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STEALING FROM ALL OF US!
LATEST NEWS - We recreational fishermen have just handed the commercial fishing industry three of our five fish limit. Not only that, but the commercial closed season has been repealed. UNLESS YOU SPEAK YOUR MIND. The NMFS and their henchmen have cheated us again. The only winners in this game are the ones who line their pockets while depleting our fisheries. The family who wish to buy a boat and go fishing are the real losers in the UNITED STATES.
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NEW RED GROUPER REGULATIONS PROPOSED BY COUNCIL At the July 8-12 meeting in Sarasota, Florida, the Gulf Council voted to make the following regulatory changes in order to implement a rebuilding plan for the overfished red grouper stock in the Gulf of Mexico:
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I have made this as easy as I could for you to e-mail the people who need to hear you. You will need to include your name and address, along with a brief story that conveys your feelings. I hope you take a minute out of your life to help me. I am sincere. THE MOOSE THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. http://www.floridasportsman.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001030.html We put up with some real idiots in the Keys but the Citizen reporter who wrote this may be the worst-- Commercial fishermen say recreational fishing a threat BY PETER DELUCA Click for larger view. CLARA TAYLOR/The Citizen But now, according to Robert P. Jones, executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association Inc., these heroes of the deep blue seas are being put-upon by recreational boating interests. Jones says that lobbying groups for yachting associations and recreational boating interests, including recreational boat builders, are pitching their local, state and federal representatives to put tougher restrictions on commercial fishermen to reduce their catches, so there is more fish for the casual sportsman. He cites a Newark (New Jersey) Star Ledger writer who complained that, "The commercial [fishing] interests will get 12 million pounds of scup [fish] but the public will only get 4 million pounds" this year. Jones points out that "of course the commercial fishermen don't take all these fish home, they sell them to the processors, the wholesalers and the retail establishments; that is fish markets and restaurants." He points out that in the Gulf of Mexico, "the commercial guys cannot legally take a single redfish from the sea, but the recreational weekender, who is legally restricted to one redfish per person per day, really takes several, sells them to restaurants which openly advertises them on its menu, and no law enforcement agency does anything about it."[While the commercial thieves steal 30,000lbs] If, he says, "a commercial fisherman gets caught with one redfish on his boat, he faces heavy fines, loss of professional licenses, and imprisonment." [LIE - it would take three convictions. They plea them down and keep on stealing.] Jones maintains that neither the National Marine Fisheries Service nor the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are doing anything to stop recreational fishermen from selling fish in Florida.[They use the same methods to catch all the commercial thieves !] He says, "It's as though both law enforcement agencies have a blind eye when it comes to enforcing any laws pertaining to the illegal sale of fish by recreational anglers."[Just like the Coast Guard not enforcing title 46, section 197. Clearly the laws are broken when commercial diving to harvest fish and lobster] Tradition is the word used by some of the enforcement agencies, referring to the charter boat captains' custom of selling the extra fish caught by their customers to nearby restaurants, but restaurants that buy reef fish from nonfederally licensed persons are in violation of the law and subject to federal fines, and even imprisonment. Under Florida Statutes: "It is unlawful for any licensed retail dealer or any restaurant licensed by the Division of Hotels and Restaurants or the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to buy saltwater products from any person other than a licensed wholesale or retail dealer." Jones says that the "tradition" is putting commercial fishermen out of business, and that before long the fish will be gone.[BOB ADMITS THE FISH WILL SOON BE GONE, and guess what folks, it isn't the family man who wants a couple fish for the cooler that is causing the problem!!!!!!Please help me fight these gluttons] pdeluca@keysnews.com E-mail this guy and tell him
he is an idiot!!! I believe you should not support the commercial divers who will be the demise of the SPORT we call spearfishing. Call me and I will tell you which speargun to purchase. From Spear One originally posted 8/20 http://www.floridasportsman.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000463.html
