Solutions
This will explain some unintended consequences of what I hope are well intentioned laws. I will give you a brief summary of what is happening and offer some common sense solutions. Please keep an open heart and mind as you read this. I love the sea and have decades of on the water experience. We should all have a common goal of healthy and sustainable fisheries that can be responsibly harvested indefinitely. We can reach the same end goal without all of the unintended consequences that waste our resources, hurt our families, destroy our businesses, and take our freedom. Commercial fishermen are not numbers in some bureaucratic equation. We are real people with families that depend on our income and care about our safety at sea. We are powerless to stop the pain and suffering that the mismanagement of our fisheries causes our loved ones. Commercial fishermen are a minority group without the money, power, or numbers to defend ourselves against the multi-billion dollar bureaucracies that rule us with an iron fist and the full weight of the federal government behind them. Many bureaucrats get a gang mentality and will collectively do the kind of terrible things to their fellow man that they would never dream of doing individually. We are their fellow Americans and deserve to be treated like they would want us to treat them if the roles were reversed. The whole world would be a better place if everyone just followed the Golden Rule.
The reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) contains hard deadlines and other well intentioned mandates. The MSA is the law that dictates how America's fisheries are managed. Hard deadlines require the use of the Best Available Data (BAD) to quickly do stock assessments. They have changed BAD to Best Available Science (BAS). Now they can make up whatever they want and that is the BAS. I also think they did not like that people could use BAD like this. The rushed BAD assessments show that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have grossly mismanaged many seafood stocks for decades. We have had no choice but to follow their laws under threat of fines, seizures, and imprisonment. We pay the price for our obedience with our blood, treasure, and liberty as fishery managers are rewarded with more money and power. The BAD assessments have led to unnecessarily low quotas that the SAFMC and NMFS refuse to properly manage with appropriate possession limits to avoid extended closures and excessive discards. This creates derby fisheries that require fishermen to stay at sea longer and in worse weather to make enough money to survive during the closures that will come when the quotas are met. We are forced by law to discard the illegal fish during the closures and projected dead discards are deducted from quotas. Multiple extended closures require us to stay longer and in worse weather to catch enough legal fish to pay the bills. This is a waste of our resources that drastically cuts our income. It also takes your freedom to access those public resources. The void is filled with cheap imported seafood of questionable quality. The market for our safe American seafood is greatly diminished because there is not a dependable supply of it. Consumers get used to the cheap imported seafood and this drives down demand and prices for our local supply when it is available. This creates a vicious cycle that will continue to get worse until the quotas are properly managed.
Now that you know some of the problems with how our fisheries are managed, here are some common sense solutions that would follow all of the mandates in the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The SAFMC has told me that the only mandate they had to follow was the one to end overfishing. I asked them how we were supposed to safely survive the rebuilding process if they would not follow the mandates to limit waste, make efficient use of the resource, and promote our safety at sea. They told me this in their usual cold, arrogant, and condescending way. "THAT IS NOT OUR CONCERN."
1. Quotas in multi-species fisheries should be managed so everything is legal at the same time as we target seafood with higher limits.
2. Size limits should be removed for fish with high discard mortality rates while remaining size limits should be no longer than is required for a species to breed once.
3. Artificial Reefs and stocking programs could be a long-term solution that would be the perfect union of aquaculture and wild-caught seafood that lives free and self-sufficient until harvested. We could greatly increase the total biomass of marine life that the US South Atlantic could support.
This simple plan could allow us to responsibly harvest America's seafood and support our families by providing you with access to it. We could show other Nations by example how you can wisely manage fisheries in a way that preserves their heritage and way of life while making it easier and safer for them. You can contact me at freefish7@hotmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you for your time and support.
