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CCAFLORIDA
Posts: 14 Greenhorn
Time for Anglers to Make a Stand Against 'Sea Lords'
CCAFLORIDA
Posts: 14 Greenhorn
Time for Anglers to Make a Stand Against 'Sea Lords'
Florida FWC under siege by snapper barons
A federal program that is allowing almost half the Gulf red snapper fishery to be held by a handful of private business has created a class of Sea Lords who are fighting to keep their personal windfall. As outlined in this ground-breaking article in the Mobile Times Register, "Kingpins of the Gulf make millions off red snapper harvest without ever going fishing," these Sea Lords have been granted private ownership rights to red snapper, for free, to use for their own personal profit.
The private recreational angling community has been left to fight over scraps and 10 day seasons.
The Sea Lords, and those who would like to become Sea Lords in the charter/for-hire industry, are now engaged in a campaign of intimidation at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). The Gulf States have been unified in their rejection of private ownership programs to manage fisheries and know that they can do a better job using traditional methods. Last year, the states put forth their own state plan to manage red snapper, a plan that resulted in federal legislation to transfer management of the fishery to Gulf States.
With their riches threatened and desperate to hide the truth, the Sea Lords are fighting to flood the FWC with their one-sided story, coercing state officials to abandon the state management model.
The FWC meets tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. at the Florida Public Safety Institute Conference Center in Havana, Florida. It is critical for recreational anglers to express their support of state management and of the FWC before and during that meeting. The simple message is that we trust the state to manage these public marine resources better. We believe in the FWC and its far superior track record of management. We must let our state commissioners know that there is another side to this story. We must not let greed dictate how our fisheries are managed.
Please take a few minutes today to click the link below and send FWC Commissioners a message of support for state management and urge them to stay the course. The future of our fisheries is at stake - don't let our state managers be led astray or intimidated by a few red snapper barons.
Click the link below to log in and send your message:
https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/0wp6HKczaTZCfr6aKo6V3A
________________________________________
Florida FWC under siege by snapper barons
A federal program that is allowing almost half the Gulf red snapper fishery to be held by a handful of private business has created a class of Sea Lords who are fighting to keep their personal windfall. As outlined in this ground-breaking article in the Mobile Times Register, "Kingpins of the Gulf make millions off red snapper harvest without ever going fishing," these Sea Lords have been granted private ownership rights to red snapper, for free, to use for their own personal profit.
The private recreational angling community has been left to fight over scraps and 10 day seasons.
The Sea Lords, and those who would like to become Sea Lords in the charter/for-hire industry, are now engaged in a campaign of intimidation at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). The Gulf States have been unified in their rejection of private ownership programs to manage fisheries and know that they can do a better job using traditional methods. Last year, the states put forth their own state plan to manage red snapper, a plan that resulted in federal legislation to transfer management of the fishery to Gulf States.
With their riches threatened and desperate to hide the truth, the Sea Lords are fighting to flood the FWC with their one-sided story, coercing state officials to abandon the state management model.
The FWC meets tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. at the Florida Public Safety Institute Conference Center in Havana, Florida. It is critical for recreational anglers to express their support of state management and of the FWC before and during that meeting. The simple message is that we trust the state to manage these public marine resources better. We believe in the FWC and its far superior track record of management. We must let our state commissioners know that there is another side to this story. We must not let greed dictate how our fisheries are managed.
Please take a few minutes today to click the link below and send FWC Commissioners a message of support for state management and urge them to stay the course. The future of our fisheries is at stake - don't let our state managers be led astray or intimidated by a few red snapper barons.
Click the link below to log in and send your message:
https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/0wp6HKczaTZCfr6aKo6V3A
________________________________________
Replies
I sent this to the commission:
Management of the red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico continues to be a major challenge with increasing dissatisfaction among anglers and serious calls for restructuring the Gulf red snapper management system. The GSRSMA is a great alternative to the current system. Of course it will have to overcome some hurdles, particularly in the beginning stages, but the system we currently have is failing. We should not continue down the same wrong course. You will never make all of the stakeholders happy on all the issues. You must do what is best for the fishery and the majority of the stakeholders in the long run. Please do not lose this opportunity to solve this problem.
Jessica McCawley, Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries Management of the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was correct when she signed her final letter of support of the change on March 13, 2015.
Charles T. Holt
Greetings:
cca has their pr companies going full bore. Their goal is to have all finfish allocated to themselves. We haven't figured out how many fish they own in the Gulf, but in the South Atlantic, that is from Virginia to Key West, cca and anglers own 73% of the finfish and the consumers get 27%. Surely the FWC won't let them take more than they already have.
As far as calling the commercial fishermen 'Sea Lords' they should really call them a very efficient, accountable sector of seafood producers who stay within their quota.
"Never have so few produced so much red snapper for the masses on a sustainable basis."
There needs to be changes in the red snapper program and we need to find a way to bring in more commercial fishermen, but we can do that if we ever get the time where we don't have to fight cca
every day of the year. cca wants to be the Emperors of the fish world.
Illigitmati non carborundum
Bob
Bob Jones, Executive Director
www.sfaonline.org
That would just be your observation, right?:blowkiss
Thank you for reminding me why I support CCA. Gonna send them another check today.
The allocation was set up so skewed in favor of the commercial sector it is mind numbing. They gave the largest shares of the commercial allocation to the commercial fisherman that historically took the most fish but, when it came time to allocate between the commercial and the recreational it was a halved. That sounds fair right? Not!
Now we get a 10 day season, why? Because supposedly we take the most fish, although they have no way to back that up, so if we take the most fish shouldn’t we get the most allocation? It should be closer to 95% recreational and 5% commercial. That would truly be a more fair and correct allocation.
We are told we are unaccountable because the Fed can’t count our fish although they claim they count ever commercial fish, again supposedly. Who is counting these fish? I was at the dock not long ago when a commercial fisherman I know was unloading his catch. His fish (red snapper and grouper) went straight from his boat into boxes and onto a truck and down the road they went. I am sure each fish was properly documented. I am just not sure which one of the guys wearing the white boots holding the Natty Light was the Fed guy.
My posts are my opinion only.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Will Rogers
What do you do?
You should be ashamed of yourself Mr. Furman.
Sure hope they give that guy some more quota...................
What a JOKE.
How so?
My posts are my opinion only.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Will Rogers
Pricey dog food.
White boots/natty light comment, lol..
Did Ted Foreskin give you pointers on sensationalism?
My posts are my opinion only.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Will Rogers