The GMFMC &Council; South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Playing with Unknown Allotments and data from, well it was never brought up, conveniently, are once again playing with your angling future and your children children's future! Smells of another red herring in this room, PEW, do you smell it too?
So all you anglers out there, what do you all think of the new proposed rules set up to be deliberated on next year through NOAA, the EDF, the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council to our own FWC on changing the bag limits on Pompano and Permit to TWO fish and they purpose to push this through and extend into Federal waters so as Commercial anglers of the Guide type are also only allowed TWO per boat, regardless of how many have chartered your boat. Also one is allowed over the 20 inch limit but is counted in the two per person if onshore from the land or pier and two per boat. On the Commercial side, Permit and Pompano would be closed permanently with a 100 by-catch limit if you have the correct permits. Their is no scientific reasoning or data to support this measure but they have to start somewhere, so here is where it will be implemented, Florida.
On the spearing issue, none allowed unless it is over 20 inches at a two fish limit only and only in Federal waters. Same goes for African Pompano except it has to be the 24 inch nominal length requirement and no spear fishing for it period!
I do not understand the spear fishing thingy? What is a hook? It is a bent spear! So what is the problem here?
Why cannot the best in the Nation, if not the world, the FWC manage on its own? It has done a pretty good job thus far. It has a record to stand by. The NOAA, the EDF and the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council have no such record so why are they key players? NOAA is about weather, is it not? Looks like they were loosing funding and had to go to bed with the fishes, in order to find more dollars. These units of the Government or private foundations are but Red Herrings to our system and when it PEW's, through it out! What part of Politics do you see in conservation? Conservation is preservation of a species from trees to fleas and fish in-between. FWC, Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission with CONSERVATION being the key word. Conservation smells good, PEW is usually associated with the stench of something gone bad and bad is what is happening between catch shares, sector separation and stock assessments as to who what when and where for the almighty dollar.
Did you know at the last meeting with PEW and NOAA, the EDF, the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council and a slew of other alphabet’s that designating certain saltwater fish as GAME FISH was also discussed where once established it was catch and release for its lifetime! For now the “Board” has not anything to really say on the subject but it was brought up on their agenda! On top of this, from the previous meeting, they explained catch shares with a slip, I believe because we know now what really is on their minds; money. Of course we know this but it was confirmed with as much said, paraphrased of course, you can listen to the tape, once all the catch shares are in place, 83% of all shares combined will share equally in the catch. Did you hear that? Share equally, sounds as like a Marxist Society to me and where does the other 17% go? Only commercial fisherman would be allowed to purchase these share to start the program but after 5 years, the catch shares program would go public and anyone could own a piece of the ocean and all the creatures in it.
Now we are going backwards with the CLEAR ACT as the Consolidated Land, Energy, Aquatic Restoration Act (CLEAR Act) HR3534 looks very good when you first start reading it. It talks of stopping offshore oil drilling and a $2.00 a barrel fee for every barrel of oil produced in the USA to go to conservation. It turns our federal waters over to the United Nations to control. That means the 3-mile state line on the Atlantic coast and the 9-mile state line on the gulf coast is all the water we will control as an America. Then we have sector separation and catch shares and the implementation of again what we can catch bases in assessments and allocations based by number crunching and models from years gone by but not from today. IFQ's backed by the PEW Foundation in its statement to one of the Gulf Council boards that our fish are overly and heavily over-fished according to the latest models. What have they to do with fishing? Also the models do not take in account for the red tide years and dead zones from the phosphate dumping in the Gulf years ago. In fact, when I put in a public records request to the Council, the latest model and report was dated 2006. The red tide was in 2005, and they believe it was over-fished, how dumb is that? What do you think, think Jane Lubchenko Must Go ?
THE COUNCIL MEETINGS
Broward Co. Manatee Rules; Report on Wounded Warrior Event; Discussion on Game Fish Designation concept; Green Iguana Risk Assessment; Div. of Marine Fisheries Management work plan; Public Comment; Administrative Matters; Commissioners' Exchange http://myfwc.com/audio/Commission/2010/12-Dec/2010_Dec_10.mp3
