SAFMC Seeks To Ban All DeepDropping 600ft+

[Catch-All]

Originally Posted by fish-n-dude

As for the proposed 600' closure it's not as bad as it sounds (yet)! The scientist have requested that the SAFMC place the entire east coast of Florida (from 600' out to the EEZ) under the HAPC (Habitat Area of Particular Concern). There is an entire ocean floor out there loaded with deep water corals that the Harbor Branch & Other science organizations want to protect. Apparently there is already evidence that the bottom trawls and long lining are having an affect on the sponges and corals down there. The problem as I see it is that the Oculina Banks is also an HAPC with the addition of several MPA's that are closed and will remain closed to bottom fishing.

FND - it IS as bad as it sounds. The closure will mean no deepdropping in waters deeper than 600 foot. And since the Oculina Bank is one of the oldest Anti-Recreational Fishing areas in the US, the hackneyed HAPC acronym is just another US Gummint euphemism for MPA. An MPA is an MPA is an MPA. It means no more fishing for us recreationals. And even if they try to lull us by putting an expiration date on their Super Gigantic MPA, since when did you hear of a Gummint reg that ever got rescinded? Hell, the Oculina Bank MPA has ben renewed TWICE since its inception, and even expanded once. They even tried to ban ALL fishing in the Oculina Bank MPA at its last renewal go-around; no trolling, no live bait pelagic drift fishing, etc.

Any damages being done to bottom habitat are by commercial fishermen's gear. MPAs are NOT needed and do NOT work. What the Gummint needs to do is implement gear restrictions against the gear that does the damage. And recreational gear does not do the damage, it is over-efficient rapacious destructive commercial gear every time. Gear restrictions are just one of many time-tested, proven, effective methods of fisheries management. MPAs serve only two purposes for the Gummint; they allow fisheries management to be lazy and they falsely create an excuse for long-haired filthy hippy PhDs to do more and more studies to justify their phony baloney jobs.

Please post the link here for that chart you emailed me about a couple months ago. If NMFS/SAFMC gets their way, MPAs will be a metastisizing cancer upon recreational fishing and no amount of radiation and chemo will fix it.

Thanks,
Catch

[Gaitor]

I Think you are right on bro! Couldn't have said it better!

[Disco Lady]

CONO!!!!!!!!!

[miamiangler1]

now tell me what stupidity is this ... bann deep dropping in 600ft of water .. to protect the corals and sponges... and now they want to build a liquid gas port .. off FT. Laudurdale ..Port Ever glades.. 10 miles out .. does this make any sense .. that will kill most of what they want to protect ...

[fish-n-dude]

Here be the pic you wanted

[Catch-All]

Ken - God bless you my son. This chart will SHUT UP all the naysayers and head-in-the-sand idiots who don't want to believe that their fishing will be affected.

These are the same dimwits who believe the Gummint guy when he knocks on your door and says "I'm from the Gummint and I'm here to help!"

Catch

[Gaitor]

Willi,
Since when are politicians concerned about ecology and environment? C'mon man ... we know it ALWAYS boils down to money . They want to see who they can screw who will squawk the least and get the most bucks in return.

[Catch-All]

As many of you know I am not politically incorrect, I am politically accurate. Having said that here is some background info about SAFMC and NMFS that we all need to know before we send our emails, letters, attend public hearings, etc.

SAFMC
FACT - George Geiger, who purports to represent recreational fishermen, is the head of SAFMC's Snapper & Grouper Advisory Council.
FACT - Geiger, if he had his way, would have ALL recreational fishing be catch & release. He's one of these purists and is NOT a meat fisherman. Maybe he is too wimpy to get his hands slimy from handling fish, I don't know.
FACT - Geiger stated to me in person several pro-commercial statements when I met with him at the CCA BBQ.

NMFS
FACT - Paul Cameron recently met with NMFS Director Bill Hogarth and several other heavy hitters at NMFS. Paul explained to me that Hogarth told him there are three groups that have a three-way tug of war going with fisheries: commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen and the eco-fascist environmental lobby.
FACT - Hogarth said that the commercials and the eco-fascists are incredibly well-funded and well-organized. Hogarth said at the moment the recreational lobby is too disorganized and weakly funded to effectively counter the influence of these other two groups.
FACT - Hogarth said the time to effectively shape policy and have the most beneficial input and results is to voice our opinions and concerns BEFORE the latest harebrained scheme from SAFMC gets to the public hearing stage. By the time it gets to the public hearing stage, the eco-fascist lobby and the commercial fish rapist lobby has had their input to the proposals and has already shaped the "argument" to their respective advantages. If we bitch about the latest scheme/scam before the hearing stage then we can have our fair share of input and we can shape events more to our liking instead of getting a punitive screw job like we just did in the 13C Amendment.
FACT - Geiger managed to slither his way onto the SAFMC council by saying he was a recreational fisherman. In turn WE can get him OFF the Council when his term is up by voicing our opinion about him now to NMFS (SAFMC's daddy), stating that we do not want him re-appointed to another term.
FACT - with CCA-Florida effectively George Geiger's bitch, we as meat fishermen need to find another, more effective recreational fishing organization that we can latch onto for better pro-recreational fishermen results.
FACT - Hogarth also said once a new proposed reg gets to the public hearing stage it means that it's too late and you get three options and they're all crappy: ScrewJob #1, ScrewJob #2 or ScrewJob #3. In the case of 13c, we got the worst screwing.
FACT - Hogarth said it is imperative we write our Congressman, our two Senators, write Hogarth himself, write the Secretary of Commerce (Hogarth's boss). He said write often and write on every issue that concerns you. Our letters ARE heard. They can use our numbers to justify to the commercials and eco-fascists and the longhaired filthy hippy PhDs within their own agency why they're not punitively enacting anti-recreational regs.

