My name is Chris McCaffity. I am a commercial fisherman from Morehead City who has been working with others on plans for our fisheries thatwould limit waste, feed more people, generate more revenue, and protect our marine resources. The common sense solutions offered in these comments are based on input from fishery managers, scientists, environmentalists, seafood dealers, consumers, and fishermen from both sectors. Please keep an open mind and take a few minutes to read the public comments I was not allowed to give to the committee in person.

Fishing has been a major part of North Carolina’s economy and a source of food since the first settlers arrived. Our fishing culture and heritage are a big part of what makes eastern North Carolina such a wonderful and unique place to visit or live. Now our fisheries are at a crossroads. The recommendations of this study committee and the actions of our Legislature will have a very big impact on which road our fisheries will go down. Will we rush down a road that restricts the public’s access to local seafood and increases regulatory discards while destroying commercial fishing jobs? We have the option of going down a road that will limit waste and feed more people while increasing commercial and recreational fishing opportunities if we will look at the big picture. I pray everyone reading this supports going down a road that benefits all North Carolinians and our marine resources as the Fisheries Reform Act requires.

HB-353 is one of the most heated topics in NC fishery management at this time. That bill is not even a management plan as much as it is an allocation plan. Game fish status for Speckled Trout, Red Drum, and Striped Bass will allocate 100% of those fish to 3% of our state’s population while taking away every citizen’s freedom to buy these three delicious fish at a seafood market or restaurant. If that is not reason enough to oppose HB-353, consider this. The three fish in this bill are mostly caught as by-catch in other fisheries and are currently sold to consumers. Those same fish that are being used to feed people will still be caught even if they are illegal to keep. This will result in thousands of dead and dying game fish being discarded and wasted. This appears to be a pre-meditated scheme by the Coastal Conservation Association to create this waste in an attempt to advance other agendas like a net ban. Even if this tragic waste and abuse is not by malicious design, it is totally unacceptable and avoidable. I hope everyone will carefully consider if they support or oppose HB-353’s attack on the poor, elderly, and disabled citizen’s freedom to eat a nutritious “game fish” because HB-353 will force commercial fishermen to discard all of them dead or alive.

Here are some alternatives to HB-353 that have broad support from both sectors and fishery managers.


1.      Work with fishermen on a suggested minimum mesh size for gillnets in different fisheries. Experienced netters know what size net to use that will allow most undersized fish to pass through unharmed. Fishermen do not want to waste time picking out fish they cannot keep.

2.      Remove the hard deadline for rebuilding the Speckled Trout stock and keep possession limits at current levels for both sectors. The hard deadline will result in lower limits and more regulatory discards in the future. Cold-stun events have far more impact than fishermen on stock levels.  

3.      Allow a dip-net only Speckled Trout fishery for both sectors within existing possession limits during cold-stun events. This will allow fishermen to make wise use of the fish that are likely to die anyway and provide a more accurate count of how many fish were affected by the cold.

4.      Do not issue any new Recreational Commercial Gear Licenses. Revoke any existing RCGL holder’s privilege to use a certain gear if they receive a ticket for using that gear illegally.

5.      Replace arbitrary size limits with science based size limits that are no longer than is required for a species to breed once. Long-lived fish like Red Drum could have different size and possession limits to protect the breeding stock. This would greatly reduce regulatory discards and feed more people.

6.     Reduce the by-catch allowance for trawl gear to ten Striped Bass and allow a commercial hook and line fishery with a ten fish limit. This will stop the directed trawl fishery for bass. Also allow unused beach seine Striped Bass quota to be caught in other fisheries. 

7.      High-grading or keeping the best fish while discarding less desirable ones is wrong whether it is voluntary or mandatory. Mandatory high-grading occurs when size limits are set higher than scientists say is needed for a fish to breed once. Science based size limits and a way for commercial fishermen to donate overages to other permit holders or soup kitchens would stop most high-grading and regulatory discards. 

8.      Stop the sell and transfer of commercial licenses for three years while we decide how North Carolina’s fisheries will be managed in the future. We need to take the time to come up with a management strategy that has as many positive benefits and as few negative impacts as possible for all NC citizens and our fisheries. The regulations we come up with should be given three years to work before any new ones are added.

