How can these folks continue to turn a blind eye to the commercial fisherman. Their jobs all depend on keeping the commercial fisherman in business. That is why they allow the commercial pressure to continue. They allow the fish stocks to become dangerously depleted, and then act by coming out with another plan that does nothing to limit commercial harvest at all.

Somewhere floating in the ocean, between three to 200-miles off the coast, is the failed management plan of the SAFMC. How will these people be remembered as the history books are written?

• We want to know how can you guys think that area closures without a reduction of commercial fishing pressure will do any good.

• We want to know WHO among you are commercial fishermen, and wholesalers, and retailers of seafood.

• We want to know why there is such an emergency to reduce OUR fishing areas without reducing the commercial fishing.

• We want to know why you let the fish get overharvested in the first place. Who takes the responsibility?

• We want you to keep an UPDATED website, with all past and present documents available for view.

• We want to know how long it will take to get the Coast Guard to ENFORCE the CFR 46-197 as it should be.

• We want to know how much longer you are going to let the trawlers erode the fisheries with HORRIFIC bycatch ratios.

• We want you to all ANSWER these questions and to remember what is on your outdated website, 

"The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is headquartered in Charleston, S.C., and is responsible for the conservation and management of fish stocks from three to 200-miles off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and east Florida to Key West."

 "We, as a country, should have realized by now that you can't feed the nation off a natural resource"

The Moose    2001                  

Please sign my guest book, and voice your opinion.

It is not an infinite resource.

We as a country should have realized by now that you can't feed the nation off a natural resource. History has proved it time and time again. How long would the deer population last if we hunted it commercially? How many Thanksgivings would we enjoy with commercially shot wild turkeys? Bacon from wild pigs? Ducks, geese, dove, even rabbit? The answer is obvious. We must farm produce what we consume as the natural resource cannot bear the burden. The salt water fisheries are being depleted at an alarming rate, and I blame the government for allowing the practice to go on in the first place. We want the fish to thrive, rather than merely survive, which is what the government is doing.

If you or I were to lose our jobs tomorrow, we would go out and find another job. I don't care if these guys have been doing it their whole life, they need to look for different work. It is time to stop rewarding these renegades for their illegal activities.

I have a plan. 

Join me in a quest to stop the destruction before it is too late. We don't have much time. If you aren't going to fight for the fish, at least help me to do it for us. Voice your opinion. Tell them you would rather eat farm raised catfish than watch the fish populations dwindle.

Why do I care? .

Farm raised fish, self caught fish, or no fish. Don't repeat every other management failure from the past. Stop exploiting the resource for commercial gain. You can't feed the world from the ocean. Stop the commercial harvest before it is too late. Stop the hemorrhage.

There is an absence of harmony.

The commercial fisherman is taking a disproportional amount of fish.

These guys are keeping the reefs from the beach all the way out to 100ft cleaned out. Every rod and reel fisherman you talk to says you have to start at the 21fathom ledge if you even hope to catch fish. Everyone I talk to tells the same story, the fish are gone. I've seen it with my own eyes, the fish are gone. Poseidon is angry.

The NMFS has failed us. If the policies aren't working, and the fish are depleted to the point of vast area closures, why do they still allow the commercial harvest. Write these people and ask them.

The SAFMC has failed us. They are a group of commercial fishermen and women who are in charge of writing the rules. There is nothing hidden about the way they operate, you just have to watch them like a hawk because they try to sneak rule changes through without finding out how it will affect the recreational angler and diver. On the other hand, they spend thousands sending social scientist out to study the commercial fisherman.

The USCG has failed us. I saw a TV commercial on 10-07-01 that wanted me to join the coast guard and save lives, stop drugs, and protect the environment. They won't enforce the rules to save lives( 46CFR197 ), which would be a great place to start protecting the environment too. There will soon be accountability.

The Florida Sea Grant has failed us. What ever kind of data they are providing the NMFS and SAFMC, they are more concerned with the commercial harvest than bringing the fish back to historical levels which is what the public wants.

The gluttonous commercial fishing industry has won, the fish are almost gone.

With the government allowing the farms around the country to pump antibiotics into our livestock ("the antibiotic paradox"), I have decided that fish I catch myself are the safest food I can eat. Can you trust what comes from a commercial fisherman, absolutely not. These guys collectively are outlaws, although, there may be a couple who don't cheat....somewhere. I've never met one. Good luck finding one.

I want to preserve the fish stocks so that my grandchildren will be able to catch a few fish for the table when they grow up. At the current rate of depletion, there won't be any fish for anyone.

We see what you are doing