SC MPA Public info Meeting Report

[Charlestondivin]

One of the Public information meetings on proposed federal protected areas for bottom fish was held in Charleston last night.
(link to MPA information) (http://www.charlestondiving.com/mpaphdoc04.pdf)

The fishing public was somewhat uninformed about this meeting. In the paper they listed the areas as 600' deep and the SAFMC website was broken for the past couple of weeks. I think that for this reason not many people or organizations showed up to the meeting. I mapped the gps coordinates and called to confirm the depths. The actual depths Start in 152' of water They will be square on the ledge where lots of people fish.

The stated purpose of these MPA's is to protect deep water species such as tilefish and snowy grouper. They showed a map of catch data on wich there was no data about the species they intended to protect in the proposed MPA areas. How many snowies and tilefish do you catch in 152'? Common sense shows that the mpa areas would need to be moved to much deeper water in order to accomplish the stated goals.

[Denny]

Rob- Thanks for going! You are the man. Where the heck are those mad props?

MPA's are the least effective, most offensive, most expensive management tool available. We have to get in front of this travesty before we lose our fishing rights.

Is there an outdoor/fishing writer for your local paper? Maybe Ed Walker could give them a call and get some ink on the subject.

[greyface]

Sounds alot like the meeting we had in Altantic Bch. Targeted species are well offshore from their proposed MPAs. :rolleyes:

[eyyeball]

Charleston, myself, and Slayride (Les) all attended this meeting and spoke. The question I asked over and over that was NEVER EVER answered ( I got up and spoke twice) was why if Article 9 was a 15 year plan that has not been reviewed to see what effect it has had are we now moving forward with MPA's???? Article 9 has not even been in effect for 10 years and we still have not had fish counts done on the species it was meant to protect and yet here we go with MPAs, WHY?!?! Just please someone tell me why! And what is worse is that these MPAs are in areas WAY to shallow to protect the species they are there for. I for one think the mislocation of the MPA, the misleading information given to the public, and the short notice for the meeting are all intentional. If they can get a shallow MPA passed without much fuss that will not help the deep water Tilefish and Grouper then they can come back in a couple of years and say they need ANOTHER set of MPAs. I have ZERO trust for the SAFMC council at this point, they are out to protect longliners and screw the recreationals at every turn in my opinion.

[Slay Ride]

It's already been reported that multiple sites are going to be targeted in various depths. An MPA is set out deep, then it will be shallower and shallower and shallower. All because of some junk science. It was reported to the local paper that these areas were considered desolate places with no live-bottom in 600'. Lies and balderdash. It's just wrong in many many ways.