October 08, 2004, 09:00 AM
Saltwater Conservation Association State Banquet October 16th
By Greg Berlocher
The Saltwater Conservation Association (SCA) is a good example of a grass roots conservation organization that is making a difference in the health and well being of our coastal bay systems. Formed several years ago by a dedicated group of hard core anglers, SCA has a singular purpose: to reduce the number of licensed bay shrimpers working in Texas waters.
Our state government regulates shrimping and currently issues separate licenses for bay and bait shrimping. Bait shrimpers are an ally to coastal anglers and sell just about everything they catch. Bay shrimpers, on the other hand, drag their nets across the bay floor in hopes of collecting marketable crustaceans for food. Therein lies the problem. For every pound of shrimp they collect, bay shrimpers kill eight pounds of fin fish, called bycatch, in their nets – a tragic waste of marine resources.
In addition to killing millions of pounds of bycatch, shrimpers scrape the bottom of the bay with their nets, stirring up mud and silt and destroying marine habitat such as seagrass and oyster reefs.
Statistically, bay shrimpers provide an insignificant percentage of the total shrimp catch compared to gulf shrimpers and international operations. In short, bay shrimpers provide little to the overall catch, but do lots of damage to our coastal ecosystems while doing it.
Texas Parks and Wildlife realized this several years ago and began charging a $3.00 surcharge on every fishing license. This money goes towards the retirement of shrimping licenses. TPWD’s goal is to reduce the number of shrimpers trading on Texas bays from around 3,000 to 1,500 - a number TPWD believes is much healthier for our bays.
SCA isn’t on a jihad against shrimpers. And they aren’t trying to put anyone out of business. Nor are they a bunch or tree huggers out in Never-Never land. Their goal is to simply expedite the number of bay shrimping licenses which are permanently retired and in the process enjoy improved water quality in our bays and hopefully, better fishing.
All of this takes money and the SCA holds an annual banquet to help boost their coffers. The 2004 banquet will be held October 16, 2004 at Bay Area Community Center, located at 5002 NASA Road One in Seabrook.
The festivities kick off at 6:00 pm with a social hour. Dinner is served at 7:00 pm and the live auction starts at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $37.50 in advance and $50.00 at the door. You can purchase tickets online at http://scatexas.org or call Ed Olson at 281-392-4145. Ed can also help you if you have items you would like to donate for the auction.
In addition to the banquet, SCA has begun a push to secure large financial donations from outdoor minded and marine-oriented companies. SCA can use large contributions to get matching grants from different foundations, thereby doubling the amount of cash they have to work with. This will allow SCA to accelerate the number of licenses they retire.
Ninety percent of the SCA membership is also a member of the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA). I am a member of both and support both organizations whole heartedly. If you are a CCA member or just a died-in-the-wool bay rat who wants to help reduce the number of shrimp nets dragging across our bays, check out the SCA auction on October 16, 2004. This is a worthwhile cause and 100-percent of all proceeds go to the retirement of bay shrimping licenses.
Greg Berlocher and the Outdoor Desk can be reached at outdoors@chronicallybiased.com
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