The Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) recently reached a favorable settlement in its suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) no-fishing zones off the Florida coast. The settlement will allow recreational anglers to troll previously restricted areas for pelagic species while still restricting bottom fishing for stressed gag grouper stocks.

"This settlement achieves the conservation benefit needed to protect gag grouper stocks while not unjustly and arbitrarily excluding recreational anglers from trolling these areas for unrelated species," said Fred Miller, chairman of CCA's government relations committee.

CCA's suit was filed when a NMFS proposal to close two gag grouper spawning aggregation areas turned into a total closure to almost all forms of fishing in the area. Congressional policy allows for ocean-area closures where it can be shown necessary to conserve troubled fish stocks. But NMFS' regulation unjustly included restrictions to fishing for other species that frequent upper levels of the ocean's water column. CCA's settlement will provide continued protection for flagging gag grouper populations while not imposing a blanket closure to all recreational fishing. It will also initiate a scientific research project to determine the impact of conventional trolling gear on bottom-dwelling grouper. The NMFS closure will extend until 2003, when the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will reevaluate it.

"The settlement represents an acknowledgment by NMFS that blanket no-fishing zones are not required to provide effective conservation of fishery resources," said Jay Johnson, CCA counsel. "This settlement requires the agency to produce credible scientific evidence before taking action to extend current area closures beyond 2003."

"CCA's suit not only refocused NMFS' management regulation back to the initial target of conserving gag grouper," said Miller, "it helped stem the tide of unjust no-fishing zones."

CCA opposes regulations that prohibit recreational fishing access unless it can be scientifically determined that recreational fishermen are the cause of a specific conservation problem and traditional conservation measures are inadequate to solve the problem.