Hi Moose, I would be glad to address your questions. First, I don’t just support commercial spearfishermen/fishermen. If you have been paying attention to my posts, you would see that I support all fishermen. Have you seen me throw even one insult or say anything derogatory about any fishing group? No! I have stated my concerns about the far left enviro groups that I view to be a threat to all fishermen! Do you think these groups are going to quit after they eliminate all commercial fishing? Hell No! A few of the groups may let up, but there are many groups out there that aren’t too happy about recreational spearfishing either. And there even more groups who aren’t too happy with the harvest of fish period, with any gear. Where do you think it is going to stop? Are you naïve enough to think that your method of harvest is safe from these people? What do you think I’ve been posting about these groups for? I am fighting to save all types of harvest. I believe there is a real and present danger to everyone who likes to fish, even the catch and release folks. I am trying to get folks like you to see this threat. If you can’t see it fine. I am not trying to convert you! I am just trying to get you to open your eyes. I respect your right to have an opinion about commercial spearfishing. I just don’t agree with you. I don’t hate you because you disagree with me, but it sounds like you hate me for what I believe in. I am not choosing to arbitrarily support one fishing group and not another. I am an advocate for all methods of harvest. I believe that just about any reasonable method of harvest could exist with proper management. Even the NMFS seems to agree on this because they have been very reluctant to outright ban a harvest method up to now. Moose, you obviously don’t know that I retired from commercial spearfishing almost three years ago. I have only made six fishing trips in the last three years. How much damage could I do in six trips? I guarantee you have harvested, or guided people to harvest, a hell of a lot more fish in the last three years than I have! So, who is the plundering pirate? Who assigned sainthood to what you are doing? There are plenty of groups out there that aren’t too happy with what you are doing either. I hope you can take the heat when it comes your way. I spend a lot of time lobbying folks at the NMFS and the Gulf Council about fishing and spearfishing issues both recreational and commercial. I have been working to protect recreational spearfishing rights almost exclusively these past few years because I am passionate about all spearfishermen’s rights, and I certainly have a business interest in it as well. I spend a lot of time teaching divers to shoot with great care and precision to eliminate by catch in spearfishing. Anyone who has attended one of my seminars will back me up on that. Read the back of my catalogue about harvesting responsibly. I think I put back just as much or more than I take away from the spearfish community. I have contributed prizes and my time to tournaments etc…and I am often consulted on spearfishing issues from my peers. I don’t know what more I can do! Moose, I don’t hate you for your position… I just disagree with you. Can’t we just agree to disagree, and maybe go sling some steel together some day?
Moose's reply. There was an infection of commercial divers spreading throughout the Florida Sportsman website. These guys are the enemy of the recreational diver and anyone wishing to visit the reefs abundant. I will fight these guys until the day I die, or worse. WOW Demere, I never thought of it that way before. The public will suffer without a commercial mercenary sucking the reef clean faster than mother nature can replenish. You cant possibly believe that the fruits of the ocean will feed the world forever with the careful guidance of the commercial fishing industry writing their own laws. Everybody listen, when you attend the council meetings and the commission meetings, you will soon see that the commercial fishing industry asks, and receives. The recreational never receives. Twenty or so years ago the government called for maximum yield, which was to allow the industry to harvest unchecked. It was a mad race to catch as many fish as could be. They were soon to change the approach and call it sustainable fishing. The government definition of sustainable levels is long and boorish on paper, so I'll explain it to you in simple terms. "Let the commercial industry take as much as possible until the resource is near collapse, and then react by taking from the recreational sector." We saw their attempt at the gulf council meeting in Destin. (other examples?) Yes, I was at the gulf council meeting. I was the recreational diver who stood up and asked the council to change the number of convictions from 3 to 1 for a commercial fisherman to permanently lose his permits. Right now they are allowed three convictions. I kindly pointed out to the council that these guys claim to be professionals, and they know the laws regarding the species they are targeting. Most of them nodded their heads in agreement, but none of them will attempt to make the change without asking the commercial industry what it wants. Cowards. They don't give a rats behind about the recreational sector, they want to feed the world. The commercial guys will keep threatening that the recreational spearfishermen will be outlawed. Kevin, your buddies out there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday who are hunting commercially are the problem. They will be out there next week too, and the next, and next. Do you want to try and tell everybody that the guy who gets out to hunt the reef three times a year is a problem? The recreational guy who wants to fill a primal need to hunt and kill something for the table is not the problem. It would be a shame for all of us to allow a greedy bunch to go unchecked, and ruin the sport of spearfishing. I'll guarantee one thing
Kevin. I will support recreational spearfishing, the sport,
and I will fight the gluttons who will cause the demise of
our sport. And when you finally see the light and denounce
those sinners, I will support you.
