Greater Amberjack Recreational Fishing Season Closure - Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico Greater Amberjack Recreational Fishing Season will close on September 28, 2015, according to NOAA Fisheries.

The recreational harvest of greater amberjack in the Gulf of Mexico will close at 12:01 a.m., local time, on September 28, 2015, and remain closed until January 1, 2016.

The 2015 landings data indicate the 1,130,000-pound recreational annual catch target will be harvested by September 27, 2015. 

Greater Amberjack Recreational Fishing Closure Highlights:
 - Recreational harvest or possession of greater amberjack is prohibited.

 - The closure applies in both state and federal waters for vessels that have a valid Gulf of Mexico reef fish charter/headboat permit.

source: Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council

North Carolina For Hire Logbook Requirement Delayed

At its February meeting, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission voted to delay voting on a proposed rule regarding a for-hire logbook requirement until the August meeting in order to get more stakeholder input before the decision.

The delay came after a large group of people from the for-hire industry at the meeting expressed concerns about the for-hire logbook requirement.

The proposed rule would implement a recent change in state law and require charter and guide captains to submit a logbook detailing their for-hire fishing activity for the previous week.

If implemented, for-hire logbook information would go to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) for management purposes.

source: North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission

2014 Alaska Pacific Halibut Regulations

New Pacific halibut regulations are in effect in Alaska as a result of actions by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC). The Alaska Pacific halibut commercial fishery season will run from March 8 through November 7, 2014.

At its annual meeting in January, the IPHC recommended to the governments of Canada and the United States catch limits for 2014 totaling 27,515,000 pounds. The IPHC adopted area-specific catch limits for 2014 that were lower than 2013 in all of its management areas except Area 2C (Southeast Alaska).

In 2014, advised by the Catch Sharing Plan recommended by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the IPHC set combined charter and commercial catch limits for Areas 2C and 3A (Southcentral Alaska).

Voluntary annual transfers of commercial halibut individual fishing quota to charter halibut permit holders in Areas 2C and 3A will be available as “guided angler fish” for additional harvest opportunities in the charter fishery.

The charter fishery will fish under revised regulations which include:

Area 2C (Southeast Alaska)

The charter fishery will be subject to a one-fish daily bag limit with a “reverse slot limit.” Charter anglers may only keep a halibut that is less than 44 inches or greater than 76 inches in length.

If halibut are filleted at sea, the carcass must be retained onboard until landing.

Area 3A (Southcentral Alaska):

Charter fishery two-fish daily bag limit: one any size / one less than or equal to 29 inches total length

Trip limit for charter vessels: vessels are limited to one charter halibut fishing trip in which halibut are retained per calendar day (if no halibut retained, vessel may take an additional trip to catch and retain halibut that day). Applies to vessels only, not charter halibut permits.

If halibut are filleted at sea, the carcass of the halibut that is less than or equal to 29 inches must be retained onboard until landing.
Halibut operators must also observe other new regulations implemented this year under the CSP.

Unguided halibut fishers in Alaska will observe a daily bag limit of 2 fish any size per person per day.

For more information, visit NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional website: http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/

source: NOAA Fisheries

New Gulf Red Snapper Regulations Considered

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council met in Houston, Texas, February 3 - 6, 2014, to discuss a number of fishery issues, including several related to the management of red snapper.

Actions taken by the Council include:

Regional Management of Recreational Red Snapper

The Council continued its discussions regarding Reef Fish Amendment 39 - Regional Management of Recreational Red Snapper. Further work on Amendment 39 - Regional Management is postponed until progress is made on how to allocate the quota among the regions.

Regional management considers dividing the federal recreational red snapper quota among states or regions potentially giving them authority to set their own management measures. States/regions would have more flexibility in choosing season and bag limits, but this would not necessarily result in more fishing days.

Under a regional management system red snapper would remain a federally managed species subject to federal conservation goals, and the Council would continue to oversee management of the stock.

