Plan would limit bottom fishing off SC coast

CHARLESTON -- A large cusp of the offshore bottom along the Continental Shelf would be closed to fishing from Charleston to south Florida under a plan tentatively approved this month by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

The plan aims to save the imperiled red snapper, which often don't survive if they are caught while fishermen target other species. The plan would prohibit bottom fishing for grouper at deep-sea sweet spots. It leaves open a few prized locations closer to shore.

Federal officials already have temporarily banned red snapper fishing while they debate a long-term solution.

Many commercial and recreational anglers opposed closing the bottom in the four states regulated by the council, saying it wasn't needed and would drive them out of business.

Advocates such as the PEW Environmental Group have pushed hard for stricter regulations, saying the short-term damage to the industry is necessary to sustain the species in the long term.

The council picked the area as a preferred alternative from a number of options. The decision was made at a meeting in Atlantic Beach, N.C. The alternative will be reviewed in May and could get a final vote in June. But the closure might not come before a new stock assessment is finished next December.

This month's volatile decision reversed a committee decision that would have closed a far larger area, including the water directly offshore of Charleston. It followed a year of heated public hearings and a grueling, sometimes heated, council meeting in September at which members did not reach a decision.

Holly Binns, manager for the Pew Environment Group's Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast, issued a statement that said the change resulted in "a weakened measure that caters to short-term thinking and won't get the job done."

"Red snapper are at just 3 percent of a sustainable population level -- a result of over-fishing that has continued for decades," her statement read in part. "We hope the council rethinks its strategy and strengthens the red snapper recovery plan when it reconvenes in March."

Closing a large enough span of the bottom could also virtually remove local catches of the sought-after grouper from the hook, restaurant plates and seafood stores because the grouper is a bottom fish like the snapper.

Craig Reaves, owner of Sea Eagle Market in Beaufort, said the move upset local commercial and recreational fishermen. He fears he might need to supply his business from elsewhere if the plan is implemented.

"We're going to have to buy our fish from the Gulf of Mexico or Central and South America, and that's not what we want," he said. "You need management, but I don't think closing the fishery altogether is the right thing to do, either."

The closure would curtail most commercial and recreational fishing, disrupting a $600 million-per-year industry in South Carolina alone.

The vote came just before a December deadline mandated by a new stricter federal law that said the council must have rules in place by 2010 to stop snapper over-fishing. The closure is one of a number of regulations being considered to protect snapper-grouper species, which council counts indicate have been depleted.

But whatever rules are put in place might not stay for long.

The decision is being made as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is proposing new guidelines for assessing fish stocks and begins a long-expected move to allocating catch shares -- giving anglers a specific number of fish they can catch rather than limits on individual species -- and limiting the number of anglers who can fish.

Meanwhile, members of Congress, including U.S. Rep Henry Brown, R-S.C., are discussing legislation that would force regulators to put more emphasis on the economic impact when deciding fishing restrictions.

Island Packet reporter Josh McCann contributed to this report.