Stop the Hypocrisy!!

[Tom Hilton]

Or(hope and pray) further U.S. rec restrictions...

Well, your buddy Bob Gill got thrown out on his butt for attempting to further the EDF agenda of further US rec restrictions....good riddance. EDF even spent $1.5 million to oust Rep. Steve Southerland as they held him responsible for EDF Bob's removal. Now, I hear that Bob's cohort Steve Bortone is being replaced as well.

[ACME Ventures Fishing]

Its funny that the industry is actually suggesting that dead discards from "For Profit" fishing is somehow more noble than post release mortality in the
Recreational Sector. The suggestion that dead discards in the For-Profit Sector should be allowed to be kept and sold also brings a lot of potential
problems to the mix, such as intentional targeting of the speceis if allowed. Maybe the dead discards should be required to be landed, and then donated
to Food-Banks. This would at least allow a benefit to come from the commercial dead discard. As to recreational post release mortality, it seems this
is a small minority of fishermen being highlighted rather than the vast majority of recreational anglers with carefull release techniques. The overegulation
and unnecessary restriction on many recreationaly caught fish has resulted in the higher release numbers in the rec sector. Still, observable mortality on the vast
majority of fish I catch on my Charter boat, and most other I speak with is near ZERO. While there will always be some that swim away fine, but still die in
the end, our tagging programs show thisng looking good. Allowing commercial fishing in closed area's to occur in 'the name of science and research' should be
limited to just that. No profiting for the take of fish. The fish caught on these trips should either be released unharmed, or landed and supplied to the needy without
charge. Seems these boat operators are wanting to be involved for more than just research, since they get paid 2 ways on these trips. If its all about the reasearch,
"Put Up Or Shut Up", and don't profit from it. Still, why exactly would research be done in area's currently closed, if not for the idea of getting them opened?

[Mackeral Snatcher]

150 thousand pounds of Marlin vs over 10 million pounds of swords and Tunas kept by PLL. Let's just sell and eat the Marlin also. Let the live ones go and sell and eat the rest.

OR PLL could be stopped altogether.

[ANUMBER1]

Well, your buddy Bob Gill got thrown out on his butt for attempting to further the EDF agenda of further US rec restrictions....good riddance. EDF even spent $1.5 million to oust Rep. Steve Southerland as they held him responsible for EDF Bob's removal. Now, I hear that Bob's cohort Steve Bortone is being replaced as well.

Yep, Mr. Gill and his family are close friends with probably higher standards than you could ever hope to achieve.

[Tom Hilton]

Yep, Mr. Gill and his family are close friends with probably higher standards than you could ever hope to achieve.

I'm sure you are correct - $1,500,000 of wasted enviro money is certainly indicative of those "standards".

Just think what that money could have done for our fisheries instead of for political payback.

In any case, the EDF operative no longer is the chair of our Gulf Council.

[ANUMBER1]

I'm sure you are correct - $1,500,000 of wasted enviro money is certainly indicative of those "standards".

Just think what that money could have done for our fisheries instead of for political payback.

In any case, the EDF operative no longer is the chair of our Gulf Council.

You just like to stir the pot and you really don't have a clue.

and your motive is??

Profit?

[Tom Hilton]

So, I don't have any standards and I don't have a clue. OK. So much for intelligent responses on this board.

My motive? To remove the corrupt, greedy individuals/corporations from our fisheries management process trying to privatize our recreational fisheries and return the access to our fisheries to the Gulf fishermen.

BTW, any entity willing to spend $1.5 million for vindictive purposes must consider that person (Bob Gill) worth more than that to keep in his position of influence to continue to push their agenda.

[ANUMBER1]

So, I don't have any standards and I don't have a clue. OK. So much for intelligent responses on this board.

My motive? To remove the corrupt, greedy individuals/corporations from our fisheries management process trying to privatize our recreational fisheries and return the access to our fisheries to the Gulf fishermen.

BTW, any entity willing to spend $1.5 million for vindictive purposes must consider that person (Bob Gill) worth more than that to keep in his position of influence to continue to push their agenda.

Tom, I first heard of you when I sat in on a meeting dealing with the BP spill. Someone at the meeting brought up a mail out flyer from your company offering (for a price) info on the spill.

We were shown that the info you were selling was available FREE from NOAA and the state of FL..

I take whatever you say with several grains of salt.

[Joey Buttons]

Interesting.

[Tom Hilton]

Tom, I first heard of you when I sat in on a meeting dealing with the BP spill. Someone at the meeting brought up a mail out flyer from your company offering (for a price) info on the spill.

We were shown that the info you were selling was available FREE from NOAA and the state of FL..

I take whatever you say with several grains of salt.

Use whatever condiments you like, but you are misinformed. Post up this "mail out flyer" that you claim exists - I personally would like to see it.

What we do at Realtime-Navigator.com, as part of the regular price for our subscribers, is to give current, dynamic information, such as sea surface temps, altimetry, surface currents, chlorophyll, etc., along with the ability to search historical records, animate the imageries, customize sea surface temperature shots, etc. We also lead the industry in providing our subscribers the ability to save the latest imageries into their account, then navigate on them using an iPad or iPhone. They can create routes to color changes or temp breaks from their current position, along with pertinent navigational data such as bearing and distance to that structure.

The CLOSED FISHING AREAS associated with the oil spill were in fact new dynamic information that was shown on our site in relation to reference points such as oil platforms or other fishing structures to enable them to determine if where they want to go is legal or not. You would think that anyone would appreciate efforts to assist fishermen to stay within the confines of the law, but apparently you do not ANUMBER1. We were the first to offer this information, as it was extremely important to our subscribers to know if a particular fishing location was off-limits or not, such as Devil's Tower, Nakika, a temp break, color change, or current eddy, for example. To say that the information from the government did not offer this level of detail is an understatement. And, these closed fishing area parameters changed quite frequently, pretty much every day for months, and it was extremely time-consuming to keep up with the information as it came out from the government to relate it to the other dynamic imageries.

I never got paid any extra $$ for this - it was simply what we do - provide the best customer service in the industry. We were the first to offer this level of detail by the way, although we had a competitor or two follow our lead, but that is nothing new.

I never offered any information on the BP oil spill "for a price".

Capt. Thomas J. Hilton