The Coastal Conservation Association Florida has released a special report documenting a history of bias against recreational fisheries in federal management programs. The report, Failures and Exploitation Bias in Federal Fishery Management Programs, Recommendations for Systemic Changes, was presented to the Sportfishing Leadership Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"The conference gave us an excellent opportunity to provide our findings and recommendations on federal fisheries management to every major saltwater recreational fishing organization in the United States, as well as to representatives of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)," said Michael Kennedy, CCA Florida Chairman.

The special report documents a history of bias against recreational saltwater fishing within the federal system, stating: "One of the predominant roles of the National Marine Fisheries Service through the 90s was to develop commercial fisheries. As a result, NMFS and the federal fishery management councils have been systematically reducing recreational fishery landings at a much greater and faster rate than commercial fishery landings. In many cases, recreational landings were dramatically reduced through regulation while commercial industry landings remained the same or even increased, sometimes substantially."

"We've documented a process that is actually transforming many predominately recreational fisheries into commercial fisheries," said CCA Florida Executive Director Ted Forsgren.

For example, an analysis within the report found that in the case of Gulf of Mexico gag grouper, the cumulative impact of 11 years of federal regulations have caused annual recreational landings to be reduced by an average of 42 percent, while commercial landings have actually increased over the same time period.

In the case of amberjack, the report points out that federal regulations have "allowed a once non-existent commercial fishery to continue expanding, and in some areas completely supplant the recreational fishery. In addition, the regulations did not provide critically needed protection from high-volume commercial take during the spawning aggregation period."

"The federal regulations simply reduced recreational take and enhanced the commercial takeover of the fishery," said Forsgren. "The once abundant South Atlantic amberjack stocks have not recovered from the impact of the commercial fishery directed at spawning aggregations."

The report details similar results from federal management of both sharks and yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic.

The report also documents how NMFS manipulation of council appointment guidelines, including allowing paid commercial lobbyists to hold council seats, has allowed commercial interests to dominate the 11 federal fishery management councils and led to the current unbalanced system.

"We've also made a number of recommendations within the report for addressing the blatant bias within the system," said Forsgren, "including the use of amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act that would reduce financial conflicts of interest on the councils, change council appointment policies within the Department of Commerce, and allow states to have greater authority in developing federal management plans for fisheries that occur predominantly in waters off of that state."

A complete copy of the report is available on-line, or by calling the CCA Florida advocacy office in Tallahassee at (850) 224-3474.