San Francisco: On Tuesday Night, October 29th, the Council, at their regular meeting, approved the final draft of the Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The Plan that the Council adopted was the result of three years of development by a group of state and federal scientists, known as the Plan Development Team, and sport and commercial fishing industry representatives, environmental community representatives and public representatives, known as the HMS Advisory Subpanel. The great news for recreational anglers is that the Plan was adopted with a total prohibition on the use of ‘pelagic’ long lines inside 200 miles. In addition, any consideration of authorizing this gear by the Council inside 200 miles would first take an amendment to the FMP, a process that procedurally would take at least a year.

In addition to the prohibition on the use of long lines inside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which extends out 200 miles, the Council adopted a legal gear definition for ‘drift gill net’ that prohibits gill nets with stretched mesh less that 14 inches. This was the SAC recommendation and will prevent the use of small mesh drift gill nets for use in the take of tunas, such as albacore. This additive gear could have caused serious problems with existing commercial hook-and-line jig and bait tuna fisheries, not to mention the recreational albacore, tuna and marlin fisheries.

Going in to this meeting, the commercial drift gill net and long line fishery representatives attempted to convince the Council that the Plan was fatally flawed, and as a block they recommended that the Plan be scrapped. Not only did the Council fail to follow the advice of these fishermen, even the commercial fisheries representatives on the Council voted in favor of the adoption of the Plan. This “unanimous” vote sends a loud message that management intends to proactively control the fisheries impacts on these species throughout the U. S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Special thanks must be extended to the California Department of Fish & Game and their representatives Marija Vojkovich and L. B. Boydstun. It was the Department’s motion that put this adoption in place. The adoption of the HMS FMP will usher in a new US regulatory presence off the west coast. SAC is pleased that its’ President, Bob Fletcher, who chaired the HMS Advisory Subpanel, was involved and was able to provide the sportfishing perspective so that the commercial passenger fishing vessel (CPFV) fleet would have its interests considered during this lengthy process. As other opportunities diminish, it’s critical that the presently healthy albacore and tuna fishery we enjoy off the west coast be protected from excessive fishery impacts from additional commercial tuna gears.

The next step in final approval of this FMP is Council submission of the adopted final draft to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). They will review the document for consistency with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which is the prevailing federal law, and for consistency with other federal law. Following final review by NMFS, the document will be submitted to the Secretary of Commerce for approval and then forwarded to the Pacific Fishery Management Council for implementation, a process that usually takes several months.

I’ll be reporting to all when that final approval occurs, but in the mean time the albacore are still biting, so go out and get ‘em cause they’re getting’ away!

Bob Fletcher