There is a new piece of billfish conservation legislation that has been introduced into the US Congress that if passed, will prohibit the commercial harvest, sale and inportation of billfish throughout the US. Currently you can catch and sell marlin, sailfish and spearfish caught in the Pacific. The picture above was taken in January 2010 at the Honolulu Fish Market showing billfish (sans bills) for sale. The day I visited the auction, billfish were going for about $1.00/lb.  in contrast mahi mahi were going for $5/lb and tuna for around $9/lb.  Evidently marlin serve better as cat food than for human consumption – at least in Hawaii

What is interesting about this bill is that it is less about conservation but more about shifting the economic benefit from the commercial fishermen to the recreational fishermen.  There is no mention about not fishing for  these fish in the legislation, just who gets the economic benefit from them.   More billfish means more fishermen, bigger tournaments, larger calcutta (brown paper bag-based side bets), more boats sold and more fishing gear sold. And you can bet that The Billfish Foundation, IGFA and American Sportfish Association (trade group for fish gear companies) will benefit. More fish means more anglers, more memberships, dues and donations to these special interest groups.  Good business for America – we know how to optimize the wealth extraction business from the sea almost as good as the Japanese.

There will be a significant foreign trade issue here with a successful bill passage will eliminate the importing of billfish from Central and South America.  Again a good thing for us but bad for local central america fishermen who will turn to other (probably Brazil) to sell their catch.  Setting up trade barriers to protect wild game is a good thing and maybe the only real way to achieve what some would call “conservation”.  While this legislation will have an indirect benefit if 3 million lbs of marlin are not killed and sold each year, the real benefit is to anglers. I am one of them.  So I look forward to catching (and releasing) more marlin if this bill is not defeated by the Pacific Longline Association.  Those guys are smart, tough and politically well organized.

It is a struggle to find a true conservation cause when it comes to oceans. Short of setting up marine protected areas, we seem to think that we have the right to extract what we want from the sea without limits.  If cod or bluefin tuna are any indication of our ability to manage a fish stock, we are in deep trouble with billfish.  Hopefully this legislation will pass and we will slow the wealth engine or at least redirect it.

Cuba is a remarkable place in so many different ways.  It is a Caribbean paradise with some of the most pristine reefs in the sea, it’s history is rich with culture, food and music, it’s sophisticated people and it still lives under the vestiges of the Soviet style government.  My time there has been part of a larger effort led by veteran Cuban expert David Guggenheim who along with Fernando Bretos, run the Cuba Marine Research and Conservation project.  MVF has been funding David and Fernando for several years and we currently hold a US Department of Treasury permit to travel and work in Cuba as part of a joint cponservation project with the University of Havana.  Cuba holds over 24% of the coral reefs in the Caribbean and we are working hard to help them protect them and its coast ecosystems from the impact of tourism development, oil and gas extraction off the northwest coast and the potential stampede of development if the US ends its boycott of the country.

From my two trips to Cuba, I learned that people there are wonderfully warm and open, throttled by the current government and economically stuck in the communist system. Professors at the University are paid $40/month, get a free car and live in government housing (well all of Cuba is government-owned housing).  A hooker at the Hotel Nacional gets $100/night and frequent the patio there after dark(we talked to them on our last trip) so there are small signs of capitalism alive and functioning there.   And the Tropicana Nightclub has been in continuous operation since the 1930s (never missing a show during the Castro years) and thriving.  Havana Club is still a major brand of rum throughout the free world with the exception of the USA. Cuba is stuck in the 60s and pretty wonderful for a tourist but the regime has killed off several generations of artistic and scientific creativity.    If you can get to Cuba, go now.  It is worth the effort.

And to get an inside view of what is happening in Cuba today you need to go to David’s 1planet1ocean website and read about everything that is Cuba today.  You have probably already seen David on TV reporting on the impact of the Gulf Oil Spill on Cuba. If not then check out his website.  He is quite a remarkable man with a gift of conservation diplomacy.

