We can make a difference

[harbison]

 
This just in!
We can make a difference:
(11/07/2011)  The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has recommended postponement of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's Catch Sharing Plan (CSP), originally scheduled for implementation in 2012. The controversial proposal to limit the charter boat fleet and its clients to one halibut each or purchase quota shares has left too many questions unanswered for federal regulators, effectively putting the CSP on the shelf for now.
 

According to the Alaska Charter Association (ACA), the enormous amount of individual comments that poured in during the comment period which require answers from NMFS left no ability for the fisheries service to remain on schedule for their 2012 CSP implementation date.

[IrishAyes]

Good news. We do not need catch shares. It that ever starts up it will be the end of recreational fishing as we know it.

Thanks for posting. 

[Offshore Madness]

 

[harbison]

"All the rec anglers I know want accountability and push for it." This, my friend, is what our fight is all about. Our fisheries, for the sake of all concerned, must have accountability based on accurate, up to date science. Any fisherman, recreational or commercial, who does not demand real accountability, is looking out only for today; the hell with tomorrow! This is unacceptable!
I am 100% recreational. I live to fish. Weather permitting, I spend most of my weekends on the Middle Grounds. The Grounds were incredible thirty years ago, and even better now. Management, based on scientifically based accountability, will assure a healthy future for not only the Grounds, but near shore, and in-shore. We are all in this together.
From my own experience, over 1/2 a century fishing Tampa Bay, the skyway area, in-shore, as well as off-shore, combined with reports from all of then Gulf States, indicate am abundance of fish. We know what is out there; we see it first hand. Accountability has given way to greed; management has been overtaken by the possibilities of huge pay days! The hell with what is best for fish or fishermen.
NOAA's so called, "Accountability" is based on behind the desk, PEW bought & paid for science. The reason for this: Accurate accountability is not conducive of Catch shares. Bring in, based on PEW science, NOAA's, "If it swims, it's over fished philosophy!" From Alaska to New England shares has proven to be a major disaster for the entire fishing industry.
As such, why is catch shares being stuffed down our throats? Why has Walmart donated over $30,000,000 for the advancement of catch shares? Simple! Walmart's profits from selling us back our, or more accurately...NOAA's fish, is projected to be in the billions.
Make absolutely no mistake about it, regardless of how it may be sugar-coated, NOAA's Lubchenco is 100% EDF & PEW, radical environmental groups. Accountability based on NOAA Law = shares/separation.
"All the rec anglers I know want accountability and push for it." This, my friend, is what our fight is all about.
Bob Harbison Native Florida, 100% recreational fisherman & hunter