Dr. Lubchenco, You just announced that there is relief on the way for fishermen of New England. However, for nearly two years the South Atlantic region has been devastated with a complete closure of red snapper fishing based on a completely flawed assessment. This closure has detroyed and continues to destroy businesses and eliminate jobs in the commercial and for hire sectors of the economy. It has also decimated local small businesses that are connected to fishing up and down the coast.
In July, there was testimony given in Congress about the reasons for the closure and how the need for the closure was created in the computer not on the water. NOAA had representatives in attendance and they listened to the testimony given. In the red snapper stock assessment over 20 million fish were eliminated through poor recruitment with zero data to support such a claim. Red Snapper is one of the most productive species on the planet, and it has only been caught one or two at at time, with hook and line, for the past 100 years in our region. Yet, with no data the stock has been decimated by unreliable computer models at every turn.
When is the South Atlantic region going to recieve some releif from the flawed assessments that have shut down all but a few fisheries in our region. The testimony that was given is based on facts from NMFS assessments and not one of these concerns have been addressed in the last two years that they have been brought up. We have asked for answers for two years and the NMFS and NOAA have been silent on this issue. Please help us in the SA region.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cZi17SvSMI&NR=1
In two years not one person from NMFS of NOAA has disputed the claims in the above testimony. Landings were fabricated and recruitment was destroyed with no data to back up either.
Thank you for your time.
David Nelson
www.scmarine.org
www.joinrfa.com
Luke 8:22-25