New ocean policy creates many opportunities

As a lifelong Pinellas County angler and as someone who works with fishing communities daily on habitat restoration projects in this area and in many other places around the Gulf of Mexico, I understand the lack of support for pending closures on over-fished species such as groupers. As a seagrass restoration expert, I implore you not to let those frustrations close your minds to new and better ways to steward the Gulf, America's fisheries and estuarine habitats that 70 percent of all marine life depends upon.

President Obama's recent executive order establishing a framework for a national ocean policy using coastal and marine spatial planning creates a welcome opportunity for fishermen and conservation professionals to improve the quality of essential habitats, fishing experiences and traditional fishing grounds.

For instance, appropriations through a national ocean policy act could include dedicated funding for vital things such as better fisheries-data collection and general biological understanding of poorly understood but valuable deepwater species. A result would be much more effective management.

Second, while dedicated funding provides the means, coastal and marine spatial planning, or CMSP, gives us an "aerial view" of where we need to prioritize investments in coastal restoration, so that we can proceed strategically. At present, those funds, when they exist, become available in largely pell-mell ways.

Meanwhile, in Florida and many other Gulf states, declining water quality and habitat loss are urgent fisheries' problems. Coastal construction, runoff and heavy use of inshore habitats are costing us the nursery habitats essential to many species, including the all-popular gag grouper.

Bear in mind that the highest levels of mortality in gag grouper - and most other species - occur in the first year or two, when the small fish are most vulnerable to predation.

Restoring the health of the "neighborhoods" they grow up in can enhance the success of each year's class - having a positive impact on how many fish make it to sexual maturity and reproduce, and as such the number of available grouper that are of size and considered "keepers."

Here's an example of how an ecosystem-wide, habitat restoration project could be fostered by a CMSP exercise:

We know we have a problem with grouper production, partly related to over-fishing and partly related to habitat loss. Everyone loves to catch gag grouper, so we all have a vested interest in restoring the seagrass and mangrove habitats they depend on in their vulnerable early life stages.

Seagrass meadows near passes and inlets are important settling areas for post-larval snappers and groupers, because these tiny fish don't have to travel as far through a gauntlet of predators to find places to hide. Through the CMSP process, fishermen could request restoration projects that would best benefit the most popular and beleaguered species, such as gag grouper.

The bottom line is that systems in place to protect habitat aren't working adequately. The Deepwater Horizon disaster is a most painful case in point. Our lack of interagency coordination, opportunities for public input and a comprehensive look at coastal and ocean management all cost us fish for ourselves and for our children.

Please take the time to read the executive order. You'll be pleasantly surprised that it focuses on protecting recreation and enhancing the resiliency of our coastal ecosystems, which are our core economic engines. ( http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-stewardship-ocean-our-coasts-and-great-lakes).