9.      Use some of the fishing license fees to dredge inlets and create rock jetties to keep them open. Inlets are filling in with sand and creating navigational hazards while keeping many fish from entering our sounds. The jetties would double as artificial reefs that will enhance our fisheries.

10.  Require single barbless hooks for catch and release fishermen and suggest that they only discard twice the legal recreational bag limit. This would help reduce discard mortality rates.

11.  We should encourage recreational anglers to just keep the legal fish they catch until their possession limits are met and then go fish for something else or home with dinner. We should discourage all high-grading and discarding of wounded fish for fun or profit. We can enjoy the sport of catching fish while understanding they are a renewable source of healthy food rather than just toys and manage them as such.     

Those solutions would benefit all North Carolina citizens while limiting waste, increasing revenue, and protecting stocks.

Another issue that is negatively impacting North Carolina recreational and commercial fishermen as well as seafood dealers and consumers is the way our federal fisheries are being grossly mismanaged. The federal fishery managers are using data they admit is “outdated and fatally flawed” in stock assessments that do not reflect the current state of our fisheries. This has resulted in unnecessarily low quotas that are not being properly managed and causing one fishery after another to be closed for long periods of time. The closures force fishermen to discard any and all illegal fish we catch while targeting legal fish regardless of whether they will live or die. Between the closures and arbitrary size limits, we are discarding hundreds of tons of fish that are deducted from our quotas and wasted rather than producing revenue and food. The entire Red Snapper quota of 84,000 pounds is allocated to dead discards. Fishermen cannot keep any of the Red Snapper we catch to eat or collect much needed data. An average of 30% of our offshore bottom fish quotas are allocated to dead discards. NOAA recently released a document saying that many recreational fisheries will be only catch and release within a decade because of all the dead regulatory discards their laws created. The regulatory discards also help federal fishery managers advance other agendas like catch shares schemes and massive area closures.

Here are three simple solutions the North Carolina Legislature and Marine Fisheries Study Committee could support that would help the North Carolina citizens who fish in federal waters.

1.      Request state allocations of federal snapper/grouper quotas based on historical landings over the past thirty years. Dr. Louis Daniel (NCDMF Director) supports this and has proven his ability to work with fishermen on ways to properly manage state allocations of other federal quotas.

2.      Support the proper management of quotas with possession limits that are adjusted to levels that fill the quotas without any long closures after approximately 75% of a quota has been caught regardless of if the quotas are controlled by state or federal managers.  
  
3.      Support the bills in Congress that provide more flexibility in the Magnuson-Stevens Act and oppose catch shares.

These solutions could be supported with letters to federal fishery managers and members of Congress. It would also be very helpful to have members of the North Carolina Legislature give public comments in support of those solutions at the December South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting.

Here is another solution that would benefit all North Carolina citizens. I have been promoting the idea of a Community Seafood Facility on our port property at Radio Island. Port officials liked the idea during a meeting we had in February and suggested I try to get support from the Legislature. During a recent meeting with Dr. Daniel, he told me that he was working on a similar project several years ago. The plan he was working on included trading a small area adjacent to the military loading dock on Radio
Island to the Army in exchange for the property they own at the north end of 4th street in Morehead City. The existing building on that property could be used for a Marine
Fisheries office. Grant money for things like working waterfronts could be used to build the Community Seafood Facility. This would ensure that we always have a place on the water to unload our seafood. It would be accessible to all existing dealers rather than compete with them. Marine Patrol Officers and scientists could check our catches there. The facility could double as a museum to preserve the areas fishing heritage. Tourist could visit the museum and also watch as our catches are unloaded, inspected, and labeled as NC Wild Caught Seafood. We could develop markets for underutilized species like the skates and rays that are eating most of our Bay Scallops. We could turn shrimp trawl by-catch and scraps from processed seafood into gourmet cat food, crab pot bait, and organic fertilizer. We could make wise use of our resources and focus more on the quality of our seafood rather than the quantity of it. The Community Seafood Facility would preserve our fishing jobs and heritage as well as our supply of local seafood. Making this trade with the Army would also be a goodwill gesture to let the military know we support their presence in eastern North Carolina and want to work with them. Our relationship was strained over the OLF situation.  

