NMFS Advisory Panel

[Capten]

I frequent the fishing web site/forum www.sportfishermen.com (SFC) and there has been a lot of discussion regarding the NMFS and various studies, rules, regulations, etc. that are handed down from this agency. Many of us recreational fisherman seem to always complain that NMFS is biased towards the commercial fisheries, does not support the recs or makes decisions based on inaccurate information. Most recently the ruling that circle hooks are to be used with ALL natural and combo baits during tournaments has sparked some very heated discussions.

I want to let you know that we as recreational fisherman now have an opportunity to sit on a NMFS Advisory Panel. One of the members on the SFC has offered to sit on this panel. His name is Paul Cameron and although I do not know him personally, he is highly regarded in the sportfishing industry. My understanding is that Paul is highly-experienced, deeply-motivated, and extremely knowledgeable and will make an outstanding addition to the Advisory Panel.

http://www.sportfishermen.com/deepc/

Please take a moment to read the information below and to sign the electronic petition to help secure his nomination and get our voice heard.

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"NMFS is accepting nominations for the Advisory Panel, these nominations are due November 27th. Deep (Paul Cameron) has graciously offered to serve on this Panel if nominated.

NOW HERE IS WHERE WE COME IN !!!! We have the opportunity to help deep (Paul Cameron) secure the nomination. I (Tim Turner) have started an e petition the link is below. If we continue to bitch about it without doing anything, nothing is what we will get. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take the whole 5 seconds it will take to put your name on this. Forward the link around to friends and family. We have about 10 days to finish this, it will go along way to help secure him the nomination and to get an individual on the board who knows what he is talking about. If anyone else would like a nomination, i will be happy to do a petition for them also. Please its time to stand up and be counted. 20% of the membership of this site (sportfishermen.com) gives us over 1400 signatures."

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/deepforahmspanel

 

[thoward]

That is awesome news! For those of you who do not know what this is sign anyway .

The NMFS sets rules protecting fisheries and the billfish are at the forefront right now. Longliners wiped out the swordfish(as well as many others) in the 70s and 80s. Almost 10 years ago they kicked the longliners out of the area and the swordfish have made an outstanding come back. Saddly, the Marlin, sharks, turtles and many tuna have not faired as well. The longliners want to bring their 40 mile indescriminant killing machines back to the closed areas for swords but the rest of the fish can not handle this.

Here is where politics kick in.....There is group of countries that control the world fisheries called ICCAT and they want to take our swordfish quota and give it to another country. NMFS wants to protect the US quota but the recreational fisherman are not catching enough fish to meet the quota so the thought is they may let longliners back in to meet the swordfish quota. If this happens the swordfish will be wiped out again and many of the other fish could fair far worse.

Oh and some more politics NMFS reports to NOAA which reports to the Dept of Commerce so who do you think they are going to protect, the Commercial or the Recreational?

 

[Genesis]

The ICCAT can be told to stuff inside the US EEZ, if the Congress has the nutz for it. They don't - but should.

As for the rest, the NMFS is about as twisted as it gets. You don't even want to get me started on this - my opinions will be judged "intemperate" by many I'm sure when it comes to this issue - one thing I will say - the shrimp boats - all of them - need to go.

When you kill 10lbs of fish you're NOT targeting for every pound of intended catch, the gear you're using needs to be banned - no matter what it is and what you're fishing for.

 

[thoward]

100% correct! The Red Snapper fishery has been brought to its knees for the benefit of a few shrimpers!

 

[CARL GUZMAN]

Good thred I like to see people get to gether to make a difference I went on the sight and applied .I hope my 10 bucks helps

 

[Capten]

Good thred I like to see people get to gether to make a difference I went on the sight and applied .I hope my 10 bucks helps

BTW - I forgot to mention that you should not feel obligated to donate to the epetition site. You can do what you want but your signature is what is really needed. You can simply 'x' out of the site after signing the petition.

 

[Capten]

The ICCAT can be told to stuff inside the US EEZ, if the Congress has the nutz for it. They don't - but should.

As for the rest, the NMFS is about as twisted as it gets. You don't even want to get me started on this - my opinions will be judged "intemperate" by many I'm sure when it comes to this issue - one thing I will say - the shrimp boats - all of them - need to go.

When you kill 10lbs of fish you're NOT targeting for every pound of intended catch, the gear you're using needs to be banned - no matter what it is and what you're fishing for.

I hear you on NMFS's abysmal track record. I guess I am hopeful that we as recs can band together and possibly help make a difference. It may be in vain but the alternative is to let things continue as they have. And we know where that will take us.

Here is a portion of a thread by our nominee.....

'We have no one inside and thats what we need... Then we gotta get off the personal agenda stuff. Pool the resources and form one big team to knock off each issue one by one... I hear you about them (NMFS) being useless. It will be harder with some of us inside though...

Can it be done? Look at Florida... We finally had enough crap and people from every avenue of the sport fishery gathered . We pushed NMFS out of the game on our grouper fishery. We kicked them out of the Keys. We got rid of nets in state waters and we sent the longliners out of the swordfish nursery...

So the answer is YES IT CAN BE DONE. I can't do it alone though. We need more...'

If you would like to read more by Paul Cameron aka Deep C on the NMFS topic check out www.sportfishermen.com and this particular thread:
http://www.sportfishermen.com/board/mix-it-up/nmfs-and-we-the-people-14552.html