So how do you recommend we fight the recommendation? What’s the best way to thwart this action from taking place?
There needs to be high public interest, and we need stop ALLOWING PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY TO BE APATHETIC ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENING.
VMS or no VMS. I personally am infuriated by what I have absolutely no moral or ethical problem with being made into criminal acts without any scientific or rational justification. It is being done not for the sake of the fish, myself, the community, the state OR the country. It’s being done for special interests, and the system is broken and corrupt. It is entirely run by the feds, who have absolutely zero accountability to us- only to those above their heads who control their positions of power or the flow of money.
I am sick of people lying to me about their motives, and I am sick of people being apathetic.
I am sick of my sport being criminalized.</font id=“size6”>
When there is enough public interest in something, the paper runs stories, the news crews show up, the politicians show up, and the bureaucrats at least slow down their full court press when they realize they’re being watched more carefully and the purse strings for their little dominions are under threat if they push too hard.
The federal magnuson-stevens fishery law has to change. All our South Carolina folks in Congress except Clyburn are on board with that. It has taken guys like Keith Logan and Mark Brown (and dozens of others) a HUGE personal sacrifice to get the message from us across to our elected officials. All of us who ever mentioned a thing about it to any elected official or staffer all have been doing great work. We are far from done though. Magnuson Stevens is up for reauthorization here in a few years, and there
I’m 16 and it’s only the beginning… My future has already been affected enough by our incompetent government and president, now fishing is in jeopardy. Makes me sick
Guys, Join the RFA, buy a RFA Freedom to Fish shirt, wear it, raise hell about what they are doing. Tell everybody you know what is going on, I am sure everybody I know is sick of hearing about what they are doing to our sport, but now they are thinking about things they have never thought about before, so it is working. We spend more than $35 on an inshore fishing trip most of the time. It is worth the investment. We need to fight this because we told ourselves no way they can shut down red snapper, drop our grouper to three from five, and gags to one. There are too many fish out there for that to happen. Now we can only keep 5 BSB? Everybody and their brother who has some idea of where any bottom, artificial or natural, can catch 5 BSB in two drops. Three drops MAX but the species is overfished? This is BS and we need to fight it.
Guys, Join the RFA, buy a RFA Freedom to Fish shirt, wear it, raise hell about what they are doing. Tell everybody you know what is going on, I am sure everybody I know is sick of hearing about what they are doing to our sport, but now they are thinkingabout things they have never thought about before, so it is working. We spend more than $35 on an inshore fishing trip most of the time. It is worth the investment. We need to fight this because we told ourselves no way they can shut down red snapper, drop our grouper to three from five, and gags to one. There are too many fish out there for that to happen. Now we can only keep 5 BSB? Everybody and there brother who has some idea of where any bottom, artificial or natural, can catch 5 BSB in two drops. Three drops MAX but the species is overfished? This is BS and we need to fight it.
I don’t think I was clear with my response. I have raised hell about many issues and will continue to do so in the future. I was specifically asking about VMS on rec boats. It is an idea that is close to logistically impossible to implement. And keep in mind that the AP is just an advisory group. Even if they came up with some crazy scheme to put VMS on every rec boat, the council would balk. So, just wanted to know what actually happened before I got angry about this particular issue. I will continue to fight for my fishing rights regardless.
I apologize I would have responded to this sooner, but I finally was able to get offshore trolling the past couple of days and being as they are long days I find it hard to do anything else when Im in that mode.
A lot of what happened and transpired at the Snapper/Grouper AP last week stemmed from this new situation with the Speckled Hind and Warsaw Grouper.
A couple of weeks before this meeting the SSC Science and Statistical Committee was given a directive from NOAA or the NMFS to look into ways of better protecting these two species of fish that have been petitioned for an ESA Endangered Species Listing by an Environmental Group called Wild Earth Guardians.
The information that was used to do this was compiled from different sources but was mostly speculative and contained a lot of uncertainties and unknowns much like a lot of our fishery management is today.
Apparently because of this particular action and the push from other environmental groups with threats of lawsuits, the government has decided to seek further measures of management even though both species are completely closed to recreational harvest and have been closed commercially since 1994.
MPAs and a deep water closure have also been put into place in recent years, but all of this was according to the government and the enviros not enough to protect these two species of fish.
What came out of the SSC meeting was that they could not come up with a definite answer on what to do because they could not say for sure whether or not this two species were even being overfished or not.
Even the Chairman of the SSC stood up in that meeting and made that comment publically, but regardless the wheels set in motion high up the ranks have already been decided to close more of the ocean by creating more MPAs.
5 Public Workshops were created to receive information (GPS #s) from fishermen that fish for these two fish or that have encountered them so this information could be used to help build these new closed areas.
The CBD is directly connected to the U.N. Agenda 21 policy which has U.N. directives to push for creating more MPA’s and taking away private property rights!
This current administration is leaning hard in that direction with the new “Ocean Policy Plan” and “Marine Spatial Planning”!
