Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Public hearing frustrates area anglers

CHARLESTON -- The mood in the room was almost resigned. Anglers kept tossing out suggestions to forestall closing bottom fishing offshore. But only about a dozen spoke. A few more listened and then walked away.

At one of the last public hearings before the drastic step is voted on to protect the red snapper, there was a sense that this one was going to get away.

"We know it's probably going to happen. We want to hopefully get the severity of it down as much as possible, and to validate the science [behind the decision on closure]," said Mike Able, a Coastal Conservation Association of South Carolina member, who owns Haddrell's Point Tackle & Supply in Mount Pleasant.

"We've come to find out [arguing against it] has taken us nowhere. We're trying to work with the council," said Wayne Mershon, of Kenyon's Seafood in Murrells Inlet.

New alternatives offered at that meeting required new hearings. The decision now has to be made at the council's December meeting. Under a new, stricter federal law, the council must have rules in place by 2010 that would stop overfishing of the snapper.

"Our situation is pretty frustrating," said council member Tom Swatzel, a Murrells Inlet deep-sea charter fisherman.

A bottom closure could 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. A closure would put commercial captains all but out of business, they say, and curtail recreational fishing. That would disrupt saltwater fishing that is championed as a $600 million-per-year industry in South Carolina alone.

"I know you're mandated to do this. But there are ways to do it without putting fishermen out of business," said Kerry O'Malley Marhefka.

"It's ludicrous to think what's been proposed can be enforced and will work" with the limited number of law enforcement officers and equipment available to watch what would be wide swaths of the ocean off at least three states," said Eric Heiden, a Georgetown charter fisherman.

The council already is considering options like a lottery to allow a few boats to keep fishing. Anglers offered suggestions like stricter catch or trip limits, fishing gear changes or moving the closed areas.