Fishing for big game fish like blue marlin is a sport made famous by Ernest Hemmingway and Zane Grey in exotic places like Cuba, Cabo Blanco and Tahati. Their stories like The Old Man and the Sea are classic man versus sea creature sagas that have captivated fishermen with tales of great physical pain, danger and domination over some of the largest fish in the sea. Today that primal essence has been captured by the great fishing tournaments in the US and around the world as a money making venture full of big bet calcuttas and payouts sometimes reaching over $1M for the biggest gamefish. Big game fishing tournaments run year round in all the oceans with the Bisbee Black and Blue tournament in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico having the biggest payout.   In 2008, ten teams took home over $3.2M between them.  With potential winnings like that, owners, captains and mates of the best fishing boats flock to these events for both fame and money.   For captain’s and crews, winning a major tournament is like winning the super bowl complete with Rolex watches in many cases.  No matter what, it seems all fisherman like to hunt big game in the sea for profit.

Ocean City Maryland became the White Marlin Capital of the world way back in 1939 when on July 29th, 171 white marlin were boated at the Jack Spot, a fishing location some 30 miles offshore.  And for 37 years the Ocean City, MD White Marlin Open has been in operation.  But several years ago there was a petition to NOAA to place the white marlin on the endangered species list, a move that would have outlawed any fishing for white marlin and any tournaments fishing in their summer habitat off Ocean City.  But that petition was denied and the big business of tournament fishing has been strong ever since.  Where else can you fish for 3 days and make $800,000.   And seriously, the 2009 winner went to a boat with a disabled engine trying to get back to the marina. They trolled baits, caught a monster white marlin and won $903,442.00.

I fished this tournament on my boat the Makara with Captain Bill Gerlach and mate Daniel “Backlash” Davis.  While we did finish a respectable 43 out of 254 boats (we got skunked the last day of the tournament when the weather turned bad), we learned that tournaments can be a positive part of conservation of the oceans.  From afar it may look like just guys drinking beer and killing majestic fish but the tournament serves a a meeting ground to set new standards for catch and release fishing, renewing friendships and supporting the local economy.

Traditional wisdom (based on the last several decades) is that NOAA is all about commercial extraction of the fish stocks for profit and that recreational angler or even pure fish conservation is not even on the agency’s agenda.  Well despite the constant fumbling and poor PR, NOAA did do something right when they instituted circle hooks in all billfish tournaments in the US.  it does make a difference to all fishermen or at least to those tournament boats who catch 80% of the fish.  They/we all fish circle hooks all the time now.  Smart move.

We stumble along in so many ways to protect what we have in the oceans.  It is imperfect at best and has actually been worse recently (look at the plight of the Bluefin Tuna).  But there are glimmers of hope for the big pelagic fish in the ocean and I am glad that the Makara fished this tournament.  Sure it as expensive and tiring and painful at times fishing in 6-8 foot seas.  But in the end we all bonded. We know what we each have to do to protect the marlin stocks.  And each boat, captain and crew will do the right thing with circle hooks, careful releases and constant communication to share the joy of billfishing and the techniques to sustain it.  There is not much more we can do.   But that gives me a sense of peace.

But is this the last great billfish tournament?  Will events like the gulf oil spill or overfishing slowly kill off the marlin to where the tournament dies out?  At one time I thought this was possible but for now the stocks seem ok, the fishermen more careful in their releases and the commercial fleet fishing practices better managed.  But the thing in the back of my mind are these creeping baselines that will catch up to us down the road.  It is not possible to catch – release or boat – 171 white marlin in a day at the Jack Spot or further out in the canyons.  There are not that many left.  Enough left I guess to keep the tournaments going.  If the combined 250 tournament boats only caught 1 white marlin then the winner would still get their $900,000 cash first prize.

On July 27, 2010, I accompanied wetlands restoration ecologist Professor Curt Richardson from Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment to New Orleans to assess the oil spill damage to the Delta wetlands. Via tow helicopter flights and two boat trips, we covered most the Mississippi delta wetlands in Plaquemines and Jefferson Parrishes down to the Gand Isle barrier island.  We met with local elected officials, fishermen, cleanup crews, scientists from TNC and the LA Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration.  We expected to find the complete destruction of the wetlands based on info from the media.  But we found something totally different.

