The author is the owner/operator of a commercial longline boat operating in the shark and grouper fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico.
The following is the text of a letter I wrote and sent to the NMFS in 1998 shortly after they first announced their final plan for an annual monthly closure of the shallow water grouper fishery during the spawning season.
To whom it may concern;
As the holder of a federal reef fish permit and a commercial fisherman of some 25 years standing I watch and endure your continued efforts to preserve and regulate the grouper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico with a mixture of bemusement, bewilderment and pure terror.
As somebody in your organization must have noticed by now, the previous limited closures (i.e. no longlines inside 20 fathoms in the Eastern Gulf, etc.), while doing little to preserve anything except some inshore areas frequented by the heavily lobbied sportfishermen, have put a level of increased pressure on the offshore areas, specifically the "40 break" (which you now panic over) and these two areas1. you have now closed. Do you not realize that you can not continue to limit the amount of area a fleet can fish without severely damaging the area you leave open? How has this escaped you? You take a large number of boats who had never been outside the 20 fathom curve and tell them to all move offshore and then next you fret about the health of the offshore grounds. How does this help anyone or any fish? You now close off even more of the fishing grounds while leaving the size of the fishing fleet forced into smaller and smaller grounds the same. Why don't you look at the number of permits being held (fraudulently I would suppose) by people who are not now nor have never been commercial fisherman.
The other closure you have now implemented is no less alarming and for similar reasons. The idea of closing the grouper fishery (or any other fishery for that matter) during what is supposed to be the hight of their spawn is probably sound. Again you have left the door open, though, for the overexploitation of what you leave open. I speak specifically of the deepwater grouper fishery. As a boat owner and fisherman (and voter) I am very concerned. Typically in February and March there are very few boats willing to venture offshore of 100 fathoms to target yellowedge and snowy groupers. By closing ALL of the inshore fishery and leaving the offshore fishery open you will give boat owners no choice but to send their boats offshore in search of these deepwater fish. Do you honestly believe that as long as the choice is open these boats will stay at the dock? The effect on the deepwater fishing grounds is potentially disastrous. Just one year of having the huge fleet that traditionally targets red and gag grouper with longlines working in the limited amount of bottom that these deepwater fish habituate could bring about a crash in the fishery that I personally target most of the year. I would much rather see ALL the fishery closed (for that month) than this big, big mistake happen. I (and the fish) could much better survive the month off than this insane situation.
Michael Athorn: letter to N.M.F.S. summer of 1998
1.I was referring to the new (at the time) Swanson Madison & Steamboat Lumps "reserves".
Author's note: Since I wrote this letter we have seen earlier and earlier closures of the deepwater grouper fishery. The last two years the fishery has been closed before the end of June.
From a paper sent by Stu Kennedy at Gulf Council to S.O.F.A. recently:
“In 1999, the minimum size for gag grouper was increased to 24 inches TL, sale of red grouper, gag and black grouper was banned from February 15 to March 15 and Madison–Swanson and Steamboat Lumps were designated as marine reserves where fishing for GMFMC species was banned. These measures may have caused some fishermen to switch from the SWG fisher to the DWG fishery where landings increased by more than 50 percent...”
Gee, ya think maybe?
Deepwater grouper landings for the two years preceding and two years following the implementation of the "management" measures I was ranting about:
| Year | Y-edge | Snowy | Spck Hnd | Warsaw | Misty | Other | Total DWG |
| 1997 | 694,161 | 163,146 | 52,263 | 76,567 | 0 | 8,686 | 994,822 |
| 1998 | 602,975 | 116,053 | 42,223 | 74,775 | 0 | 11,250 | 847,276 |
| 1999 | 910,812 | 153,795 | 43,036 | 159,976 | 716 | 9,931 | 1,278,267 |
| 2000 | 1,069,254 | 203,998 | 55,407 | 130,526 | 2,457 | 7,137 | 1,468,779 |
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