VSSA Preliminary Poll -- Cobia Options

[Mike Avery]

FYI, posted on the VMRC page.

April 7, 2016: A public hearing on cobia fishery issues has been pushed back until the Commission’s May 24 meeting in order to provide additional time to conduct data analysis and other research on potential size limit and vessel limit changes, combined with regional management approaches with other states, that may extend the recreational cobia fishing season. Another Finfish Management Advisory Committee meeting will be held on April 18 to discuss new information that pertains to the cobia fishery and the pending June 20 closure of the cobia fishery in federal waters by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

One of the reasons the public hearing was moved from April 26 to May 24 is NC and VA are working together to attempt to formulate an agreement between states. SAFMC has calculated some options to allow cobia to remain open in state waters to remain compliant with the federal closure. Click hear to see the slides.

There are 8 options for VA to remain compliant if, and only if, NC also implements one of these options. Also discussed at the last VMRC meeting was the idea of Virginia going out of compliance with the feds. There have been situations that other states have intentionally gone out of compliance with feds so it has happened. I wanted to throw out a preliminary poll to see what anglers want to see happen. As always, any VSSA position adopted will come from anglers. Most of us are conservation minded and want to do the responsible thing for all fish including cobia but few believe we are in a situation with cobia that a complete shutdown is warranted while our southern neighbors continue to fish. This is a preliminary poll as the options have not been determined yet.

Option 1. VA non complies with the federal closure but implements reasonable boat limits at 3 per boat with 1 over 50 inches. No closure. (Please note the poll above has a typo (my fat fingers) should be 3 per boat not 3 pp.)

These other options are forked length which is a bigger fish than total length and depends on NC also implementing. A 35 inch forked length fish is a larger fish than a 35 inch total length fish.

Option 2. 35 inches 2 fish = JUNE 27


Option 3. 35 inches 1 fish = JUNE 30


Option 4. 37 inches 2 fish= June 28


Option 5. 37 inches 1 fish = July 3


Option 6. 40 inches 2 fish=July 3


Option 7. 40 inches 1 fish=July 15


Option 8. 45 inches 2 fish = Aug 3


Option 9. 45 inches 1 fish= No Closure


Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association (VSSA)
email: [email protected]
ifishva.org
joinvssa.org
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IfishVA/

[Yakfisher20]

Option 1

[burbba]

Option 1, I'd even be ok with 2 Per Boat

[Mike Avery]

Don't forget to click your vote above as it's the best way to keep track.

[CaptWil]

Mike,
None of the above - they are all bad options for Virginia and play into the failed modeling and management of the federal fisheries managers.

These numbers put out by the SAFMC reflect lengths in Fork Length, which every state uses except Virginia. Virginia uses a Total Length measurement for all fish. Your statement "These option are forked length which is a bigger fish than total length..." is absolutely incorrect and misleading. Total length is LARGER than Forked Length and for Cobia it's about a 4 inch difference.

So, option 1 anglers want a 54inch fish...really?

Boat limits are equally bad and unfairly target the OUPV Charter fleet, which isn't a significant portion (7%) of the total catch compared to the recreational sector (91%). And, when you consider approximately 95-96% of recreational Cobia trips landed 3 or less, targeting that remaining 4% with a boat limit gives you NOTHING. It does however, create a useless but long-lived regulation that Virginia anglers will have to live with. Is this the kind of work VSSA wants to be known for?

[mwills98]

Mike,
[B]
... Boat limits are equally bad and unfairly target the OUPV Charter fleet, which isn't a significant portion (7%) of the total catch compared to the recreational sector (91%). And, when you consider approximately 95-96% of recreational Cobia trips landed 3 or less, targeting that remaining 4% with a boat limit gives you NOTHING. It does however, create a useless but long-lived regulation that Virginia anglers will have to live with. Is this the kind of work VSSA wants to be known for?

Disagree that charters were only 7%, they are on the water everyday and have much better success than the weekend warriors, but that's another debate. Option 1, This at least shows we are taking action until better data is available.

[Country Water]

I would like to see an option for an an adjusted season, 1 July -> 15 August, 2/boat 37" with one over 45"

[Mike Avery]

Mike,
None of the above - they are all bad options for Virginia and play into the failed modeling and management of the federal fisheries managers.

These numbers put out by the SAFMC reflect lengths in Fork Length, which every state uses except Virginia. Virginia uses a Total Length measurement for all fish. Your statement "These option are forked length which is a bigger fish than total length..." is absolutely incorrect and misleading. Total length is LARGER than Forked Length and for Cobia it's about a 4 inch difference.

So, option 1 anglers want a 54inch fish...really?

Boat limits are equally bad and unfairly target the OUPV Charter fleet, which isn't a significant portion (7%) of the total catch compared to the recreational sector (91%). And, when you consider approximately 95-96% of recreational Cobia trips landed 3 or less, targeting that remaining 4% with a boat limit gives you NOTHING. It does however, create a useless but long-lived regulation that Virginia anglers will have to live with. Is this the kind of work VSSA wants to be known for?

Will, option 1 is total length. The other options are from SAFMC which are forked length. A 37 inch forked length fish IS BIGGER than a 37 inch total length fish. I am not advocating any of the SAFMC options, I'm merely presenting them. These are the options being considered by our government so I believe we should at least see them and discuss them. I don't personally support any of them but what we want to do in VSSA is let the anglers tell us what options they like. The 7% charter catch is only the percentage of what was intercepted by MRIP which may or may not reflect actual catch. I doubt they really know given the fuzzy math used in this whole debacle.

Our challenge is we need to try to convince the VMRC Associate Commissioners to go out of compliance. This is not going to be an easy decision for any of them. I truly believe any option out of compliance has to be reasonable to reflect Virginia is trying to conserve the cobia populations. I have zero confidence they will vote for anything above 3 per boat but if there are other options that we think stand a chance then let's hear them.

[CaptWil]

I hope this clears up the misinformation about fork length versus total length...




Virginia uses total length however, when you deal with other federal fisheries managers they will speak in fork length measurements, as they are doing with the Cobia discussion. Mixing the two is confusing, drives people to the wrong impression of what you're presenting, and gets you the wrong kind of citation if you follow your logic.

Anglers need to be very careful on what they're being led to with your VSSA Polling ideas. Grasping at a bunch of bad ideas as the only perceived options out there isn't going to benefit our fishing community. There's other actions to consider than taking the bait they've offered.

[Mike Avery]

QUOTE=CaptWil;3021890]Anglers need to be very careful on what they're being led to with your VSSA Polling ideas. Grasping at a bunch of bad ideas as the only perceived options out there isn't going to benefit our fishing community. There's other actions to consider than taking the bait they've offered. [/QUOTE]

I'm listening but all I'm hearing from you non constructive criticism. You seem to be the only one confused between total and forked length. I did call these preliminary options until more data is available.