A group representing recreational fishing interests, Fishing Rights Alliance, has filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) this past week. In the lawsuit the group has challenged Amendment 16 to the grouper-snapper regulations in the South Atlantic.
Amendment 16, which imposes a four-month ban on grouper fishing each year from January to April, and also reduces the daily catch limit of grouper from five to three, is to go into effect this week. David Heil, chairman of the FRA South Atlantic Council, opined that the decision to challenge new rule is based on the premise that the Amendment has been described as “fatally flawed,” and that a mandate by Congress that a survey by the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) be revamped by this past January has not occurred.
The Fishing Rights Alliance also accuses the National Fisheries Management Service and South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council of several violations of the MSA, including refusing to enact alternatives of venting tools and circle hooks as a means to reduce bycatch, and setting an allocation of 95 commercial, five recreational harvest percentage. Heil said in a telephone conversation that some of the data used in structuring Amendment 16 was never intended to be used for fisheries management.
