Pacific Ocean Sportfishing Access Issues

Despite an August 25, 2008 Executive Memo and a September 26, 2008 Executive Order from President Bush mandating that recreational fishing should be managed as a sustainable activity in future marine protected area (MPA) designations, recreational fishing opponents intensively lobbied the White House and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to ban recreational fishing in vast areas of the central Pacific Ocean.

On January 6, 2009, using the Antiquities Act, President Bush designated 3 areas of the Pacific Ocean as Marine National Monuments, creating the largest MPA on the planet totaling 195,000 square miles. Within the Rose Atoll Monument and the Pacific Remote Island Area Monument, recreational fishing is banned within 0-50 nautical miles of shore for an undetermined period of time until an environmental assessment is completed. Within the Mariana Trench Monument, only the sea floor is closed. Recreational fishing is still permitted in the water column above the trench.

Though recreational fishing is presently banned in some areas, recreational fishing opponents strongly urged the President to ban fishing in the entire 195,000 square miles of the Monuments, a proposal the President rejected. This type of request on the part of certain environmental groups sets a dangerous precedent regarding recreational fishing in any federal waters, saltwater or fresh, which the Executive Order and Executive Memo were designed to protect.

Background
In an August 25, Executive Memo to the Secretary’s of Defense, Interior and Commerce and the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), President Bush directed them to study potential MPAs in the central Pacific Ocean. In that memo the President directed the agencies and CEQ to sustain access to recreational fishing as part of their study effort.

On September 26, 2008, the President signed an amendment to the 1995 Executive Order on recreational fishing. This amendment mandates that federal agencies must maintain recreational fishing on federal lands and waters, including MPAs:

“ensuring that recreational fishing shall be managed as a sustainable activity in national wildlife refuges, national parks, national monuments, national marine sanctuaries, marine protected areas, or any other relevant conservation or management areas or activities under any Federal authority, consistent with applicable law;’’

Over the past two years, the American Sportfishing Association (ASA), the Center for Coastal Conservation, the Coastal Conservation Association, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, the National Marine Manufacturers Association and Shimano American Corporation worked together to secure recreational fishing and boating access. President Bush’s amendment recognizes the marine and freshwater conservation impact of recreational anglers by allowing responsible recreational fishing and boating in MPAs and federal lands. 

However, although regulated recreational fishing presents no threat to fish stocks in the central Pacific and there is no evidence that recreational fishing is harming area ecosystems, many environmental groups are lobbying the White House and federal agencies to adopt their anti-recreational fishing philosophy regarding Pacific Ocean conservation.

These groups mounted a letter writing campaign to convince senior officials in the White House and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that recreational fishing should be banned in thousands of square miles in the Central Pacific. They said: “Unfortunately, the final designation of these areas may allow some fishing…” but that “Declaring these monuments as fully-protected no-take reserves… is crucial for meaningful stewardship of our imperiled oceans.” 

The MPA precedent for this and other potential widespread North American recreational fishing closures began with the recently established Papahānaumokuākea Hawaiian National Monument. Papahānaumokuākea covers 140,000 square miles of ocean—an area larger than 46 of the 48 continental states. This monument was established through Presidential action using the Antiquities Act. Although recreational fishing in this area of the Northern Hawaiian Islands was already minimal because of its great distance from Hawaii’s main islands, the establishment of the monument included a complete closure to recreational fishing throughout the entire monument. This action set a dangerous precedent for future MPA designations.

The establishment process of Papahānaumokuākea has been detrimental to the sportfishing community as other MPA proposals have emerged. By closing the monument to sportfishing, a precedent was set that recreational fishing opponents are using in their favor as they lobby for no-take MPAs. The Hawaiian Monument fishing closure was referenced extensively in arguments for full fishing closures in the central Pacific. The MPA philosophy is being aggressively and successfully promoted to government and the public by well funded anti-use or preservation-oriented environmental groups. Their support for MPAs is rooted in ideology rather than science.

Originally intended to protect sensitive habitat or restrict the impacts of destructive commercial fishing on a few species, MPAs have been expanded to now include restrictions for low impact recreational fishing on all species. They are being promoted as the new paradigm for fisheries management—circumventing the regional fishery management councils and proven fishery management measures. They also do not take into account that depressed fish stocks can be rebuilt through the traditional management measures provided under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.


Keep America Fishing’s Goal and Purpose for the Central Pacific

Access to the resource is a critical element in having successful recreational fishing. Recreational anglers, and boaters, have always been in the forefront of fisheries conservation in the United States financing countless conservation and restoration projects through license fees, motorboat fuel taxes and the federal excise tax on fishing gear. Anglers and boaters, who shoulder most of the fisheries conservation efforts in this country, should not be penalized by arbitrary MPA designations. Thus, recreational fishing should be fully protected, and further promoted, in any MPA proposals.

The goal of the central Pacific’s sportfishing advocates and anglers is to maximize conservation of the marine environment while minimizing unwarranted ocean closures to sportfishing. The purpose of pursuing this goal is to:

• Maintain and improve the conservation of central Pacific marine fisheries and associated natural resources so as to improve the overall health of the ocean;
• Eliminate the precedent that is set when full closures are implemented in absence of scientific evidence; and
• Assure that the process for future MPA designations or closures relies on biological and economic information in a balanced fashion.

The American Sportfishing Association (ASA), the sportfishing industry’s trade association, is working to ensure that anglers' and boaters' voices are heard as marine and aquatic management plans are developed. You can help ASA in its efforts to minimize recreational fishing closures by donating to the Keep America Fishing Fund.