How can rationality sneak into an irrational debate?
In the midst of proclamations and posturing, of political
showmanship and back-room deals that keep everyone’s eyes trained on the show
in the front of the room, can a small door opens toward the rear of the hall,
and a wisp of clear thinking slip through?
Moving softly though the darkness, remaining wrapped in shadows of
others’ making, can it finds a place of its own, settle in, and perhaps find a
way to prevail?.
If we take a look at what’s going on in Louisiana right now,
with respect to red snapper, we might just see that sort of thing going on.
Down in the Gulf of Mexico, the angling press has been breathlessly
reporting about the
United States Commerce Department’s decision to extend the federal red snapper
season for private-boat anglers.
Local politicians haven’t been any more restrained, heralding the extra
39 weekend fishing days and extolling their purported benefits.
“This major expansion of the federal red snapper season is
great news for every community along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The red snapper season helps drive our
economy and this extension will allow families and visitors to take advantage
of red snapper fishing opportunities during Father’s Day and Fourth of July
weekends. This will result in a greater
economic impact for our Gulf Coast communities and I appreciate President Trump
and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross for their partnership with Gulf
Coast states. I encourage every
Floridian and visitor to get out on the water to enjoy Florida’s world-class
fishing.”
Al.com
reports that Alabama governor Kay Ivey had a terser, if no less enthusiastic
reaction, saying
“The red snapper fishery provides a major impact to Alabama’s
economy. Every day the federal season is
open helps businesses in coastal Alabama.”
But some of the news coming out of Louisiana was just a
little bit different.
Louisiana’s
Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted in favor of an extension of the federal
private-boat red snapper season. However,
unlike the other states, Louisiana wasn’t ready to leap head-first into a
season-extension free-for-all.
Instead,
recognizing that the Gulf of Mexico wasn’t a sort of piscine cornucopia,
capable of producing as many red snapper as needed to meet angler demand, Louisiana was
intent on maintaining its self-imposed annual recreational catch limit of
roughly 1.04 million pounds of red snapper.
The Times-Picayune noted that, if anglers’ red snapper catch
rates were the same this year as they were in 2016, the season would end around
July 16. However, because landings got
off to a slower start this year, largely due to bad weather, the season will
last somewhat longer. Exactly how long
that would be is impossible to predict at this time.
The important thing is that Louisiana,
unlike the other Gulf states, is has chosen to walk a more responsible path,
limiting harvest to a level that it deems appropriate, and not allowing anglers
to keep harvesting fish until the season ends.
Given that some
non-governmental organizations have predicted that recreational harvest could exceed
the 2017 recreational catch limit by as much as seven million pounds, which
would cause the combined recreational and commercial landings to exceed the
2017 overfishing limit by about 50%, Louisiana’s restraint is both
noteworthy and commendable.
Couple that restraint with Louisiana’s recently-proposed
pilot program to give anglers a set number of red snapper that they could catch
at any time during the year—potentially eliminating the problem of short
seasons for all time—and it becomes clear that there is a lot of real thinking
going on down in the Sportsman’s Paradise these days.
Of course, such thinking isn’t prized in an environment
where emotion, loud voices and alternative facts dominate the landscape, so the
champions of irrationality quickly attacked that pilot program. A
representative of the American Sportfishing Association, which represents the
fishing tackle industry, said that the trade group was
“deeply concerned with the long term ramifications of the
pilot program,”
which it saw as
“the first step toward creating a harvest tag program for red
snapper.”
The ASA representative, however, never explained why, in a
fishery long plagued by insufficiently constrained recreational landings and
chronic recreational overharvest, such a tag program would not be a positive
development.
The Louisiana chapter of the Coastal Conservation
Association also opposed the plan, seeming most upset by the fact that
Louisiana fishery managers were thinking for themselves and coming up with
innovative ideas, rather than letting CCA lead them about by the nose.
“While the proposed pilot program itself is full of problems,
and should be immediately withdrawn, it was the way it was developed in secret
and announced by surprise that is more disappointing. CCA, the Louisiana charter industry and
anglers from around Louisiana have worked in good faith to rebuild and repair
our relationship with the department.
The inexplicable breach of trust, unfortunately, is an enormous step
backwards.”
Despite such complaints, there is little doubt that
Louisiana is the most forward-thinking Gulf state with respect to red snapper
management.
While some of its positions are open to question—in 2015, it joined the other Gulf
states in a call to strip the National Marine Fisheries Service of its
jurisdiction to manage the species, and hand such authority over to a
multi-state management body—it has often been at the forefront of the
management debate.
The National Academy of Sciences recognized, in its
recent review of the Marine Recreational Information Program, used to
estimate anglers’ landings, the need for
“survey methodologies and approaches for estimating catch and
effort for Gulf red snapper, a fishery characterized by short federal fishing
seasons…that is unlikely to be properly sampled by the standard MRIP protocols.”
Aware of the shortcomings of both MRIP and its predecessor,
the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey, in such circumstances, Louisiana
developed its own sampling methodology, LA Creel, which it has used since 2013 to
estimate landings of red snapper and other species.
The National Academy’s report noted that
Louisiana has applied to have LA Creel certified as part of MRIP, and that
“The objective is to make sure that LA Creel data are
compatible with MRIP and other regional data for stock assessment and
management purposes.”
That puts Louisiana a big step ahead of other Gulf states,
most particularly Texas, which does not take part in MRIP but instead relies on
an archaic survey that the National Academy report viewed with a jaundiced eye,
saying that,
“based on a presentation to the committee about the survey as
well as discussions with regional partners and stakeholders it is questionable
whether the estimates produced by Texas are comparable to MRIP. At the very least, it is highly advisable
that the Texas survey be reviewed by an independent review panel so its
applicability to regional fisheries assessment and management can be
objectively assessed.”
It’s probably not a coincidence that Texas is also the state
most out of compliance with federal red snapper management, maintaining no
season at all, a bag limit of 4 fish compared to the federal 2-fish bag, and a
size limit of just 15 inches, one inch less than the federal limit.
So with all things considered, it seems that Louisiana may
well be responsible for opening the door and letting rationality sneak into the
Gulf red snapper debate.
Even so, that rationality hasn’t played too much of a role
so far. The season extension has
probably made recreational overharvest a more intractable problem than it ever
has been before, and one that could bring the whole management system down on
the heads of the rational and irrational alike.
But don’t count rationality out just yet. Now that Louisiana has quietly opened the door,
it still has a chance to prevail.
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