A wise Captain that I fished with for years told me this.“When everybody thinks alike, nobody thinks.” Please think about these things. 

1.      Have you thought about how the by-catch of trout, drum, and bass that is currently being sold to consumers will have to be discarded dead or alive if they become “game fish”? 

2.      Do you think the CCA and sponsors of HB-353 are planning for thousands of “game fish” to be discarded to slowly die and go to waste or is it just an unacceptable unintended consequence?

3.      Should we look at and manage our state’s seafood more as a renewable source of food that provides recreational and commercial opportunities or more like toys as “game fish” implies?   

4.      Catch shares and HB-353 are not about properly managing our fisheries. They are about allocation of our public resources to a lucky few with money and connections.

5.      Did you know that about the same amount of the three fish listed in HB-353 die and go to waste as a result of voluntary and regulatory discards as are sold to consumers every year?

6.     Do you think the few remaining commercial fishermen and our heritage should be preserved so that all North Carolinians and tourist can continue to enjoy eating fresh local seafood?

7.      Many management measures could be suggestions that are promoted with peer pressure and education rather than laws that can be hard to enforce.

8.      We should cultivate a tourism industry based on some of the finest seafood and recreational fishing in the world while embracing the charm and character of our commercial fishing fleet.

In conclusion, I respectfully ask the committee and Legislature to oppose HB-353 and catch shares while supporting the alternative solutions laid out in these comments. We should all have a common goal of healthy fisheries that can be responsibly harvested forever with very little waste. We can achieve that goal if we will work together using sound science, common sense, and remember the Golden Rule. There are many other solutions I would like to discuss but want to keep this short enough that most people will read it. We should also discuss different management measures with other fishermen who have centuries of collective on-the-water experience to share. Please contact me if you are interested in discussing more solutions or have any questions. freefish7@hotmail.comThank you.  

darrell.mccormick@ncleg.net  
harry.brown@ncleg.net
bryan.holloway@ncleg.net  
dan.ingle@ncleg.net
danny.mccomas@ncleg.net
pat.mcelraft@ncleg.net  
ruth.samuelson@ncleg.net  
tim.spear@ncleg.net
don.east@ncleg.net
thom.goolsby@ncleg.net  
jean.preston@ncleg.net
bill.rabon@ncleg.net  
tommy.tucker@ncleg.net  
stan.white@ncleg.net
thom.tillis@ncleg.net
phil.berger@ncleg.net 

Comprehensive Fishery Management Plan for Feeding People and Limiting Waste

My name is Chris McCaffity. I am a commercial fisherman who has been offering simple solutions that would mitigate many of the severe negative impacts associated with fishery laws that do not follow most of the mandates in the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). The MSA is a law dictating how America’s fisheries are to be managed and contains requirements like limiting waste, making efficient use of our resources, and promoting fishermen’s safety at sea. Most of the fishery laws that have been rushed through since the reauthorization of the MSA have not followed those three requirements. This has caused tons of perfectly edible seafood to be discarded and wasted while financially devastating fishermen. The financial devastation has caused fishermen to risk life and limb in foul weather trying to make one more trip before a fishery is closed early due to mismanagement of the quotas. This has caused at least one man I know to lose his life. Alan Nelson was out trying to support his 19 month old baby. His death was the event that forced me to do something. I did not want to come home one trip without my deckhand and have to inform his wife and three kids that I lost their father and husband at sea. I am responsible for the safety of my crew regardless of the laws we must follow. It also broke my heart to be forced to throw back so much of our catch even though most of the Regulatory Discards were obviously going to die. The fishery managers seem to feel absolved of any personal responsibility for their actions because they are just doing what they are paid to do.

Please keep an open heart and mind as you consider this comprehensive fishery management plan that I offer as an alternative to HB-353, catch shares, and derby fisheries. This plan could show other nations by example how they can limit waste while feeding more people and allowing stocks to achieve Optimum Yield. It is really not that hard if we simply use sound science, common sense, and remember the Golden rule. We should be focusing on enhancing our resources rather than just restricting access to them. Earth’s oceans and waterways have the potential to always feed many more people than they do now if we properly manage them.

