Federal fish managers review shift for dolphin, yellowtail

Federal fishery managers this week will consider whether to loosen rules on yellowtail snapper and dolphin to prevent early commercial closures.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, meeting Monday through Friday in North Carolina, reviews a proposal that suggests keeping the current annual catch limit for both offshore species intact.

However, the sector allocations could be adjusted to let commercial boats keep working if it seems apparent that recreational fishers will not reach their allotted limit.

“This action is intended to prevent or delay closures of the commercial sectors for dolphin and yellowtail snapper,” a council briefing report says. “In 2015, the recreational sector harvested a little over half of the recreational [annual catch limit] for each species respectively.”

“As a result, approximately 6.7 million pounds whole weight of the total ACL for dolphin and 626,000 pounds whole weight of the total ACL for yellowtail snapper was unharvested,” the report says.

The South Atlantic council, in conjunction with the National Marine Fisheries Service, sets the limits on fish catches from the federal Atlantic waters of the Florida Keys through North Carolina.

The current commercial limit is 1.53 million pounds of dolphin in the multi-state region. The recreational sector is allocated 13.81 million pounds. In 2015, a strong commercial harvest of dolphin in the Carolinas ended commercial fishing throughout the South Atlantic by July.

“In reality, the dolphin fishery was fine,” said Billy Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association. “The recreational sector rarely catches more than 7 million pounds... Now there is no in-season mechanism to reallocate all these million pounds of unharvested fish. It’s not threatening the population.”

“Scientists acknowledge that underfishing sometimes can be just as harmful as overfishing,” he said. “When there are too many old fish, there’s not enough room for new recruits.”

The situation is similar for yellowtail snapper, which has a total annual catch limit slightly more than 3 million pounds — about 1.6 million for commercial and 1.44 million for recreational.

In the last 10 years, the average estimated recreational harvest less than 612,000 pounds, with a peak of 791,157 in 2015.

For more, go to www.safmc.net.

This story was originally published December 2, 2016 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Federal fish managers review shift for dolphin, yellowtail."