Even if they came up with some crazy scheme to put VMS on every rec boat, the council would balk.
I can literally go back to history on this very forum where this exact same thing was said:
Even if they came up with some crazy scheme to ________________________, the council would balk.
Insert:
Close areas to rec fishing
Close rec red snapper
Close 240ft and deeper to rec bottom fishing for blue lines, snowy, silk, yellow edge, queens
Close all shallow water grouper rec fishing seasonally
close rec b liners seasonally
Close rec warsaws and kitty mitchells
Close rec black sea bass (it may be open for 2 months this yr, so don’t worry)
Go to one snowy per rec boat (but not from over 240ft depth)
Close rec cobia during our peak season
Map out essential fish habitat for pelagics aka get ready for trolling mpa’s as soon as they come up with the fake crisis/excuse to do so (white marlin)
How far will you let it keep going before you realize that the council will NOT “balk” due to craziness.
We had to bring SERIOUS pressure to stop the 98-240ft bottom closure. The CCA and most everyone else went along with it and didn’t see it as crazy at all. It would have happened if not for action that all of us took. It made a difference, and without that same action and interest on this, then it will happen as well. If you don’t believe it, you’re being extremely naive about who is on the council and why as well as what the safmc staff personally want to do. The enviro pressure is simply the excuse they use. They do this all the time so most of us will not see who the real bad guys are…
Believe it or not, its all tied together! Here is a good short article written recently about Agenda 21 and how the people of the Outer Banks of NC feel about it!
According to SAFMC they can already require video/gps tracking of rec vessels and can require recs to carry observers… from their facebook page
“South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
Hi Rich, there is an existing rule that allows NOAA Fisheries to select any vessel (rec or commercial) fishing for snapper grouper in federal waters and require the vessel to carry observers, have video monitoring, or other means to monitor… bycatch and discards. There is also an action (Action 8) in the Comprehensive Ecosystem-based Amendment (CE-BA 3) that may result in modifications to the bycatch and discards monitoring program.”
Members of Scott and Graham’s staff attended the meating…
Any feed back from either of the two concerning what,if anything, they took away from the meeting?
According to SAFMC they can already require video/gps tracking of rec vessels and can require recs to carry observers… from their facebook page
“South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
Hi Rich, there is an existing rule that allows NOAA Fisheries to select any vessel (rec or commercial) fishing for snapper grouper in federal waters and require the vessel to carry observers, have video monitoring, or other means to monitor… bycatch and discards. There is also an action (Action 8) in the Comprehensive Ecosystem-based Amendment (CE-BA 3) that may result in modifications to the bycatch and discards monitoring program.”
Squid Row 2
22 Shamrock WA
Flounder Pounder 2
16 Sandpiper Skiff
These people have never heard of the U.S. Constitution apparently. Actually, I know they don’t care about the Constitution nor any other law. Gregg Wraugh told me to my face in a public meeting that the great thing about this country was that we could sue them if we wanted.
Heaven forbid they ever get sued by the enviro’s though. They will bend over backwards and play hopscotch on their heads if those folks say anything about the SAFMC not following the law as THEY interpret it.
The SAFMC and NMFS enforcement need to look at what happened this past January in the U.S. v. Jones case (even with 4 “liberals” on the US Supreme Court) if they think they have clear cut authority to go around asking for GPS records or video from anybody they want.
Graham’s staff member told me after the meeting that she thought the SAFMC STAFF has already made up their minds that more MPA’s are needed
regardless of the condition of or the status of these two species.
This seemed to be just a formality and going through the motions!
Congressman Scott’s staff member was totally flabbergasted by the amount of unknowns and uncertainties being used as a base line to process these measures.
I beleive they both got a good education on the process of how we are force fed stricter management options first and then told we don’t have any confirmed scientific evalaution or stock assesment to back our decisions!
I will be joining rfa and would like to become even more involved. I personally love my country but fear my government. This reminds one of Edmund Burke’s comment that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
MAFMC Meeting Summary from April Meeting in Duck, NC
(Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council)
Atlantic Sturgeon Endangered Species Act (ESA) Listing The Council discussed the recent ESA listing of Atlantic Sturgeon and the possibilities for management measures that would reduce fisheries interactions with Atlantic sturgeon. The Chesapeake Bay, New York Bight, Carolina, and South Atlantic distinct population segments (DPS) of Atlantic sturgeon was listed as endangered, while the Gulf of Maine DPS was listed as threatened. Bycatch was identified as a risk to the persistence of Atlantic sturgeon in the Northeast Region and a constraint on the recovery of Atlantic sturgeon populations. The Council also agreed to form an Atlantic Sturgeon Advisory Panel and will advertise for advisors.
How will this Atlantic Sturgeon ESA listing effect SC waters?
SAFMC South Atlantic Fishery Managment Council staff has said that it will be discussed at some point, but that the biology report analysis has not been completed and until this is done, further discussion on any future action is delayed!
