reelhappy

its not the fisherman its the dolphins. they are eating more than their share! noaa has to put a limit on how snapper the dolphin can eat in a year. and if they go over we will have to cut back their eating day alotment. and the same gose for the cuda's too!

CAPT. PAUL REDMAN

Please explain this. How do you figure the charter industry is and should be part of the commercial fishery. Its the furthest from the truth , without the charter industry fighting for your recreational fishing rights you probably wouldn't have any.

We are and I have said this about 10,001 times nothing more than a glorified taxi cab driver's for the recreational fisherman, also the biggest lobbyist the recreational fisherman has ever and will ever have . There is no organization that does more than the charter industry for the Gulf of Mexico fishery PERIOD.

Mark my words if this happens everyone will lose.

These guys that are trying to do this are involved in the charter and commercial fishery combined and they in my opinion are just looking out for themselves and they will probably do well for a couple of years until they are singled out eventually and be shut down.

DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN EMAILS NOW!

answer24

this is why in most states charter or head boats are considered commercial fishing and not recreational because it is a commercial business,anytime a person makes money for a service it is a commerical business.this is not my opinion just the law in other states

JoeZ

Well this is a federal stand and it's been this way for eons.

The charter captains, the good oens anyway, are merely drivign a rec angler around. He makes moeny on gas and licenses if you think about it.

spearfisher

It sounds like to me that after we get done targeting the Army Corp (or during), we need to focus our attention on the Gulf Council and the National Marine Fisheries!

These issues areall integrally tied together. Fisheries issues andartificial reefs are all part of the big picture. If they continue to take away our ability to fish for Snapper and other gulf speciesthen there is no reason to build artificial reefs. If we can't build artificial reefs then fishing for Snapper and other species will be dead. It's time to realize that there is no such thing as being able to make a deal to secure your piece of the pie. All they are doing is cutting the group to a smaller size so they have fewer and fewer people to deal with when it comes time to remove their rights as well. The time is coming, and hope I everyone is ready. There is a lot of money tied up in recreational boats and for hire Charter Boats in the panhandle of Florida. I'd venture to say that some people can only be pushed so far until they snap. It's about time for a revolution! We need to support eachother or we are going tolose everything!:usaflag

lbhuntley

The problem stems from the fact that, at present, therecreational side (rec and charter) cannot accurately account for their catch, andwill not comply with NMFS rules, so over-fishingcan occur. Texas and Floridamay have over-fishedin 08 based on best analysis even with the shortened Fed season. Magnuson-Stevens requires an end to over-fishing!Whenover-fishingoccurs,the allowable catch must be reduced for those responsible. The 09 rec season may be reducedin federal waters! Charter should not be penalized becausenon-charter cannot account for their catch.If the Feds and Council set arealistic TAC, how do youknow when you have reached it?Andit will not be sufficient to accurately determine the rec and chartercatch becauseyou presently impact each other. Likecommercial, the charter andrecneed seperateallocations andmust develop accurate methods to account for their catch.Non-charter/non-commercialfishermen, youwould benefit. One argument is thatnon-charter rec are fishing less (fuel cost/weather). If you haveyour ownallocation,your seasonis extended until youmeetyour TACregardless of charter or commercial activities. You manage your own fishery! Something must be done or everyonewill be "best guessing" year to year. Currentstrategy, including local politics, is simplyshorteningyour season.

CAPT. PAUL REDMAN

I have an outstanding idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Since it seems that everyone is pinning the charter industry as commerial fisherman.



Lets all push for the charterindustry to just have a percentage of the commercial51% instead of messing with the recreational's 49%.

That way they'll be able to keep good records of the fish being caught:sick



So lets hear it who's all for it, you'll be able to keep your quota and then some:usaflag

LITECATCH

i think that is a great idea Paul! that way we can fish when it is nice weather no matter what time of the year it is. lets push that idea. i want my commercial share too!

__________________
Capt. Scott Byrd
36 Topaz
33 Concorde (for sale)

Voodoo Lounge

I guess we know where Ol' Larry stands!!

FelixH

"therecreational side (rec and charter) cannot accurately account for their catch, andwill not comply with NMFS rules, so over-fishingcan occur"

"If you haveyour ownallocation,your seasonis extended until youmeetyour TACregardless of charter or commercial activities."

"Charter should not be penalized becausenon-charter cannot account for their catch"

Your entire post is filled with broken logic, but I just pulled these three sentences as an example.

What would it matter that we'd have our own recreational TAC if we're not going to comply with the rules, and there is no way to account for our catch? How would that be Any improvement over the "best guess" method that they've been screwing us ALL with for years?

And I LOVE the "Texas and Florida may have overfished" statement. You're not the first one to write that. But on what grounds do you claim that we May have overfished? The fact that we didn't have shortened seasons based on BULLSHIT data?

You're going to have to do better than that for this crowd.