Welcome to the freefish7 Website
My name is Chris. I am a commercial fisherman who has been exposing the mismanagement of our fisheries while offering common sense solutions and simple ways you can help. Please read this brief summary about what is happening and explore the other pages to learn more.
The snapper/grouper fishery I am involved in really started being mismanaged in July of 2009. I was busy fishing and did not understand the full impact the mismanagement was going to have until the first closure came in September of 2009. One of the most important fish we targeted became illegal to sell. We were forced to discard tons of perfectly good Vermilion Snapper that we accidentally caught while targeting other species. Many of those fish slowly died from stress, infection, and decompression damage. This was financially and emotionally devastating. It broke my heart to do that to those poor fish and it was totally avoidable.
I did not think the fishery managers really wanted all those fish to slowly die and go to waste. I went to the next South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting and pointed out these problems along with a simple solution. I asked them to MANAGE the lower quotas they had set with Trip Poundage Limits set high for the first 75% of the quota and adjust them to a level that would fill the quota without any long closure for the remaining 25%. I explained how this would follow the mandates in the Magnuson-Stevens Act to limit regulatory discards, make efficient use of our resources, and promote our safety at sea. The head bureaucrat on the council told me that the mandate to end overfishing trumped all other mandates and they were not required to follow the others. I told him that I was not asking for higher quotas, just for them to properly manage the ones in place. He told me that if I did not like what they were doing to us, then I needed to take it up with Congress.
I quickly found out that my voice meant very little to members of Congress without any money behind it. I asked the environmental “charities” to help me stop the waste and abuse of our resources. They refused to work with me on anything. They had other agendas that the waste helped to promote. Some wanted catch shares. Some wanted area closures. Some wanted to end commercial fishing.
Since the “environmentalist” and fishery “managers” would not help us, I set up this website and started trying to get my fellow Americans to help me defend the fish and freedom that I love. The only thing that trumps money in politics is numbers of people supporting a similar idea. I started making postcards that are addressed to various public servants who are relevant to different fishery issues as a way to multiply my voice that meant very little by hundreds and even thousands. I have made over 8,000 postcards about different issues. That started working. You can see some of our success on the updates page. Please consider helping me defend our freedom to fish and access our Nation’s seafood by sending some postcards. I will send them to you free of charge.
Thank you for checking out the freefish7 website.
Please listen to this song by a fellow fisherman from Australia facing similar fishery mismanagement. It really sums up how most fishermen feel about what is happening to us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1vFZm1W_g8
Please consider donating a dollar or two. I use the money on my paypal account to buy the postcards I give out. Please check out the Natural Art page as I would rather sell you a calendar or matted print than receive a donation, but any help is appreciated. Thank you!
