Interesting Read

[Dclark2]

Now the serious stuff..

Last year on the first of August we had a boat, dern near a ship, show up off the coast and begin surveying some reef sites. They had Navy divers aboard also. Never did find out what they were after. The radio man told me they were running a sub-bottom profiler, an especially powerful depth sounder more akin to ground penetrating radar.

As this rig declared a large CPA (closest point of approach,) and ended up spending about a week on one our most popular reef sites, the African Queen Reef: fishing was effectively closed there while they were in position. . .

I'll tell you a tale of the first time I understood precisely what was happening with a sub-bottom profiler. In 2007 the MD Research Boat Kehrin, skippered by my good friend Rick Younger, arrived on scene at the newly issued Jackspot Reef Site permit. Gail Blazer, an engineer with the Town of Ocean City, and myself had walked that permit through the Army Corps process for close to a decade. I'd done the dockside legwork, working with the trawl community especially, to ensure we would be approved.

It was an exciting time -- reef material would soon be OK when Rick did his side-scan sonar work.


I was there, anchored over the Cook; a wreck from long ago that's about center of the site (and why trawlers agreed to the permit.)

Clients were catching amazingly well -- double headers of sea bass around the rail.

As Rick came in on his first leg in the NW corner he turned on his sub-bottom profiler

..and our bite came to an INSTANT stop.

Not one more bite.

Literally: "Like flipping a switch."

I hailed him on the radio, "What did you just turn on?"

He told me & turned it off. After only a couple minutes of a sub-bottom profiler, the bite resumed at a much slower pace..


We fish there a lot more now - that new reef. Never have trouble with scuba divers anymore. Used to be a long steam for someone if anyone was already on the wreck. The new reef was crazy productive for a while. That pre-construction day in 2007, however, I had to leave -- but I was there to see the beginning of what I'd worked so hard for.

Turns out the lesson I learned about this type of sounding equipment, a sub-bottom profiler, would be much more important.

Fast fwd to July 31st, 2013 when I complained to Government folk about a survey ship, the Scarlett Isabella that was surveying every square inch of the vast Maryland Wind Area:


I've noticed that my catch rate declines when the boat is in my vicinity.

On July 31 I was fishing at an artificial reef 17 NM ESE OC MD. The Scarlett was about 4 miles off to my north and closing. Client's catch rate declined as the ship steamed to just 2 NM NE our position.

Suddenly, at about 10:15 the fish bit quite well. That lasted until about 10:40.

During that time I noticed the Scarlett was dead in the water. A helicopter came and departed.

When they got back underway our catch rate fell off a cliff.

I hailed the ship on VHF 16 and switched to channel 10. I asked if they were running a sub-bottom profiler, "Yes."

I then asked if the unit had been off from 10:15 to 10:40.. Needing to check with equipment operators; after a few minutes the radioman replied, "Yes, the equipment was off during that time period."

The only possible way I could have known what time the equipment was off was by fish behavior.

All those notes are still in my log..


We experienced sub-bottom profiler impacts in a huge way while the entire Wind Energy Area was being surveyed & resurveyed. Sub-bottom profiler on for months--not minutes or hours, it drove sea bass and fluke out of an area close to 500 square miles. Fishers inshore had a jubilee -- wonderful flounder fishing especially, and folks marveled as giant hammerhead sharks patrolled the coast instead of 20 miles offshore..

I do not know why, but I am certain a sub-bottom profiler is capable of disrupting the marine ecosystem in grand scale.

While most of our reefs are now well into a recovery cycle -- that's what fish do, increase spawning after population decrease or on finding new or unpopulated habitat. In fact, I wrote to fisheries scientists extensively last year with reports of age 1 sea bass switching to male--a behavior I've not seen since 2001. This was because the area where quite nearly all sea bass had been run-off was being recolonized.

I absolutely believe our ability, recognized or not, to manipulate age at maturity in sea bass by size limit is the most important method of creating true abundance. We can add 70% more of the entire sea bass population to their spawning population simply by lowering the size limit. (Advocating for improved sea bass production would be so much simpler if I needed to argue for a larger size limit. It took about 4 years to get any size limit - first begun on my boat in 1992 and then by regulation broadly in 1998. I've been arguing for a size limit reduction based on spawning production since 2006 or so. No Luck.)