I would like to point out that the vast majority of people involved in fishery management are good people. Most of them have good intentions and just want to earn a paycheck. There are a few public servants in the leadership with other motives. They seem to maliciously mismanage our fisheries in an attempt to advance other agendas like catch shares and area closures. If their actions are not malicious, the only other option is gross incompetence. One example of this is that they refuse to properly manage the lower quotas with possession limits that are adjusted throughout the year to levels that would fill the quotas without any long closures. This creates dangerous derby fisheries like the one that cost Mr. Nelson his life. The fishery manager’s only answer to end this is a catch share scheme that destroys many of the small businesses in every fishery they “help”. Catch shares are not so much a management tool as they are an allocation tool. Big corporations will in time own our fisheries and control your access to local seafood.

Some environmental “charities” have been aggressively advancing Agenda 21 mandates in fishery policy while most of the rest passively support these efforts. Fleet consolidation through catch shares and massive area closures using the Precautionary Principal seem to be the two biggest threats at this time. Some environmentalists even want to ban fishing. I have learned these things the hard way as I initially reached out to the “charities” that showed up at fishery meetings. I did not think they would want countless dead and dying fish to be discarded and wasted. I thought they would have a little compassion for their fellow man and support actions to promote our safety at sea. My blissful ignorance was shattered as one “charity” after another told me things like fishermen are liars and deserve what we are getting. They did not even care about the fish. The Regulatory Discards and compromised safety helped them advance Agenda 21. I have challenged several environmental “charities” to a televised public debate about how we should be managing our fisheries. They have all refused! They should be willing to defend what they are paid to believe. I will state my case and defend it!

There are three key things we need to do to properly manage almost any fishery. Permit holders in individual fisheries should come up with specific management plans for their fishery that follows all of MSA mandates. Fishermen should have final approval of any plan with a 2/3 majority vote of permit holders in the affected fishery.

1.      Establish a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for each targeted species and a by-catch allowance for non-target species.

2.      Remove all size limits. They have proven to be a government mandated waste of our resources. The fishery managers currently allocate up to 100% of a TAC to Regulatory Discards that are mostly associated with size limits. An average of 30% of a TAC is allocated to dead discards of undersized fish. This adds up to millions of pounds of perfectly edible seafood that is discarded and wasted in the name of conservation.

3.      The final part of this simple management plan is to properly manage the quotas with split seasons and possession limits that are adjusted to levels that fill the quotas without any long closure. Here is an example for the approximate Vermilion Snapper TAC.

The Vermilion Snapper TAC is about 1,000,000 pounds. The tragic waste associated with size limits requires about 300,000 pounds be allocated to dead Regulatory Discards. This leaves an Annual Catch Limit (ACL) of 700,000. The ACL should be split into two seasonal quotas that begin with the best times of year to catch them. The first 350,000 pound seasonal quota should begin in March with a Trip Poundage Limit (TPL) of 1,000 pounds for each vessel. The TPL should be adjusted to a level that fills the quota without a long closure after approximately 75% of the seasonal quota has been filled. This is a breakdown of how the adjustments should go.

a.      Keep the TPL at 1,000 pounds if there is only one month left in the season.

b.      Adjust the TPL to 500 pounds if there are two months left in the season.

c.       Adjust the TPL to 300 pounds if there are three months left in the season.

d.      Adjust the TPL to 200 pounds if there are four months left in the season.

e.      Adjust the TPL to 100 pounds if there are five months left in the season.

The next season would start in September with a 1,000 pound TPL. Any overages from the last quota could be deducted and any unused quota should be added to the next seasonal quota. Every species should be managed this way. We could target the species with high TPLs while still keeping those with lower TPLs. This would achieve any honorable goals of catch shares.

