General Information About Terms and Issues Discussed on this Website
I will start this page with a few defenitions for terms and agencies.
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
This is the parent bureaucracy of NMFS and the nine regional councils that rule our fisheries with an iron fist.
NMFS: National Marine Fisheries Service
This bureaucracy takes ONE BILLION tax dollars every year to destroy our businesses and mandate the waste of our resources.
SAFMC: South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
This bureaucracy rules the fisheries offshore of three miles from Virginia to Key West.
BAD: Best Availible Data
This can be one piece of information from almost anywhere and if there is no other information, it is the BAD.
BAS: Best Availible Science
This term replaced BAD, but is basically the same thing.
TPLs: Trip Poundage Limits
TPLs are the amount of fish that a commercial fishermen is allowed to keep during a trip.
Regulatory Discards: This is when government laws require fishermen to discard fish that are illegal for some reason. Most regulatory discards are a result of size limits and quotas that have not been properly managed with TPLs.
Size Limits: This is the length a fish must be in order to keep it. They have proven to be little more than a government mandated waste of our resources since many of the discarded fish die from stress, infection, and decompression damage.
Circle Hooks: This is a style of hook that has been mandated to "help" more discarded fish survive. They sound good in theory and would help IF everyone removed them properly. They often break the fishes jaw if the line is not cut and the hook pulled through the hole in its mouth. The discarded fish slowly starve to death if their jaw is broken. It would be far better for the fish, fishermen, and consumers if we just kept what we caught until the possession limits are met. We could collect accurate data and count every fish landed against the quotas instead of guessing how many discarded fish have been tortured to death and wasted.
Here is a little information about Agenda 21 from a friend: Ex. Order 12852 (Clinton) created the Presidents Council on Sustainability (PCSD). The purpose of the PCSD was to incorporate the UN Agenda 21 policies (REJECTED BY THE SENATE) into US federal regulations. Here are the recomendations on fisheries and here you will see the genisis of where the destruction of the American fishing industry stems from. This came out in 1994. In 1996 The Sustainable Fishing Act was passed by Congress molding the MSA to conform to Agenda 21. In 1998 the SAFMC passed Amendment 4,The License Limitation Plan to the SA Snapper/Grouper FMP. This complied with the UN Agenda 21, Chapter 17 calling for reduction in "Overcapitalization". It eliminated most of the permit holders in that fishery by them not being able to qualify to renew their permit. The Precautionary Principal is Item 15 of the Rio Declaration which is part of Agenda 21. This is why the Wreckfish quota was reduced from 2 mil. # down to 234,000 approx. with no stock assessment. Also a primary reason SA red snapper is closed and Black Sea Bass and why even though Golden Tilefish are no longer Overfished and Overfishing is not occurring and the stock biomass is rated at a "high" level no increase in the catch is recommended which also is down to an artifically low level. Additionally, the Marine Protected Area inititive is a part of this also. Its the marine extension of The Wildlands Project which has a goal of 50% of the land converted to Core Wilderness Areas with little to no human use. The NRC publication on MPA's referred to them as a key part of implementing the Convention on Biodiversity which is the UN treaty the Senate rejected. The "allocation" system= ITQ'S, Catch Shares, is right out of this. All now a top priority of NOAA and never approved by Congress. SP http://summits.ncat.org/natural_resource/action.php
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
This is the parent bureaucracy of NMFS and the nine regional councils that rule our fisheries with an iron fist.
NMFS: National Marine Fisheries Service
This bureaucracy takes ONE BILLION tax dollars every year to destroy our businesses and mandate the waste of our resources.
SAFMC: South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
This bureaucracy rules the fisheries offshore of three miles from Virginia to Key West.
BAD: Best Availible Data
This can be one piece of information from almost anywhere and if there is no other information, it is the BAD.
BAS: Best Availible Science
This term replaced BAD, but is basically the same thing.
TPLs: Trip Poundage Limits
TPLs are the amount of fish that a commercial fishermen is allowed to keep during a trip.
Regulatory Discards: This is when government laws require fishermen to discard fish that are illegal for some reason. Most regulatory discards are a result of size limits and quotas that have not been properly managed with TPLs.
Size Limits: This is the length a fish must be in order to keep it. They have proven to be little more than a government mandated waste of our resources since many of the discarded fish die from stress, infection, and decompression damage.
Circle Hooks: This is a style of hook that has been mandated to "help" more discarded fish survive. They sound good in theory and would help IF everyone removed them properly. They often break the fishes jaw if the line is not cut and the hook pulled through the hole in its mouth. The discarded fish slowly starve to death if their jaw is broken. It would be far better for the fish, fishermen, and consumers if we just kept what we caught until the possession limits are met. We could collect accurate data and count every fish landed against the quotas instead of guessing how many discarded fish have been tortured to death and wasted.
Here is a little information about Agenda 21 from a friend: Ex. Order 12852 (Clinton) created the Presidents Council on Sustainability (PCSD). The purpose of the PCSD was to incorporate the UN Agenda 21 policies (REJECTED BY THE SENATE) into US federal regulations. Here are the recomendations on fisheries and here you will see the genisis of where the destruction of the American fishing industry stems from. This came out in 1994. In 1996 The Sustainable Fishing Act was passed by Congress molding the MSA to conform to Agenda 21. In 1998 the SAFMC passed Amendment 4,The License Limitation Plan to the SA Snapper/Grouper FMP. This complied with the UN Agenda 21, Chapter 17 calling for reduction in "Overcapitalization". It eliminated most of the permit holders in that fishery by them not being able to qualify to renew their permit. The Precautionary Principal is Item 15 of the Rio Declaration which is part of Agenda 21. This is why the Wreckfish quota was reduced from 2 mil. # down to 234,000 approx. with no stock assessment. Also a primary reason SA red snapper is closed and Black Sea Bass and why even though Golden Tilefish are no longer Overfished and Overfishing is not occurring and the stock biomass is rated at a "high" level no increase in the catch is recommended which also is down to an artifically low level. Additionally, the Marine Protected Area inititive is a part of this also. Its the marine extension of The Wildlands Project which has a goal of 50% of the land converted to Core Wilderness Areas with little to no human use. The NRC publication on MPA's referred to them as a key part of implementing the Convention on Biodiversity which is the UN treaty the Senate rejected. The "allocation" system= ITQ'S, Catch Shares, is right out of this. All now a top priority of NOAA and never approved by Congress. SP http://summits.ncat.org/natural_resource/action.php
