Introduction
Prior to July 1, 1994, responsibility for management of the state's marine resources rested with the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks' Bureau of Marine Resources. During the 1994 Regular Session, the Legislature created a separate Department of Marine Resources (DMR) to manage the state's marine resources; however, responsibility for marine law enforcement remained with the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (DWFP).
In response to a legislative request, PEER evaluated the effectiveness of the Department of Marine Resources' marine resources management. Also, PEER evaluated the effectiveness of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks' marine law enforcement program.
Overview
Marine Resources Management
DMR is still in the process of developing management tools critical to its organizational effectiveness in meeting legislated objectives. For example, the department has not yet developed adequate measures of its own efficiency and effectiveness. Also, the staff does not always provide commissioners with adequate data necessary to make informed policy decisions.
In the absence of adequate DMR measures of its own effectiveness, PEER relied heavily on ad hoc measures to evaluate the department's effectiveness. Measures used by PEER include external research, reports, and data on the condition of Mississippi's marine resources, coastal wetlands, and seafood industry and federal regulatory reports on DMR's management of the coastal zone and of the state's oyster fishery.
With respect to marine fisheries management, DMR is generally performing an adequate job of managing the state's major regulated marine fisheries. While four fisheries appear to be sustainable at current levels of harvest, two are below historical juvenile abundance population averages, three are overfished in Gulf waters, and one (shrimp) has differing conditions within the fishery. The brown shrimp sub-category appears to be sustainable at current levels of harvest and the white shrimp sub-category is below historical juvenile abundance population averages. There is inadequate data on the remaining three major state fisheries for commenting on the condition of these stocks.
The department has enacted ordinances and has taken other management actions designed to restore those fisheries designated as overfished or showing signs of decline. With respect to the state's oyster fishery, which is heavily regulated by the federal government due to the public health risk associated with consumption of raw oysters, DMR has adequately addressed significant compliance problems by hiring additional staff, repairing broken monitoring gauges, and adhering to reef closure guidelines. Further, with DMR's reported current focus on developing program plans and effectiveness measures, the department, in becoming more proactive, is headed in the right direction to direct future marine fisheries management efforts.
With respect to coastal wetlands management, DMR should conduct significant work to ensure adequate protection of this critical environment. Most of the state's major fisheries utilize the wetlands at some point during their life cycle. The federal government, which oversees Mississippi's management of its coastal wetlands, has cited the department numerous times for serious deficiencies with respect to wetlands management (e.g., failure to monitor and enforce coastal zone plan compliance). The majority of these deficiencies are due to developmental pressure on the coastal area resulting from significant growth on the Gulf Coast during the 1990s associated with legalization of dockside gaming. While the department is in the process of revising its Coastal Zone Management Plan to take into account development associated with the casino industry, it is imperative that this plan adequately address the urgent need for wetlands protection in order to ensure the continued viability of the state's marine fisheries.
With respect to revitalization of the state's seafood industry, while over the long term (since 1950), Mississippi commercial fisheries landings have been relatively stable, since the mid-1980s the volume and value of Mississippi commercial fisheries landings have declined. This decline is primarily attributable to a decline in the state's menhaden and pet food fisheries and a decline in shoreline support for the production sector of the industry. Recent research on the economic impact of dockside gaming on the commercial seafood industry in coastal Mississippi documents a decline in the commercial harvesting and processing sectors of the industry.
Marine Law Enforcement
DWFP's Marine Law Enforcement Unit complies with state law by having enforcement officers spend the majority of their work time patrolling marine waters and issuing citations to violators. From FY 1993 to FY 1998, DWFP marine enforcement officers spent an average of 55% of their work time performing land and water patrols. These patrols serve as a deterrent to overfishing, which is a factor in long-term damage to marine resources.
The state's penalties for violation of seafood laws appear adequate. Financial penalties imposed for most violations are higher than the average value of daily catches and should be sufficient to deter potential violators. However, MISS. CODE ANN. Section 49-15-64.5 (3) allows commercial fishers to change the designated captain of a commercial fishing vessel (and thus avoid receiving subsequent citations), which could limit effectiveness of such penalties because most of the financial and incarceration penalties imposed for violations of the seafood laws increase with each subsequent offense.
While there are 2,373 recreational fisher licensees to each DWFP marine law enforcement officer, surveys conducted by the Department of Marine Resources show that recreational fishers have a high degree of compliance with state marine laws and DMR ordinances. For the period 1994-1998, DMR's survey results showed an average 95.85% of recreational boat trip fishers and 99.10% of recreational pier fishers interviewed and inspected by DMR had catches that complied with state marine laws and DMR ordinances.
When developing ordinances and regulations to protect the state's marine resources, the Department of Marine Resources solicits and receives input from DWFP's Marine Law Enforcement Unit. The development of these ordinances routinely incorporates comments from officers on the enforceability of the ordinance or regulation.
State law allows DWFP marine enforcement officers to sell seafood seized during illegal harvesting, but DWFP's Marine Enforcement Unit does not provide receipts to boat owners or fishers from whom seafood has been seized. Also, officers do not retain documentation of the bid process which results in the sale of confiscated seafood. As a result, the boat owner or fisher has no proof as to the amount of seafood confiscated and the amount of refund due from DMR should the court order an acquittal.