Historical seafloor habitat loss in unbelievable scale; how simple it is to create new habitat; manipulating maturity by regulation.

Nothing.

All I get from NOAA is: 'Leave us alone already, Hawkins. We have to study this recreational catch data. We know how to restore fisheries through catch restriction. Now go away because you don't know good statistics when you see them.'

..statistics so good even a 5th grader could plainly see catches are far beyond disingenuous. It really is true that this year's tightening of sea bass regulation to our north is because NOAA "believes" small private boats in New York, (and just NY,) caught more sea bass than all trawlers & cbass trappers from North Carolina to Maine.

Oh, and all partyboats & charter boats from NC to ME too.

Uh Hu..

That's just dumb.

Profoundly so.

But that's where regulation sources.

Not biology or ecology -- just catch statistics unfit to housebreak a puppy..

I'd be ashamed to death to break a man's business with such as that.


On the morning of June 2nd, Friday, the Sheila Bordenton declared a one mile CPA (closest point of approach.) The whole reef is one mile wide. The radio operator (skipper?) informed me they were running a sub-bottom profiler. He also informed me they'd sue if their divers, Navy divers, got hooked by lost recreational hooks.

Later the boat's CPA was reduced to 1/2 a mile.

Later still a 1/4 mile.

Their announced destination was the Sub Blenny, a WWII artificial reef I saw sunk in 1989 or 1990. But, like the same operation last summer, they were on --directly above-- the African Queen.. What they were really doing, I haven't any idea.

Why in Blazes does the Navy have to charter a supply boat with survey equipment, I couldn't guess either. Don't they have boats?




I assure all who will read: the African Queen Reef Site, one of our best, has been impacted.

Fishing is brutal there. One private boat angler wrote to me about fishing there Friday, June 2nd: "Seemed like a dead sea."


Just turn off the dang sub-bottom profiler & leave it off! And quit pretending Navy divers deserve a lot more respect than civilian ones -- CPA is 'a safe distance' and not Close The Reef Because We're Here.

And the diver who wants to sue because he got a little fish hook in him? He needs a refresher with his Drill Instructor.. Maybe the radio operator could use that same sort of coaching.

regulation is completely out of hand. No sane argument matters.

If you think windmills are going to be a godsend to recreational fishing, I'd advise getting permission to fish there in writing before clapping too loud. Then look at our country's history with things written. From Indian treaties to last week...

And, Hey Navy, if you want to dive our reefs, how about helping build some!

Anchor a couple barges and have a big time with live fire practice -- practice with real hits. No High Explosive, no Depleted Uranium - just shoot the dang things

..and maybe not in June.

How about mothballed Liberty Ships? Shoot the dang things! Take the HE out of torpedoes; let those scuba fellows plant small charges; use 5 inch guns.. Whatever -- go sink something where we can fish later. Not in 10,000 feet of water like all the ships sunk off Puerto Rico & Cuba.




I mean really.. So help me we used to kill more sea bass in a day than we do all summer now. And .guv wants to keep careful eye for overfishing.

They'll see it too -- in data no one believes.

Back then we'd catch a lot of fish and there'd be even more fish the following year. Fishing got better & better because of spawning production.

Now the more draconian regulation gets, the worse sea bass fishing gets.




Saved by flounder and some damn fine Fisheries policy maneuverings: I'd be bankrupt if I had to rely on sea bass as I did from 1980 to 2007.....




Now we have an almost completely dead reef that I used to be able to successfully fish 2 or 3 times a week with 70 passengers.

Today I cannot fish there at all. Not and pass the redface test.

Thanks Navy.

Thanks NOAA.

Thanks NMFS.


Regards,

Monty






Capt. Monty Hawkins


capt.montyhawkins@gmail.com

Partyboat Morning Star

http://morningstarfishing.com

Ocean City, MD



Sub Blenny on 6/4/17 two days after a brief survey impact ceased. There are no sea bass in this image of about half the 300 foot reef.





Some cable and small concrete block piles at Power's Jackspot Reef. Tiny habitat compared to the Blenny; this pic was also taken on 6/4/17, but with sea bass present & behaving normally.

















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