under the National Standard Guidelines.
Then for OY, they recommended that instead of setting OY at the yield corresponding to 75 percent of BMSY, FBMSY, that it be set at 90 percent of Fmax, which is a little bit more lenient level.
Action 2 was withdrawn from the amendment some time ago. That had to do with MSST for red grouper, but since that’s already been set, it wasn’t necessary to do that in this amendment. Action 3, which is to set the gag TAC, the AP recommended that the gag TAC be set using the levels identified in Table 2.3.2 in the amendment, which bases the TAC on 30 percent SPR, rather than maximum yield per recruit, and it allows for a somewhat larger TAC if you go with the MSY proxy.
They recommended setting it in constant catch intervals, three-year intervals, based upon F30 percent SPR. That means that during the period of 2009 through 2011 that TAC would be set at 5.23 million pounds and then TAC for subsequent years would be set through a regulatory amendment and would remain at that level until such an amendment is implemented.
For Action 4, which is red grouper TAC, the AP recommended Alternative 3, which is to set the TAC corresponding to the equilibrium FMSY level, rather than the OY level. That would set TAC at 7.72 million pounds for red grouper.
For Action 5, which is red grouper and gag allocations -- Now, there was a little bit of a change in the wording from the last time the AP had looked at this. Originally, we had Alternative 1 marked as the status quo. That set the TAC at a level corresponding to the methodology described in Amendment 1, based upon the years 1979 through 1987, or as many of those years as we have data for.
That is the status quo alternative has since been switched to Alternative 2, which bases the allocation on the most recent five years for which we had data and represents status quo on the water as opposed to status quo in the amendment.
The AP recommended that we continue to go with Alternative 1, based on the fact that they felt that the alternatives other than Alternative 1 would base the allocation on catches that may have been biased by regulations that have been put into effect since Amendment 1 was implemented. They recommended that the allocation be based on Alternative 1, which would set the gag recreational/commercial proportions at 65 percent recreational, 35 percent commercial, and red grouper would be set at 23 percent recreational and 77 percent commercial.
For Action 6, which is annual catch limits and accountability measures, this is a complicated alternative and so I’m a little bit troubled keeping up with this. The AP recommended that Alternative 4 be adopted as the preferred alternative.
That alternative sets both the target catch and the ACL level at the same level, based on equilibrium OY levels. The AP didn’t feel that it was necessary to provide a buffer, that the regulations should be sufficient to keep the catches within their respective catch limits.
For Action 7, which is the commercial quotas for shallow-water grouper, red grouper, and gag, the AP reiterated its previous motion for a modified version of Alternative 1, which is not to specify a quota for gag, but the shallow-water grouper quota and the red grouper quota would be adjusted accordingly for the new red grouper TAC allocation. Again, their previous recommendation was not to set a TAC on gag.
For Action 8, which is application of quota closures, the AP recommended a new alternative. Actually, I believe this is a reiteration of their previous motion that states that if a species quota is met, only that species will close and the remainder of the shallow-water grouper fishery would remain open until the additional species or shallow-water grouper aggregate quota is met.
They also recommended that if the council adopts Alternative 3, which currently is the preferred alternative, and decides not to address potential adjustments to the percentage that would trigger the incidental bycatch allowance, or to the trip limit for the incidental bycatch allowance, that red grouper be stricken from Alternative 3, since it is a fully recovered stock.
For Action 9, the recreational harvest of gag and red grouper management alternatives, the AP was looking at a table that is in the Amendment 30B discussion on size limit actions that noted that if the size limit for recreationally caught gag were to be raised to twenty-four inches, even assuming a 20 percent release mortality, it would result in just about a 20 percent reduction in harvest. I believe it’s 19.6 percent is the number that’s in the amendment.
They felt that that action got very close to the 25 percent reduction that the council is looking for and that it would be less disruptive to the fishery than closed seasons and reduced bag limits.
The AP recommended, by a vote of seven to three, that the council add a new alternative to the section on recreational management measures that would raise the gag size limit to twenty-four inches and retain the five fish bag limit and if there has to be a closed season, at a maximum, retain the one-month closure concurrent with the commercial sector.
For Alternative 10, which is alternatives to reduce discard mortality of grouper, and this is the one where the council is looking at reducing the commercial size limit on red grouper, the panel almost endorsed the council’s preferred alternative with one change. They did vote to recommend reducing the commercial size limit for red grouper to eighteen inches, for red grouper only, but they recommended that that size limit be applied only to the shallow-water commercial longline fishery.
The council’s preferred alternative is to apply it to the entire commercial fishery. Existing size limits would continue to apply to other gear.
Under creation of marine reserves and time/area closures, the AP for a while was discussing a recommendation to split this up. They felt that marine reserves and time/area closures should be discussed separately, because I guess the discussion of marine reserves, which infers no-take areas, generates a lot more controversy than a seasonal closure for spawning or other specific purposes, but a vote to split the section up failed.
What they did vote was no action, do not create any additional marine reserves or closed areas that prohibit fishing for grouper or other reef fish fishes. Again, that was a reiteration of the last time they had looked at this amendment.
For Action 12, which is duration of marine reserves and time/area closures, they voted that the preferred alternative be Alternative 4a, which takes no action as far as extending the Madison-Swanson and Steamboat Lumps Reserves. It would allow those reserves to expire on June 16, 2010.