FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 74, NO. 3 



also appointed by the Governor, includes repre- 

 sentatives from the tourist industry, seafood 

 processors, sport fishermen, commercial fisher- 

 men, and scientists. Recommendations for 

 changes in regulations may be brought to either 

 body although only the Fisheries Commission has 

 authority to make changes. They are obligated to 

 hold public hearings on changes and advertise the 

 hearings in news media a minimum of 10 days 

 before a hearing. Following the hearings, and 

 solicitation of advice from the Fisheries Advisory 

 Board and the Division of Commercial and Sports 

 Fisheries, changes are passed by majority vote. 



Texas 



The Parks and Wildlife Department accepts 

 recommendations from its staff or the public. Once 

 each year a public hearing is held by the Parks and 

 Wildlife Department in each county affected by 

 suggested changes. A six-man Parks and Wildlife 

 Commission appointed by the Governor then 

 considers staff recommendations and the public 

 reaction at its monthly public meeting when 

 setting regulations. Laws are enacted in the State 

 legislature in response to requests from the 

 government or the public. Fisheries in 15 of 19 

 coastal counties are controlled by regulations 

 while those in the remaining 4 are controlled by 

 laws. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



Management problems and applicable regula- 

 tions are summarized below. 



1. Conservation: 



a. soft-shelled crabs: season protecting soft 

 shells, taking soft shells prohibited; 



b. protection of breeding crabs: no females, no 

 egg-bearing females, fishing closed during 

 spawning season, trap limits to control 

 catches of mature females, minimum size 

 which excludes some mature males, catch 

 quotas to leave a significant portion of 

 commercial-sized males, all stone crabs re- 

 turned live to water; 



c. ghost fishing: traps must be attended at 

 least every 2 wk; 



d. handling subcommercial sized crabs: escape 

 holes in trap mesh, minimum mesh size in 

 traps and trawls, fishing excluded in nursery 



areas, seines must be hauled up in water 

 rather than on shore; 



e. wasteful gear: sharp instruments, tangle 

 nets, and trawls excluded; and 



f. optimize yield per recruit: minimumn crab 

 size, second season with larger minimum 

 size. 



2. Allocation of landings among commercial 



fishermen: trap limits, trap type (ring nets 

 only), registration area, limited entry of 

 boats. 



3. Stability of landings: catch quotas (harvest 



levels) by area. 



4. Conflict over grounds or resource: areas re- 



served for sport fishery; smaller size limit for 

 sport; limits on catch, gear type, and gear 

 quantity for sport; areas for traps only, set 

 gear only (traps or lines), or mobile gear only 

 (trawls or seines); traps may not be set in 

 navigation channels, in less than 4 feet 

 depth, or near beaches; limit on crab catch by 

 groundfish trawlers; weight limit on 

 dredges; seasons and area limits for crab 

 dredging; shrimp nursery areas closed to 

 crab trawling; shrimp trawling, groundfish 

 trawling, and scallop dragging excluded 

 from good crab fishing areas. 



5. Processing economics: minimum crab size, 



females or egg-bearing females excluded, 

 areas of female concentration closed, soft- 

 shelled crabs excluded, areas of polluted 

 water closed, dredging prohibited when 

 crabs buried in sediment. 



6. Administration: registration of boats, men, and 



gear; marking boats and gear with regis- 

 tration number; reporting fishing area, 

 number of trap lifts, and quantity of 

 landings. 



Many resource managers agree that some 

 regulations are unsupportable on either conserva- 

 tion or economic grounds. This is understandable 

 since there is an inevitable time lag between the 

 collection of information and the updating of 

 regulations, and since groups or individuals are 

 sometimes able to influence regulations by weight 

 of authority without supporting rationale. 



I recommend that copies of regulations (or at 

 least each new regulation) provided to en- 

 forcement officers, fishermen, processors, etc., 

 have the rationale for each regulation as well as 

 the group requesting it appended. This procedure 

 has. the following possible benefits: 



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