Quote:
20 CHAIRMAN MOULTRIE: Thank you, Mr. Wood.
21 The next speaker will be Pete Barber.
22 MR. BARBER: Good morning, Mr. Chairman,
23 Commissioners. My name is Pete Barber. I'm
Page 8
1 the president of the Alabama Seafood
2 Association. I'd like to speak a little
3 bit -- It's kind of interesting --
4 You have a folder in front of you, and
5 I'm just going to go through the folder will
6 be basically the body of what I'm going to
7 say.
8 It's ironic. Here we are March 14th,
9 2011, Eufaula, Alabama. There's a mayor in
10 Orange Beach that has a problem with nets on
11 the beach. We addressed those issues and
12 his concerns then, I think, very well. I
13 think the conservation department, with
14 their scientists and with their enforcement
15 people, are doing a good job. The time
16 closures, the area closures and everything,
17 keep the interface down to a minimum.
18 A couple of the concerns, if you'll go
19 through -- pardon my editorial comments with
20 the -- on the front -- but if you'll look at
21 a chart, one of the reasons cited by Mayor
22 Craft and Mayor Kennon was they were
23 concerned about the effect of net fishermen
Page 9
1 on tourism. But if you'll look at that bar
2 graph, it breaks it up into seasons. And it
3 polled -- that's Herb Malone's group that
4 ran that poll. But it polled visitors to
5 Orange Beach and Gulf Shores as to whether
6 they were coming back next year. And by 4
7 or 5 percentage points, the highest group
8 and the best season is in spring, which
9 incidentally coincides with the time when we
10 have the highest activity in the net
11 fishing. So I don't see how that we're
12 actually hurting. You might make the
13 argument we need net fishing in the other
14 seasons to raise that up, but I wouldn't go
15 that far.
16 Another concern that was voiced was a
17 safety issue. We had an incident -- it's a
18 one-time incident -- where three boats at
19 night had problems with some severe weather
20 and ran aground. And, like I say, it was an
21 isolated incident. There's a certificate of
22 appreciation to our association from the
23 search and rescue people for one particular
Page 10
1 incidence where our fisherman went out and
2 aided in the recovery of an unfortunate
3 incident when we had some lost boaters.
4 That's the value of having
5 professionals on the water that know the
6 water and know the vagaries of it. And we
7 stand ready -- as Chauncey said with the
8 disaster area up north, we stand ready to
9 help anybody. We've gotten a lot of help
10 from other people.
11 Interestingly enough, along that same
12 line, there was a fatal accident on the --
13 on the Gulf, a pier lowered several years
14 ago. The first person to report that 911 to
15 the conservation officer was Darla Baird,
16 who's a gill-net fisherman.
17 So, basically, what I guess I'm saying
18 is the issues that have been brought forth
19 have been dealt with. And we're blessed in
20 the state of Alabama. We have outstanding
21 marine resources. They're managed well by
22 professional men and women, scientists and
23 enforcement folks. And it's to all of our
Page 11
1 advantages. We should be thankful.
2 I'll answer any questions someone
3 might have.
4 CHAIRMAN. MOULTRIE: Does the board have any
5 questions?
6 (No response.)
7 MR. MOULTRIE: Thank you, Mr. Barber.
8 The next speaker will be Avery Bates.
9 MR. BATES: My name is Avery Bates. I'm
10 vice-president of Organized Seafood
11 Association. We just want to let y'all know
12 we've been on the firing lines on -- in
13 Tuscaloosa and several other areas with the
14 disaster. I'm so proud of our commercial
15 fishermen who produced a lot of fresh mullet
16 that come out of a gill net, a lot of fresh
17 shrimp come out of a troll, just a lot of
18 fresh seafood to make gumbos, fried fish,
19 jambalayas. We didn't only feed fire and
20 rescue. We fed injured people, destitute
21 people, people with nothing but bare lots,
22 and they appreciated it. We fed people in
23 Montgomery, but these people here was in
Page 12
1 dire need.
2 Glad to be a part, glad to be a
3 commercial fisherman. And I want you to
4 know, these shrimpers that went out through
5 the neighborhoods and brought dinners to
6 people that couldn't come, everybody in the
7 state ought to be proud of them. It's a
8 wonderful thing to see people helping
9 people. We saw them in Katrina come to help
10 us. It's a blessing to be able to go help
11 them, not a chore. But you just ought to
12 have saw what we saw.
13 But, y'all, thank you for your
14 response for the state. I know roads had to
15 be cleared. Every department took part.
16 Some areas you couldn't get to. We need to
17 be a little faster, a little more not
18 worrying about overtime in some of these
19 places.
20 But it's a major thing when you see
21 tornadoes like we had. We get warning from
22 hurricanes. We can get back. These people
23 didn't have proper notification or just
Page 13
1 didn't take heed. It's a wonder a thousand
2 people in just Tuscaloosa alone; Hackleburg,
3 gone. But y'all have heard all this, but
4 the eye, to see, is quite astounding.
5 We went to Enterprise. I was part of
6 it, Pete and them. And it was bad in
7 Enterprise a few years back. But, like
8 Chauncey said, you cannot believe what a
9 200-mile-an-hour wind can do to a brick
10 home, a metal place. It don't make no
11 difference. A trailer.