Red Snapper - Slot Limits
In the interest of extending the recreational red snapper fishing season the Council directed staff to develop a framework action for red snapper slot limits in the recreational fishery. The document will consider a range of size limits, as well as options for keeping one trophy fish.

Red Snapper Allocation - Amendment 28
The Council discussed Reef Fish Amendment 28 - Red Snapper Allocation and chose Alternative 5 as its preferred alternative. Alternative 5 maintains the commercial/recreational red snapper allocations at 51%/49% if the red snapper quota is less than or equal to 9.12 million pounds (mp). It the quota is greater than 9.12 mp, then 75% of the amount in excess of 9.12 mp would go to the recreational sector and 25% would go to the commercial sector. Based on the current total quota of 11 mp, this would result in 5.121 mp for the commercial sector and 5.879 mp for the recreational sector.

The Council also added a new alternative, Alternative 7, that would allocate 75% of red snapper quota amounts in excess of 10 mp to the recreational sector and 25% to the commercial sector.

Public hearings on Amendment 28 will be held around the Gulf coast in March. A separate webinar will also be scheduled for those who are unable to participate in person. Dates and locations will be announced. The Council is planning a one-day meeting in May, during which they will hold a final public hearing in the northern Gulf and take final action on Amendment 28.

The purpose of Amendment 28 is to allocate red snapper resources between the commercial and recreational sectors to increase the net benefits from red snapper fishing and improve the stability of the red snapper component of the reef fish fishery, particularly for the recreational sector.

Reef Fish Amendment 40 - Sector Separation

Staff presented a draft options paper for Amendment 40 - Sector Separation, which included an option for voluntary participation. Sector separation refers to the dividing of the recreational red snapper quota into distinct private angling and federal for-hire components. The private angling component would include private anglers and state permitted for-hire operators. The federal for-hire component would include federally permitted for-hire operators. Staff will continue working on the amendment.

For-Hire Electronic Reporting

The Council directed staff to begin developing a framework action to establish electronic reporting methods for charter for-hire vessels with federal reef fish and coastal migratory pelagics permits.

Amendment 30B Permit Conditions

The Council voted to rescind the provision adopted in 2009 under Reef Fish Amendment 30B that requires federally permitted reef fish charter vessels and headboats to comply with the more restrictive federal regulations when fishing in state waters. The framework action will be sent to the Secretary of Commerce for review.

source: Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council

North Carolina Fishing License Fee Increases

North Carolina for-hire fishing license and ocean fishing pier license structures will change later this year. Both licenses will change from an annual license from day of sale to a fiscal year cycle. Current licenses will be valid until their expiration date to aid in this transition.

The new for-hire license structure eliminates the Blanket For-Hire License and the free For-Hire Permit and creates three new licenses: A Blanket For-Hire Captain’s License, a Blanket For-Hire Vessel License and a Non-Blanket For-Hire Vessel License.
This will allow head boat, charter boat and guide boat operators to choose whether to purchase a vessel license or a captain’s license, depending on the way they do business.

The legislation also set a fee for the Non-Blanket For-Hire Vessel License and increased the out-of-state resident fees for all for-hire licenses.

The Ocean Pier License and the Ocean Fishing Pier Blanket Coastal Recreational Fishing License will be combined into one Ocean Pier License, which will still cover the licensing requirements of the anglers on the pier. The two fees will be combined and result in no increase in total cost.

The commission is scheduled to discuss fee increases for permits and licenses at its February meeting. Establishing these license and permits fees will require rule changes, which will entail a public comment process.

source: N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Bluefin Tuna Tag Recoveries

Captain Al Anderson, a charter boat captain out of Point Judith, Rhode Island, participates in the NOAA Fisheries Cooperative Tagging Program. One Capt. Anderson's tagged bluefin tuna was recently recaptured after 16 years.

That bluefin weighed a mere 14 pounds when Anderson caught it in the Mudhole east/southeast of Block Island in 1997. When a Nova Scotia fisherman recaptured it late last year, it weighed more than 1,200 pounds.

Anderson started tagging 45 years ago when he was a graduate student in fisheries biology at the University of Rhode Island.

Bluefin tuna that Anderson tagged have been recaptured off the coasts of Turkey and France. Anderson once recaptured a bluefin off Rhode Island that had been tagged ten days earlier near New Orleans, at least 1,600 miles away.

Over the years, Anderson and his charter clients have tagged tens of thousands of striped bass, almost five thousand bluefin, and 1500 sharks.

NOAA provides fishermen with tags to put on fish they catch and release, including highly migratory species like tunas, sailfish, and marlin. After tagging a fish, they send the tag number to NOAA Fisheries, along with date, location, length and weight.

If the fish is recaptured, the fisherman can read the number and call it in. That allows scientists to track migration patterns and estimate growth and mortality rates for these species.

Conventional tags provide snapshots of data when the fish is tagged and again when it’s recaptured. For a more detailed picture, scientists also deploy PSATs— pop-up satellite archival tags.

Pop-up satellite archival tags provide a huge amount of data on habitat preference, movement, and diving behavior, but because they’re costly there’s only so many of them.

Conventional tags provide less data per tag, but fishermen with the Cooperative Tagging Program have put them on roughly 270,000 fish of almost 80 different species since the program began in 1954.

More Information

Fishermen and tournament operators can get free tags and tagging kits by contacting NOAA’s Cooperative Tagging Center: http://www.sefsc.noaa.gov/species/fish/tagging.htm

source: NOAA Fisheries

South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper FMP Amendment 27

NOAA Fisheries is publishing a final rule to implement Amendment 27 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region on December 27, 2013.

Amendment 27 includes the following actions:

Extends the South Atlantic Council's management responsibility for Nassau grouper to include the Gulf of Mexico.

Increases the number of allowable crew members from three to four on dual-permitted vessels (vessels that have both a federal South Atlantic Charter/Headboat Permit for Snapper-Grouper and a South Atlantic Unlimited or 225-Pound Snapper-Grouper Permit).

Allow captains and crew of for-hire vessels with federal South Atlantic Charter/Headboat Snapper-Grouper Permits to retain bag limit quantities of all snapper-grouper species.

Remove blue runner from the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region.

An Amendment 27 FAQ is available at:

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/s_atl/sg/2013/am27/index.html.

Amendment 27 and the final rule may be obtained from: The NOAA Fisheries Web site:

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/s_atl/sg/2013/am27/index.html.

source: NOAA Fisheries

Alaska Halibut Catch Sharing Plan

NOAA Fisheries is implementing a halibut catch sharing plan for the commercial and charter halibut fisheries in Southeast Alaska (Area 2C) and the Central Gulf of Alaska (Area 3A).

Prior to the catch sharing plan, the charter sector was managed under a guideline harvest level—a management program that was not optimal in preventing fishing overages when harvest of halibut by recreational anglers on charter vessels increased in areas 2C and 3A beginning in the late 1990s.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended the catch sharing plan to replace the guideline harvest level with a clear allocation between the commercial and charter sectors in areas 2C and 3A. The Council urged NOAA Fisheries to implement the halibut catch sharing plan in time for the 2014 fishing season.

Under the catch sharing plan, commercial and charter halibut operations will have a combined catch limit determined by the International Pacific Halibut Commission each year prior to the fishing season. Allocations to the charter and commercial sectors will vary with changes in halibut abundance, according to NOAA Fisheries. 
 
One element of the plan that allows for flexibility is the “guided angler fish” program, which authorizes annual transfers of commercial halibut individual fishing quota to charter halibut permit holders to give charter anglers the opportunity to land halibut up to the limit in place for unguided anglers.

For example, if unguided anglers were allowed to retain two halibut of any size per person per day, and charter anglers were limited to one halibut of a specific size per person per day, charter halibut operators could use the guided angler fish program to permit a client to harvest up to two fish of any size per day.  

