On September 12, eight leaders from the recreational fishing community, including Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) President Jeff Crane, provided comments to the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries of the National Marine Fisheries Service on their proposed draft national saltwater recreational fishing policy and applauding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for working towards developing such a policy.
While the significance of recreational angling has historically been overlooked by the agency, NOAA Fisheries’ new recreational policy seeks to recognize the vast economic, conservation and social benefits that recreational anglers brings to saltwater fisheries. This change in direction is the direct result of better communication between the angling community and NOAA Fisheries since the first National Saltwater Recreational Fishing Summit was held in 2010.
Some of the comments collectively submitted by the eight recreational fishing organization include: managing recreational species for abundance and age using mortality rates rather than yield in pounds, which will allow catch and harvest to move up or down based on real time population levels; management of fisheries should remain stable where possible; catch shares are a wholly inappropriate management tool for recreational fishing and therefore should never be allowed within the recreational sector; allocations for commercial and recreational sectors should be set using economic valuation, not just past catch history.
Studies conducted at both the state and federal level have found that the number of hunters and trappers have been on a generally declining trend over the past several decades. To increase recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) of hunters and trappers, which initiative do you think would have the greatest impact?
