Thursday, August 16, 2001

Conservation groups keep fighting the good fight

Saltwater Conservation Association of Texas Phone: (512) 392-1256 Primary goal: To speed up the license buy-back program, ultimately to rid Texas bays of shrimpers. Other SCA projects in the works: The Houston-Galveston Chapter plans to establish an inshore reef in Galveston bay system. The Dallas chapter wants to re-dredge old Port O'Connor pass between islands to enhance fishing, safety and boat access. Saltwater-fisheries Enhancement Assn. Phone: 886-1100 Primary goal: To protect, preserve and enhance saltwater resources in the Coastal Bend. Recent, upcoming or ongoing projects: $15,000 effort to reopen drainage canals from hatchery rearing ponds. $100,000 donation with a forthcoming $100,000 TPW match grant, part of which has purchased aeration paddlewheels for hatchery production ponds. Effort to establish a near-shore gulf artificial reef to enhance the red snapper fishery in state waters. Plans to build a boardwalk, permanent pavilion with concrete floor for kid-fishing pond at hatchery. Numerous contributions to youth fishing events to promote recreation and education. Coastal Conservation Association Phone: (800) 626-4222 Primary goal: To promote the present and future availability of coastal resources for the benefit of private citizens. Recent, upcoming or ongoing projects: Erection of boat ramp signs to encourage safety and outline rules of the water and boating etiquette. This is a joint project of the Corpus Christi, Brush Country and Rio Grande Valley chapters. CCA-Brush Country was well-represented at the Big Shell Beach Cleanup. Plans to build a pavilion with concrete floor, fishing piers and other improvements at hatchery's kid-fish pond and the hatchery itself. This would be a joint effort of the Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Aransas Bay chapters. CCA-Aransas Bay is working with Friends of Cedar Bayou on re-opening Cedar Bayou. Plans to continue Bay Debris Cleanup Project, with the acquisition of $500,000 state grant. CCA-Corpus Christi has already spent $750,000 in grants and donations toward ridding Coastal Bend bays of debris and navigational hazards. Plans to establish a beach debris cleanup with $100,000 grant just awarded. Numerous annual fishing events for kids and contributions to educational projects.

Just as price wars benefit consumers by spurring competition, the addition of saltwater conservation groups has intensified focus on preserving and enhancing our coastal fisheries.
   Groups spun off from the Coastal Conservation Association, the mother of saltwater preservation organizations, should be good for the resource.
   The success of CCA in saving redfish from decimation and in continuing to fight the good fight for anglers' rights on all fronts should serve to guide the new groups.
   It's too soon to tell if their formation will fragment or enhance the political clout of saltwater anglers. But because our numbers are growing, it stands to reason that our voices will reach policy makers in Austin and Washington with greater volume as a result of this new resolve.
   Complimentary and sometimes-competing groups tend to shake up the status quo. This should make CCA a better, more responsive and more efficient force to be reckoned with, while maintaining its leadership role.
   A case in point can be seen at the CCA/CPL Marine Development Center (AKA the Flour Bluff hatchery), which has received lots of attention lately from rival groups. It should be noted that CCA helped establish this facility in the first place.
   The Aransas Bay Chapter of CCA, from money raised at its annual Babes on the Bay Tournament, handed over a $6,000 check to the hatchery a couple months ago. This money will go into an endowment account; the interest of which will be used by the hatchery to supplement its operations budget.
   This donation came on the heels of a $15,000 in-kind effort from the Saltwater-fisheries Enhancement Association to re-dredged drainage canals from the hatchery's rearing ponds to boost production. SEA followed with a $100,000 windfall for the hatchery, a result of the group's inaugural fundraising banquet this year.
   SEA also has been talking to hatchery officials about building a pavilion with a concrete floor and boardwalk at the kid-fish pond.
   The Corpus Christi-based SEA vows to continue focusing exclusively on Coastal Bend projects.
   The $100,000 already has purchased paddle wheels to aerate fingerling ponds at the hatchery, which will increase production. SEA officials worked it so that the group's donation would be matched by the Texas Parks and Wildlife, bringing a total $215,000 in improvements to the hatchery.
   Then Corpus Christi CCA, together with CCA-San Antonio and CCA-Aransas Bay, got the go-ahead from CCA-Texas for a portable pavilion and concrete pad at the Flour Bluff hatchery's pond used for children's fishing events. But this temporary fix is just a start.
   CCA-Corpus Christi said it also has reached a tentative agreement with TPW for more substantial improvements at the kid-fish pond. Its plan also includes a permanent pavilion, fishing piers and other enhancements to compliment the facility. Ultimately, local CCA officials tell me that upgrades should bring the hatchery up to the level of Sea Center Texas, a showcase aquarium/hatchery, which CCA helped build in Lake Jackson. That'd be cool.
   This game of one-upmanship could be coincidental. But I doubt it.
   Either way, hatchery officials are thrilled.
   "We're behind anyone who's willing to support our program," said Rueben Chavez, a biologist at the Marine Development Center. "Everybody at the hatchery thinks its great that more people are focusing on the resource down here."
   If these projects are a sign of what's to come, I see no downside to the conservation wars.
   It's not surprising that SEA and a similar group out of Austin, the Saltwater Conservation Association of Texas, would come out of mounting concerns about the long-term protection and sustainability of our saltwater fisheries. The current rise in saltwater fishing's popularity alone has resulted in much debate over whether the fishery can handle additional pressure. Combine that with the continued killing of bycatch by bay shrimpers and you've got a platform for a new organization.
   The Austin-based SCA, newest of the offshoot groups, has adopted as its primary goal the reduction (or elimination) of bay shrimpers. SCA officials blame bay trawlers for removing too many juvenile shrimp that are vital to game fish stocks and for killing small flounder and other undersize finfish in our bays.
   A Texas Parks & Wildlife program already is under way to buy back a large portion of the 2,700 licenses representing about 1,900 vessels held by Texas bay shrimpers. Much of the money for this five-year program will come from a $3 surcharge tacked on to saltwater fishing stamps for the next four years. CCA and other groups contributed seed money for the project.
   SCA would like to supplement this effort by $2million.
   Additional funds are needed to speed up the process, according to Jeff Foerster, president of SCA, which has chapters in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Houston-Galveston. About 99 percent of the group's 1,000 members statewide are card-carrying CCA members.
   And they mean business.
   "I'd like to see all the bay shrimpers out of our bays in the next decade," Foerster said. "This is our rallying focus right now. But we also intend to make this our long term goal."
   If you ask me, the only way to truly combat the shrimping bycatch issue is to post a deadline for the buyback program, with allowances only for bait trawlers. Otherwise, bay shrimpers will drag their feet or hold out for more money.
   There's already a moratorium on bay and bait licenses, but attrition is a slow process. TPW's current goal is to retire half the licenses within five years, but not necessarily half the fleet.
   SCA can help.
   But without a deadline, beyond which licenses would be worthless and bay (food) shrimping would be illegal, this conservation effort has no teeth.
   The economic benefits of inshore shrimping pale in comparison to the millions of dollars recreational fishing generates. And besides, shrimp and other marine resources squandered by this industry do not belong to shrimpers alone. These public resources are for all of us.
   If someone were netting millions of Texas quail and killing songbirds in the process, nobody would stand for it. Why then is the wholesale harvest of shrimp permitted when tons of juvenile fish are killed in that process?
  
  
  

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