A copy of the final halibut catch sharing plan is available online at the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region website: http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/

source: NOAA Fisheries

2011 California Chinook Salmon Run Predictions

On 1 March, the California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG) released data on the 2010 salmon spawning escapement for the Central Valley (Sacramento, San Joaquin River, and tributaries) and Klamath Basin, along with its projections for adult salmon ocean abundance for 2011.

The numbers presented at the Santa Rosa meeting were up substantially from the past three years, indicating the likelihood for a substantial increase in fishing opportunity in 2011.

This is good news not only for California’s commercial trollers, recreational anglers and, in the case of the Klamath, native Indian fishermen, but also for Oregon and Washington’s ocean salmon fishery, where Klamath and Central Valley chinook contribute substantially to those states’ ocean catch.

CDFG is currently projecting a 729,000 adult fall-run for Central Valley chinook for 2011, up significantly from the 245,000 fish projection of 2010, when only a token salmon fishery was allowed.  The two years before that, the ocean had been closed to California’s (and most of Oregon’s) salmon fishermen due to the collapse of Central Valley stocks.

The 2011 returning class of salmon will be the first year-class to have benefited from the salmon protections enacted in the Bay-Delta Estuary aimed at reducing mortality on baby Central Valley salmon migrating downstream through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, San Francisco Bay and out the Golden Gate to the Pacific.

Those protections came about following a lawsuit brought by PCFFA and other fishing and conservation groups (PCFFA, et al. v. Gutierrez) that resulted in a Biological Opinion (Bi-Op) and development of a recovery plan for the Endangered Species Act (ESA) -listed salmon runs including the Sacramento winter and spring-run chinook.

Fall-run chinook runs that support the salmon fishery benefited as well from these ESA-ordered protections; fall-run numbers had been decimated from over-pumping by the State (SWP) and Federal (CVP) projects in the Delta, diverting freshwater flow to the westside San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

Klamath River salmon returns are also projected to be up, for an estimated abundance of 370,000 adult fish, up from 331,500 in 2010.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is in the process of developing management options for the 2011 salmon season.

For more information, see www.pcouncil.org/council-operations/council-meetings/future-meetings/#2011

source: Fishlink Sublegals

Sport Charter Halibut Permit Application Deadline Nears

NOAA Fisheries is reminding sport charter fishing operators in Southeast Alaska and the central Gulf of Alaska that the April 5, 2010 deadline to apply for a permit to operate in 2011 is approaching.

“If you don’t apply before April 5 this year, you won’t get a permit, even if you qualify otherwise,” said Jim Balsiger, Administrator of NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region.

Staff with the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries have sent application packets with blank forms to all operators they believe to be eligible, and that they have current addresses for. Application forms are also available on the web at: http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/ram/ or by calling 1-800-304-4846 (option 2).

NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region estimates that 527 businesses will apply for a total of 920 permits under the new limited license program. As of March 15, NOAA Fisheries had received applications from over 400 businesses.

The new limited access program will limit the number of operators in the sport charter halibut fisheries in International Pacific Halibut Commission regulatory areas 2C (Southeast Alaska) and 3A (Central Gulf of Alaska).

Permits will be issued to qualifying individuals or businesses that documented fishing trips—in state log books—during a qualifying year (2004 or 2005) and in the recent participation year, 2008.

Charter halibut operators will be required to carry their new permits on board starting February 1, 2011.

Details are available at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/sustainablefisheries/halibut/sport.htm.

How to Start a Fishing Charter Business

There are several steps to setting up a fishing charter service. Owners will need a business license, captain's license, TWIC card, boat, safety equipment, insurance, advertising, website and more.

In the USA, any operator of a boat for hire is required to be licensed. These licenses are issued by the United States Coast Guard Regional Exam Centers.

For more information see this page on How to Get a Charter Boat Captain's License