After all the news media reports on the oil spill, I was expecting total devastation of the Delta wetlands. But after two days of helicopter overflights, boat tours, meeting with TNC scientist, local officials and cleanup crew workers, we found neither devastation nor economic hardship. What we did find was a massive employment program by BP that has hired almost every boat and able worker, filled every beach hotel and restaurant and furthered the decades-old Delta economy based on the oil and gas industry. While the BP oil spill might turn out to be a deadly incident to marine life, as of today it is not. The oil is gone, the local economy is thriving, even the shrimpers were fishing when I was there on July 27 and 28, 2010. Yea they were restricted to the inshore zones unaffected by the spill but like CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the whole event was blown out of proportion by the media relative to its impact. But that is not surprising in this day and age.

Probably the most important conversation that I had in the Delta was with a TNC scientist who had grown up in the Delta, graduated from LSU and had a long history on the Delta. His comment was simple – only 5% of the coast was contaminated, the oil spill is not a big problem for the Louisiana Delta. While there might be some significant coastal and deepwater impacts, no one seem to think there are any real issues long term. While we were there, a barge hit a well head and for the 24 hours were were there, the well was shooting a stream of raw crude 100 feet into the air.

The Delta economy has for decades been about wealth extaction business: oil and gas and fishing. Half the Delta economy is oil and gas – just look at the size and scope of the local refineries, offshore service industry and support required for the 1000s of rigs. Fishing too has been at the core of the communities in the Delta. With a wonderful cultural heritage, the shrimp and oysters have been the identity of the Delta but the cash comes from oil and gas industry whose revenues into the local community are 10 times the fishing impact. Even Plaquemines Parrish President Billy Nunngesser made his multimillion dollar fortune servicing the oil and gas industry. His 3,000 acre bayou plantation is a testament to the power of this economic engine.

The real take away from this recon mission to the Gulf is that like the other great ecosystems – Chesapeake Bay, Colorado River, Everglades, the Louisiana Delta has been in decline for over 80 years. Ever since the Corp of Engineers built the first levee on the MIssissippi River and interrupted the natural flood/sediment deposition in the delta, the Delta has been in slow decline. The BP Oil Spill was a man-man catastrophe for sure but the real catastrope has been the conversion of a mighty river into a human-controled canal. And that is something that even $20 Billion from BP can not fix.

Colorado River Delta – Images by tom mcmurray

Current Conservation Portfolio
Marine Ventures funds protection and restoration projects to counter the spread of invasive species, measure the impact of water diversion programs, baseline the bioregion and measure the human impact on these ecosystems. The foundation is currently working in four geographic regions: Snake River System in Idaho, Colorado River Delta in Mexico, Chesapeake Bay and Coastal Rivers of California. We also have projects underway in Argentina on the Rio Parana and in the Berry Islands, Bahamas. We maintain an active involvement in each of our funded projects. We are open to exploring new projects that meet our funding criteria. The best way to gage our interest is via a short one page email describing the project, status, objectives and funding requirements. Our typical grants range from $5,000 to $25,000.

How We Work
MVF takes the long view, staying the course on conservation projects that have measurable outomes. The achievement of durable change requires a long term commitment, strong partnerships and taking calculated risks. We are open to new ideas for significant change where the project focus is on root causes not symptoms. Some of our best work is when we operate in collaborative, multidicipline partnerships. The problems are better understood from both an ecosystem and human perspective, the solutions are broad encompassing all major issues and the creation of a results-oriented team approach leads to better outcomes.

Our Tools – cutting edge conservation science
Essential to protecting an ecosystem is the creation of a baseline map that measures the biodiversity and the habitat. With baseline models, conservation teams can assess current habitat health, devise and implement restoration plans and monitor their effectiveness over time. MVF has pioneered the development of high spatial and temporal resolution imagery utilizing manned and unmanned aerial platforms to obtain orthogonal, geo-referenced basemaps. With these ecological accurate basemaps, both protection or restoration programs can be designed, approved and completed.

Our Commitment
We at MVF are driven and dedicated to protecting biodiversity and their habitats through innovative biodiversity projects, being solid collaborative partners in conservation and always leading the way toward new and innovative solutions to protect the most important ecosystems. We welcome new collaborations with commited partners. Join us.

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email: info @ MarineVentures.org

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January Sails from tom mcmurray on Vimeo.