re: Melancon opposes move to give Louisiana authority over red snapper

quote:

---

plain english, explain what management techniques beyond catch rates the federal government is currently paying for to manage the stock, and explain why five gulf states would not be capable of assuming financially responsibility for them.

---

You need harvest rates, fishing effort, age/sex/length comps, and some independent relative indices of abundance outside of what you collect from the fisheries (commercial, recreational, charter).

quote:

---

is this something that is being provided by the Federal government currently?

---

Harvest and effort is from the recreational survey funded from license fee increases while the other stuff is a combination of federal and state, bust mostly federal.

Problem is if the states manages the stock then you are left filling the void in data the feds collect which is a large part of the red snapper stock assessment. They do extensive offshore sampling.

quote:

---

You're the one claiming to know that the dollar amount is simply too big for five gulf states to handle, yet neither you nor Melancon will give even a ballpark figure on it.

---

I've never seen a detailed budget for how Graves wants this management switch to occur. So who knows,according the article it says that Melancon doesn't even know the unknown amount of fiscal burden placed on the state.

So your guess is as good as mine

My argument was simply that license fee increases are used for just one part of a multitude of different projects used to collect data used in stock assessments.

quote:

---

Were the other ones undersized or were y'all just catching for sport? Hopefully, y'all didn't send 36 snapper floating.

---

Honestly, they are so abundant, that you catch 8 for 1 of every other non-shark species that you catch. Sorry, but I'm not going to stop targeting mangroves, groupers, cobia, etc. because I hit my red snapper quota. Thus, a lot end up floating. I also wouldn't need to focus so much time on other reef fish if I could actually use those floaters to fill the box enough to justify the gas burned.

quote:

---

While avoiding reefs and rigs....

---

Oh yeah

That's starts a completely different conversation haha

quote:

---

That's starts a completely different conversation haha

---

It really isn't. You are claiming that the feds are the only ones who can do this research. We are saying the research the fed's are doing is bullshite and does not reflect an accurate picture of harvest rates, efforts, and abundance.

quote:

---

You are claiming that the feds are the only ones who can do this research.

---

How are we going to fund all this research if the state is managing?

If we get rid of federal monies how does the state come up with those funds?

License fee was used for one component of the total research, so what kind of money do we need to produce to collect the same amount of data (not the quality which is what the offshore sampling question was referring to)

quote:

---

Don't take what he says at face value. There is a reason why he is opposing this we just don't know why

---

Not quite. I may be off on the details but CCA got the license increase passed in 2014 to fund programs. So every time you bought a license you bought under the assumption that the fees were going back into the program from which you paid for the license. They know that nobody is going to vote for anymore taxes but they need the money to keep bloated state agencies afloat so they are tapping these funds for fill the gaps.

A fee is no longer a fee when it goes someplace other than where it was intended. At the point in time where it moved away from it intended purpose, it becomes a tax.

quote:

---

How are we going to fund all this research if the state is managing?

---

How can I answer that if, as you said yourself, nobody knows how much it is going to cost.

quote:

---

How can I answer that if, as you said yourself, nobody knows how much it is going to cost.

---

Exactly lol.

When I read the article that's what appeared to be a major reason for opposing it.

Because nobody has apparently sat down and thought about the budget it would take to fully assume management authority.