12 I've witnessed and talked to people,
13 eyewitnesses. And I could tell you for
14 hours, even from fire and rescue, this was
15 something that I had never witnessed in my
16 life, something that many people much older
17 than me has never witnessed. And as you
18 travel through Alabama you see tear -- I
19 mean, tornado after tornado ripping, tearing
20 trees two men couldn't reach around and,
21 yet, people crawling out from under rubble.
22 The good Lord had to have his hand on these
23 people. I could tell you stories, and it
Page 14
1 would just make you -- tears come to your
2 eyes.
3 But we were so blessed to be able to
4 help these people. I know it was a blessing
5 to them, but they were the blessing to us.
6 And we want to continue to help these
7 people.
8 And just want y'all to know, us
9 commercial fishermen, a lot of people will
10 come down on us and talk about us on the
11 water, but the bounty of the sea has helped
12 a lot people this past week. Keep us on the
13 water. Keep us fishing. Don't run us out
14 of the bays and the gulfs and the streams.
15 Because that fish belongs to everybody, and
16 we want to keep providing that -- not for
17 Montgomery, but the whole State of Alabama
18 and this country. We're good citizens.
19 Keep in mind, we're not bad, as some people
20 would have you believe.
21 John, appreciate the Department of
22 Agriculture. Y'all have had some
23 devastation, and you've got a long road.
Page 15
1 Commissioner Guy, just some of these
2 backwoods people your game wardens assisted,
3 I know, and your police. Y'all was truly a
4 blessing. But keep up the hope. I know
5 it's -- it's going to take a while to heal
6 the hearts and the minds.
7 MS. NUMMY: Time.
8 MR. BATES: Thank you.
9 CHAIRMAN MOULTRIE: Thank you, Mr. Bates.
Quote:
The next issue of old
19 business is gill nets. Dr. Shipp, you've
20 got some comments?
21 DR. SHIPP: Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
22 The gill-net issue is 20-years-or-plus
23 old, and it continues to be a controversy.
Page 55
1 I've received a number of letters expressing
2 concern about certain aspects of
3 gill-netting -- not the whole practice
4 itself, but certain aspects of it, including
5 letters from the mayors of Gulf Shores and
6 Orange Beach regarding controversy between
7 tourists and gill-netters. And I'll just
8 mention several of the concerns that have
9 been expressed to me.
10 One of them is that the spawning
11 season for Spanish Mackerel is primarily
12 April and May, and that's when there's
13 intense gill-netting in the open waters off
14 of -- off of our coast so that by the time
15 the summer season arrives, the stocks are
16 pretty well depleted.
17 Because of the increased regulations
18 to the offshore fisheries, the snapper
19 fishery and the amberjack fishery, there's
20 been a move by a number of the guides to --
21 to change from larger boats to smaller
22 inshore boats, and that makes fishes like
23 Pompano and Spanish Mackerel even more
Page 56
1 important to the them.
2 The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo,
3 which is the largest and oldest fishing
4 tournament in the United States, has about
5 30 categories. But three of those were
6 historically what we call jackpot categories
7 because those species were so popular. One
8 of those three jackpot categories was
9 Spanish Mackerel. But in the last decade
10 the -- the emphasis on the gill-net fishery
11 on Spanish has intensified to the point
12 where the Rodeo simply dropped it as a -- as
13 a jackpot category.
14 What I'd like to do is read a letter
15 from the -- not the whole letter, but a
16 letter that was sent to Commissioner Wiley a
17 number of years ago regarding gill-netting.
18 And this letter was from the Director of
19 Coastal Fisheries in the State of Texas.
20 And I will just read a few excerpts for the
21 record.
22 It is my understanding that some
23 individuals or organizations are trying to
Page 57
1 make the case that the use of gill nets does
2 not harm fishery resources and, further,
3 that there is no scientific evidence
4 demonstrating that negative impact. If that
5 is the case, they are wrong on both
6 accounts. I am able to provide this
7 information because of the long-term and
8 coast-wide monitoring program that has been
9 in place here in Texas since 1974.
10 It is widely acknowledged as the most
11 extensive resource monitoring program
12 anywhere in the world, and we're very proud
13 of it. I have also included some
14 information about the program.
15 In 2002 I invited an independent peer
16 review of our program so we could assure the
17 leadership of our agency and state that our
18 work represents the best science available.
19 The American Fishing Society agreed to carry
20 out that review, and some of the best
21 fishing scientists in the country
22 participated. They confirmed the validity
23 of our science and further recommended it as
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1 a national model.
2 My point in relaying this to you is to
3 assure you that the information I have
4 included here is based not only on sound
5 science, but the best science available. On
6 a personal note, I continue to be astounded
7 that this debate continues.
8 And the rest of the letter is a series
9 of graphs demonstrating the impact of the --
10 of the advantage of gill nets in Texas
11 waters.
12 Now, it's not my intention to make any
13 motions here, and it's not my intention to
14 move to ban gill nets. But there are
15 certain aspects of the gill-net fishery that
16 are creating a serious problem and have been
17 a problem for many years on the coast.
18 I am not anti-commercial fishing. My
19 son has two seafood restaurants in Orange
20 Beach. I'm very, very supportive of almost
21 all aspects of the commercial fishery. But
22 there are aspects of the gill-net fishery
23 that do need attention, and we need to
Page 59
1 address it.
2 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
3 CHAIRMAN MOULTRIE: Thank you, Dr. Shipp.
:slap: :horse: