Where Are the Dolphin?

Offering your input has never been easier, or more important.

Who hasn't heard a coach, teacher, parent or boss tell you that the one thing that matters most is effort? I've heard it, and get it: Effort matters. It matters to fishery managers, too. A lot. Simply looking at catch totals only tells you part of the story. You also need to know how many anglers, and how many trips, it took to get to that total.

Unfortunately, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council), responsible for managing dolphin (mahi mahi) stocks on the U.S. eastern seaboard from Key West to Maine, has not been tracking the amount of effort anglers use to take millions of pounds of dolphin from the Atlantic Ocean each year.

An increase in effort (CPUE) Catch Per Unit Effort, to catch the same amount of fish would indicate a possible problem. A large increase in effort to catch a smaller total of fish would indicate a HUGE problem.

The problem right now is that the Council seems to be stuck in indecision on how to move forward with new dolphin management plans. Considering the 30-year trend of landing records, which are steadily going down, and without a clear picture of effort, nor on how much longlining is going on by the commercial sector, you'd think there would be a sense of urgency.

For the last three decades the rolling five-year averages, in millions of pounds caught by primarily recreational anglers (90%), has been going down, and alarmingly the most recent five-year average is five million pounds (23%) less than the first five-year average. See graph at left.



Five million pounds is a lot fewer dolphin out there, so when you factor in the possibility of more anglers targeting dolphin, which judging by the number of people running larger and larger center consoles in pursuit of pelagics such as dolphin, the total stock assessment may be much smaller.

I think we have a bigger problem than anyone knows.

Without a clear picture on effort, nor how much longlining is going on, it's time for us to provide some color on what we're seeing, or not seeing, on the water.

The Council needs to hear from us, you. They have been slowly, repeat slowly, trying to address dolphin stocks for years. In 2015 the Council set plans in motion, via a new set of new rules, called Amendment 10, to revise the catch levels through annual catch limits (ACL), annual catch targets (ACT), accountability measures (AM), sector allocations, and management measures for dolphin and wahoo.

It's time for action. Stop complaining about the lack of fish and make your observations count. And according to John Hadley, Economist, Staff Contact for Dolphin Wahoo and HMS South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, right now is the time to be in contact with the Dolphin Wahoo Advisory Panel, which includes 17 members from Florida to Maine, who plan to meet for public comment October 28, 2020. But more importantly, Hadley added, is contacting your representatives on the Council, who make the decisions, before they meet December 7-11.

The time is now. Future dolphin stocks, and the final wording of Amendment 10, are in our hands. The amount of effort we give now could reverse decades of declining dolphin landings. It's all about effort.

WHAT'S THE LEFT HAND DOING?

Apparently in short supply, too, is coordination among regional fishery councils.

The Gulf of Mexico, newsflash, supports a big recreational fishery for mahi. In some years—2019, for instance—landings estimates were just over one third those for the Atlantic Coast. Yet, the Gulf Council deflects management questions to the South Atlantic Council. The Gulf Council actually has no regulations on mahi—none whatsoever! In state waters along the Florida Gulf Coast, the FWC adopted the 10 per person/60 per boat bag limit but not the 20-inch minimum which applies in Atlantic waters.

In waters adjacent Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Caribbean Fishery Management Council only recently added mahi as a species of interest. Tagging studies have shown some mahi captured on the U.S. east coast transit these waters.



Fishery managers are aware of growing commercial interest in mahi, probably not a good thing, given hazy stock assessments and oversight. FS

CALL TO ACTION

Submit Your Comments:

https://safmc.wufoo.com/forms/m1ijpb670ziz2jz/

CONTACT YOUR FLORIDA REPRESENTATIVES ON THE

SOUTH ATLANTIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL:

Jessica R. McCawley

(850) 487-0554

jessica.mccawley@myfwc.com

Chester Brewer

(561) 655-4777

wcbsafmc@gmail.com

Art Sapp

(954) 444-0820

artsappsafmc@gmail.com

Published Florida Sportsman Magazine October 2020

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