Now let's get to work, dammit.

Catch-All

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Right on Catch. Way to clear out the muck . Now hopefully we can all do our part by writing the folks Catch mentioned. If we don't start fighting there will be no areas left for us to fish
Now where did I put my crayons

[Gaitor]

BRAVO! You ar right on again Bro! I'm in the process of writing a letter to all of the above mentioned to expose the "shell game", elusive, "rubber stamped", "Horse Hockey" meetings that the SAFMC supposedly has to welcome public input. If you read the public input and their totally negative response to the Recreational Fishermen concerning Amendmendment 13C, You will become immediately aware that these clowns/puppets had long made up their minds what they wanted to do and had their"Vodoo Mathmatics" and "Best Available Science" to back them up. What they failed to realize is .... we're not just a bunch of illiterate tobacco chewing thumb sitting yahoos. We can recognize B.S. from a long way off and we're not afraid to call them on it! So, if you care to take up the cause, join us in taking these (explative deleted)'s to task
I'm tired of taking it in the shorts! How about you?

[stag11]

Originally Posted by Catch-All

Yellowfin - don't laugh just yet. As part of enlisting the Bahamian Defense Force in our war on Islamo-Fascist Terrorists, we have one or more BDF representatives onboard our medium-endurance CG cutters patrolling Bahamian waters.

So they can board you in Bahamian waters, in the EEZ or up on the Bank, and enforce their fisheries regs. POOF! You lose your boat.

Now as to the likelihood you'll get boarded in an out of the way place like the Cay Sals isn't much so it all boils down to how much of a gambler you are.

Catch

I have been boarded twice in Cay Sal. The other times buzzed by the USCG helicopter. Uncle sam knows when you are there. The BDF dude on the US cutter wrote me up a warning. This is after the US guys were extremely impressed with our catch. I guess the BDF dude was feeling out of place. We had about 70 huge yellow eyes and five mystic grouper between 40 - 125lbs. He told me that it looked as if we were commercial fishing. This food was for my family and that of my crew and not the restaurants in Miami. I hear that the Bahamian gov. just purchased 30 cigaret boats to patrol their waters. There are new strickt fishing regs coming out in the Bahamas Jan 1. 20lb of fish per boat now. Rumor has it $50,000 fine. Six lobsters per boat limit. The fishing days are over in south Florida. I moved here from NYC five years ago and this is the only thing that keeps me from getting bored here. Time to move back.

[LHPfish]

Quislings

I was listening to a radio program the other day and the host began the show by asking people if they knew what a quisling was and if they had ever heard the word. I had seen it in a SAT book years back but couldn't remember what it meant. Anyways it was funny to see you refer to them as quislings.

[Catch-All]

Here's a Trivial Pursuit answer for ya: when the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940, there was a Nazi sympathizer who was a minor figure in the Norwegian government who collaborated with the Nazis to make their occupation of his homeland easier in return for perks and privileges and power. His name was Vidkun Quisling.

He will be joined in Hell by such luminaries as Bill & Hilly Clinton (traitors), Albert Gore (traitor), the liberal media (fifth columnists), Osama Bin Laden, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros and a few others of their ilk. Merry Christmas!

Catch

[Gaitor]

C'mon Catch ... loosen up! Why don't you really tell us what's on your mind?

[Fishalways]

Yep it's all the Dems fault.

Its the Dems fault we didnt send enough troops to Afghanitstan and Bin Laden is still on the run.

Its the Dems fault we have the largest debt in Americas history even adjusted for inflation.

Its the Dems faul we have the largest trade deficit in histor even adjusted for inflation.

Its the Dems fault we got into a war with a country that never attacked us and are now stuck in a civil war that we can't get out of.

Its the Dems fault that nearly 3000 loyal soldiers are dead and over 20,000 are injured for a deception about WMD's.

Its all the Dems fault because they have been in power exclusivly for the last 6 years.

What?

Oh you mean the Rebublicans have been in power and made ALL THE POLICY DECISIONS?.

Please get off your high horse and cut the partisan crap.

The Republicans are no better or worse than the Dems.

I used to be a Republican but now am registerd Independant.
The reason I left is the BS the party has been pushing.
Bigger goverment.
More involvement in privacy rights.
Disrespect for the constitution with regards to Habeus Corpus.

I liked Clinton, the worst he did was get a hummer from an intern who was of legal age. He got stuff done with the Republicans becasue they both had to compromise and meet in the middle.

I don't think either party should have full control of all houses of goverment.

Start thinking about the issues for crying out loud. Only sheep follow a party blindly. There are things about the Right I like and don't like. There are things about the left I like and don't like. When the power is divided between the two, it seems the most reasonable work gets done.

Ok I'm done.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

I thought you didn't talk politics Guess keeping it bottled uPp for so long, allows for succinct refinement of ones views

[Fishalways]

Originally Posted by DIRTYFOOT2

I thought you didn't talk politics Guess keeping it bottled uPp for so long, allows for succinct refinement of ones views

NO NO NO!!

That was my evil twin Fishnever.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Dr Fishalways and Mr Fisheverhyde?

[FULLABULL]

Now that just aint right.

[Fishalways]

Originally Posted by DIRTYFOOT2

Dr Fishalways and Mr Fisheverhyde?

Ok I know next years halloween costume