Removing size limits and properly managing the quotas would eliminate most of the waste in our fisheries. We could avoid even more waste with this additional action. Set aside ten percent of each TAC that should be greatly increased with the removal of size limits for the poor. This would create a cushion for both the fish and fishermen. Recreational fishermen could donate any fish they did not want to eat to the quota for the less fortunate. Commercial fishermen could bring in our entire catch and sell our possession limits. Any overages could be donated to the quota for the poor rather than discarding the seafood or facing heavy fines, seizure of our property, and even imprisonment. This would allow us to make wise use of everything that is being killed while collecting accurate date to use in credible stock assessments and for properly managing quotas. This would provide consumers with a dependable supply of safe American seafood throughout the entire year. It would also allow fishermen to work all year. It would follow the MSA mandates to limit waste, make efficient use of our resources, and promote our safety at sea. We should not be torturing fish to death and wasting them to “help” them. We should kill what we catch quickly and use it wisely. Everything landed should be counted against the possession limits and the quotas.

There are three key things needed to enhance a stock of fish in the water or wildlife on land.

1.      Increase the amount of food available.

2.      Increase the amount of shelter available.

3.      Predatory stress invokes a reproductive response.

Keeping the fisheries open all year creates consistent predatory stress that causes fish to produce more offspring. Removing the size limits also allows more of the large breeders to continue replenishing the stock. Removing nothing but the large fish causes the gene pool to be polluted by runts and smaller fish. We are left with a glut of small, weak, slow-growing fish. This negatively impacts the overall health of the stock and the average size of the fish in it.

The amount of food and shelter could be increased with an aggressive Artificial Reef (AR) program. ARs are the perfect union of aquaculture and commercially or recreationally harvested wild fish. The ARs can be very cheap and effective. We can feed many more people than we do now if we enhance our resources rather than always restricting our access to them.

Inshore fisheries could be helped with portable aerators that could be moved to areas with low oxygen levels that cause millions of fish to suffocate every year. The aerators could also help to break down pollutants and keep Speckled Trout from freezing to death during cold-stun events.  

One of the unintended consequences of the mismanagement of our fisheries is that we are losing many of the places on the water to unload our seafood. I would like to see some of the grant money for working waterfronts and funds from the Saltonstall-Kennedy tax on imported seafood be used to create Community Seafood Unloading and Processing Facilities (CSUPF). These waterfront facilities should be accessible to existing dealers and seafood markets. They could double as museums to preserve the fishing heritage of the area where they are built. Tourist and locals could visit the museums and also watch as local seafood is unloaded, inspected, and labeled as Wild Caught Seafood from the state the facility is located in. The CSUPFs would also be a great place for scientists and students to collect tissue samples and take measurements of many different kinds of seafood. Markets could be cultivated for underutilized species like the skates and rays that are eating most of the Bay Scallops in North Carolina before fishermen have a chance to harvest them for consumers. Marine patrol officers could watch as catches are unloaded. They could collect any seafood that exceeded possession limits for the quota set aside for the poor. The cleaned seafood could be shipped to soup kitchens and food pantries. This would feed many hungry people across America every day.

These common sense solutions are based on a deep love of the sea as well as input from fellow fishermen, fishery managers, environmentalists, and concerned citizens. I tried to come up with ideas that are easy to implement and enforce while benefiting all user groups and our marine resources. We could actually increase the amount of seafood available for recreational and commercial harvest while feeding many more people and allowing stocks to rebuild from decades of mismanagement. We could do this without causing hard-working American fishermen to be forced out of their chosen profession or compromising our safety at sea. We could also stop wasting tons of perfectly good seafood. We simply need to use sound science, the slightest bit of common sense, and remember the Golden Rule.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly challenge PEW, ED, CCA, and any other charity involved in fishery issues to an online typed debate that anyone interested can view. I also extend this debate challenge to Roy Crabtree, Gregg Waugh, David Cupka, Tom Burgess, or any member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, National Marine Fisheries Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Please contact me if you will accept my debate challenge or want to observe it.  freefish7@hotmail.com I will be happy answer any questions about things like removing size limits or how Artificial Reefs can be the perfect union of aquaculture and commercially harvested wild fish. I want to have an honest discussion about how we can always have a responsible harvest of healthy fisheries with very little or no waste.