His reply once again, this time he shows his affiliation 100% clear. I'm glad he will bring out the statistics that were compiled by our bumbling government that issued the dead hijacker a student visa 6 months after 9-11. The trip tick data can be falsified by the diver and the wholesaler. I can guarantee if you look at the lobster landings in the keys, you will see the massive increase in the harvest by divers. This increase is happening in the reef fishery too, but the government agents in the back pocket of the commercial fishing industry wont act until there is a crisis. Then when they act, it will be to take away the rights of the recreational sector. This is the same recreational sector that this bozo wants to sell his speargun to. So he is supporting the commercial divers, and wants you, the recreational diver, to buy his speargun. I think he is a confused individual. I hope he opens his eyes. Hey Geaux Saints, great reply. One thing is for sure, I'm convinced Genesis is never going to see it any other way. At least he is consistant, you gotta give him that. The fact is commercial spearfishermen harvest less than 1/2 of 1% of all commercially caught fish in the Gulf of Mexico each year. That is NMFS own data. Call them up and they will verify it. That said, I personally find it hard to believe that a user group with a statistical catch history that low could ever have a significant impact on the overall fish populations in the Gulf. Especially given the depth limitations. The only possible way I could ever see commercial speasrfishemen severly impacting reef fish would be if the shallow water coastline was very narrow and dropped off very quickly like it does in the Bahama's. The smaller the available area to hunt in, the easier it would be for a relatively small number of spearfishermen to overharvest an area. That is simply not the case in the Northeastern Gulf. There are literally thousands of square miles of shallow water coastline available to us here on the west coast of Florida. It spreads the fishing pressure out over a very large area and this fact alone has historically proven to be a very good method of limiting overharvesting by any one user group in this area. Certainly, the closer you are to a large population base like the Tampa Bay area the more pressure there is applied to the fishery, recreational or commercial. In spite of this, many fisherman feel the fishing off this coast is better today than it was 25 years ago, and it is getting better every year. Increased management efforts have certainly helped to increase the fish stocks here, but that doesn't mean that commercial & recreational fisherman cannot fish together in the same areas successfully.We have been doing this for years over here. In my entire 30 plus years of spearfishing I have never
had a single conflict with a recreational angler while on
the water. Maybe down there you guys just have too many people trying to fish in too small an area. If that is the case, I can understand why there may be some conflicts among the different user groups. If that problem exists here, I am oblivious to it. Genesis and Moose, I agree with you that fish are not an unlimited rescource. We all know that. Only a foolish man would hunt a species to extinction! However, I think you are going to find it a hard sell that the outright banning of a particular method of harvest is the proper way to manage the fisheries. It has long been proven, especially in the fisheries in Alaska, that many types of commercial fishing can exist. The salmon fishery is a perfect example. It would be very easy for modern fishing methods to have wiped out the salmon years ago. But prudent management efforts implemented before any real harm was done ensured a long term sustainable commercial fishery for salmon. It is one of the most successful fisheries in Alaska. Genesis, it sounds like you simply don't believe that any commercial fishery should survive! It sounds like if you were king for a day you would simply wipe out all commercial fishing and to hell with whatever destruction it caused the families. Am I reading you wrong? If so, please correct me. You are going to have a hard time selling your "ban the commercial spearfishermen" platform until you manage to cook up some numbers that will support your proposal. Let me give you some advice... You would be more likely to find the Holy Grail! I will say it again... Any reasonable method of harvest, recreational or commercial, can exist and thrive with proper and unbiased management! Good luck sellin your bill of goods to NMFS. Let me know when you try, because I will be sittin in the front row with a big bowl of popcorn cause it should be a very entertaining show
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