Is anyone planning to attend the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Vessel Monitoring System public scoping meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in North Charleston on Tuesday, April 23 from 5:30 to 7:00pm?
Here is a link to the meeting info. http://www.safmc.net/Meetings/PublicHearingsandScopingMeetings/tabid/737/Default.aspx
I have an online radio show we can use to submit comments for those who cannot attend the meeting. As many people as want to can call to give a comment. Callers could send a link of the archive as their public comment for the scoping meeting. Here are the comments I submitted for the March SAFMC meeting since I could not make it to Georgia. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freefish7/2013/02/27/safmc-march-meeting-public-comments
Yep…planning to be there. Anyone who can spare a little time this evening, please try to make it. It will make a difference even if you just go to listen. It doesn’t matter if you’re not much of a public speaker or probably won’t record a comment. That’s not the point. Participation is what matters. Council members that may be there (there were only 2 or 3 at the last meeting I attended) they need to see that there are people affected by their actions. They need to see that enough people care. Otherwise they’ll continue to steamroll these actions until it’s commonplace that a select few on the council get to decide how we are able to fish, where we can fish or how we can make a living around our fisheries.
I’ve submitted my comments online as most of you probably have. It felt pretty good to hit send and to think that just maybe something I said could actually make a difference. I guarantee you’ll feel even more empowered to get involved if you attend these meetings.
Thank you mawhee! I hope you were not the only one there. Please post how the meeting went.