DWFP and DMR signed a memorandum of understanding in December 1997 which requires marine law enforcement officers to act as the Commission on Marine Resources' agents in inspecting coastal wetlands to detect noncompliance with permitting requirements in wetlands areas. However, marine law enforcement officers have not inspected coastal wetlands and reported permitting law violators to the commission.
Recommendations
Marine Resources Management
1. The Department of Marine Resources should require the collection of relevant fishery dependent data (e.g., age structure, sex ratios, and fishing effort) necessary to develop stock assessment models for major marine fisheries in Mississippi. Currently this data is only available for one major marine fishery in Mississippi, the menhaden fishery.
2. The Department of Marine Resources should consider establishing a task force for each major fishery to identify and discuss emerging issues and problems relative to the fishery. Each task force should include at least one representative from: fisheries management (DMR), fisheries biological research, marine law enforcement, the recreational fishing sector (with the exception of the menhaden fishery, which has no recreational component), the commercial fishing sector (both harvesting and processing), and any interacting fishery (e.g., the shrimp fishery is an interacting fishery with the crab fishery).
3. The Comprehensive Resource Management Plan currently being developed for the state's coastal zone must take into consideration the warning of marine biologists that the coast is at a critical point in terms of the balance between development and protection of the environment which sustains its marine resources. DMR, in conjunction with GCRL, must establish and monitor on an ongoing basis, indicators of the quantity and quality of the state's coastal wetlands. As past of this effort, DMR should consider documenting coastal wetlands loss from a Geographic Information System (GIS) perspective.
4. The Commission on Marine Resources should require DMR staff to provide adequate data and analysis necessary to make informed marine resource policy decisions before making such decisions.
DMR staff should consider developing a formal decisionmaking process to manage each major fishery which it regulates. For example, with respect to the oyster fishery and the decision of whether to extend the season, critical variables to consider formally could include volume of oysters harvested on each reef, estimation of size and volume of remaining oysters on each reef, estimated water temperatures during the proposed extension period and how these temperatures compare to the level which is considered safe for oyster harvesting (at higher temperatures, the prevalence of vibrio increases), estimated market demand, and, based on historical data showing the average harvest per day at each reef, an estimate of the number of days that the reef should remain open in order to reduce the resource to a minimum sustainable level.
There is already a precedent for this type of decision matrix for closing the state's oyster season and opening the state's shrimp season. With respect to oyster reefs, DMR's oyster management plan requires staff to close certain areas whenever the Pearl River reaches ten feet at the Louisiana gauge, and additional areas when the river reaches twelve feet. Similarly, the plan requires DMR staff to close certain reef areas when the area receives an inch or two of rain. The opening of the shrimp season is driven by biological data according to a management plan. Specifically, in order to open the season, sampling must show that the shrimp has reached a size of 68 count per pound. Biologists sample the size and growth rate of the juvenile shrimp and project when the majority of the population will likely reach the requisite size in harvestable waters. In the case of opening the shrimp season, the commission gives DMR's Executive Director authority to open the season as soon as the size is appropriate.
5. DMR should develop a performance measurement and reporting system which includes measures of its effectiveness in meeting its primary legislated objectives of: protecting, conserving, and propagating the state's marine resources; protecting the coastal wetlands ecosystem on which the resources depend; and revitalizing the state's seafood industry. The department should develop and report clear and meaningful output and outcome measures for each of these three major objectives. Appendix A on page 65 contains suggestions for fisheries related management performance measures. It is important for the department to develop a performance measurement and reporting system as quickly as possible, in order to provide itself and the Legislature with a historical database which can better inform marine resource management related policy decisions.
Marine Law Enforcement
6. DWFP's Marine Enforcement Division should change its procedures for the handling of seized seafood. Enforcement officers should be required to issue a receipt to the fishers from whom any seafood is taken. The receipt should show the time, date, and place where the seizure took place and both parties should be provided with a copy. Also, DWFP should develop a standard form for selling seized seafood and record the bids of each processor on that form. DWFP should keep a copy of the form with the corresponding receipt issued to the captain of the vessel the seafood was seized from, along with a copy of the receipt from the sale of the seafood to the processor with the highest bid.
7. DWFP's law enforcement officers should record each "stop" of a fisher or boater, even in cases in which the "stop" did not result in a citation. This data will allow for better evaluation of the state's enforcement effort and effectiveness by DWFP management and outside evaluators.
8. DMR and DWFP should resolve the question of whether enforcement officers from DWFP will enforce wetlands laws for DMR. Marine enforcement officers should attend a training class on the wetlands laws of Mississippi, including training on what potential violations might look like. Then, while Marine Enforcement Unit officers are on patrol for other matters, if they observe a potential violation they would note its location and report it to DMR. Beyond the time spent in training this would not be a large additional burden on the Marine Enforcement Unit. However, any additional time spent on wetlands permitting issues beyond routine observation during normal marine enforcement patrols would take marine enforcement officers away from other critical areas. DMR receives federal funding for the Coastal Program and could provide a small amount to DWFP in exchange for having Marine Enforcement Unit officers add this task to the multitude of tasks they are currently accomplishing.
Proposed Legislation
9. This report contains draft legislation that would make technical changes in the state's seafood regulatory laws. Specifically, this bill would:
–require revocation of a boat's license when its captain(s) violates provisions of the law three times or more in a three-year period;
–increase the range of penalties for commercial shrimping out of season to not less than $1,000 nor more than $2,000;
–allow for the private sale of oyster shells under certain circumstances.
Appendix E, page 84 of this report, contains this proposed legislation.