Here is a link to tool that makes handling fish safer for you and them. The Fish Grip can also be easily modified to double as a Descending Device. http://www.thefishgrip.net/#
This video shows why we need a dependable supply of safe American seafood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0F8x4i5GYE
Here is the link to another story about why safe American seafood is so much better than most foreign imports. http://www.globalpost.com/series/thailand-seafood-slavery
This is a great song and video by a fellow fisherman from Australia facing similar fishery mismanagement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1vFZm1W_g8
This is an article about the Environmental Defense Fund and catch shares. It is well written and worth reading. http://islandfreepress.org/2010Archives/11.10.2010-HereComeCatchSharesHowNOAAAndTheEnvironmentalDefenseFundPlanToDestroyNorthCarolinasWorkingWatermen.html
This is a wonderful article about catch shares in the American Thinker. http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/noaas_catch_shares_fisheries_d.html
Rep. Barney Frank supports commercial fishermen and seafood consumers. Please read this op-ed and related article. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110112/NEWS/110119956
This best version of the Star Spangled Banner I have ever heard. Whitney peaked with the bombs bursting in air. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE
Here are a couple of links to information about Agenda 21. This is a plan that politicians and environmentalist from around the globe came up with at the Earth Summit back in the early 1990's. It contains guidelines for politicians and their corporate cohorts to control land use, energy production, fisheries, and almost every aspect of of our lives. http://www.freedomadvocates.org/articles/oceans_-_coasts/the_wizardry_behind_fishery_management_2004061598/
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/un_agenda_21_coming_to_a_neigh.html
This will explain some unintended consequences of what I hope are well intentioned laws. I will give you a brief summary of what is happening and offer some common sense solutions. Please keep an open heart and mind as you read this. I love the sea and have decades of on the water experience. We should all have a common goal of healthy and sustainable fisheries that can be responsibly harvested indefinitely. We can reach the same end goal without all of the unintended consequences that waste our resources, hurt our families, destroy our businesses, and take our freedom. Commercial fishermen are not numbers in some bureaucratic equation. We are real people with families that depend on our income and care about our safety at sea. We are powerless to stop the pain and suffering that the mismanagement of our fisheries causes our loved ones. Commercial fishermen are a minority group without the money, power, or numbers to defend ourselves against the multi-billion dollar bureaucracies that rule us with an iron fist and the full weight of the federal government behind them. Many bureaucrats get a gang mentality and will collectively do the kind of terrible things to their fellow man that they would never dream of doing individually. We are their fellow Americans and deserve to be treated like they would want us to treat them if the roles were reversed. The whole world would be a better place if everyone just followed the Golden Rule.
The reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) contains hard deadlines and other well intentioned mandates. The MSA is the law that dictates how America's fisheries are managed. Hard deadlines require the use of the Best Available Data (BAD) to quickly do stock assessments. They have changed BAD to Best Available Science (BAS). Now they can make up whatever they want and that is the BAS. I also think they did not like that people could use BAD like this. The rushed BAD assessments show that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have grossly mismanaged many seafood stocks for decades. We have had no choice but to follow their laws under threat of fines, seizures, and imprisonment. We pay the price for our obedience with our blood, treasure, and liberty as fishery managers are rewarded with more money and power. The BAD assessments have led to unnecessarily low quotas that the SAFMC and NMFS refuse to properly manage with appropriate possession limits to avoid extended closures and excessive discards. This creates derby fisheries that require fishermen to stay at sea longer and in worse weather to make enough money to survive during the closures that will come when the quotas are met. We are forced by law to discard the illegal fish during the closures and projected dead discards are deducted from quotas. Multiple extended closures require us to stay longer and in worse weather to catch enough legal fish to pay the bills. This is a waste of our resources that drastically cuts our income. It also takes your freedom to access those public resources. The void is filled with cheap imported seafood of questionable quality. The market for our safe American seafood is greatly diminished because there is not a dependable supply of it. Consumers get used to the cheap imported seafood and this drives down demand and prices for our local supply when it is available. This creates a vicious cycle that will continue to get worse until the quotas are properly managed.
Now that you know some of the problems with how our fisheries are managed, here are some common sense solutions that would follow all of the mandates in the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The SAFMC has told me that the only mandate they had to follow was the one to end overfishing. I asked them how we were supposed to safely survive the rebuilding process if they would not follow the mandates to limit waste, make efficient use of the resource, and promote our safety at sea. They told me this in their usual cold, arrogant, and condescending way. "THAT IS NOT OUR CONCERN."
1. Quotas in multi-species fisheries should be managed so everything is legal at the same time as we target seafood with higher limits.
2. Size limits should be removed for fish with high discard mortality rates while remaining size limits should be no longer than is required for a species to breed once.
3. Artificial Reefs and stocking programs could be a long-term solution that would be the perfect union of aquaculture and wild-caught seafood that lives free and self-sufficient until harvested. We could greatly increase the total biomass of marine life that the US South Atlantic could support.
This simple plan could allow us to responsibly harvest America's seafood and support our families by providing you with access to it. We could show other Nations by example how you can wisely manage fisheries in a way that preserves their heritage and way of life while making it easier and safer for them. You can contact me at freefish7@hotmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you for your time and support.
Here is a link to tool that makes handling fish safer for you and them. The Fish Grip can also be easily modified to double as a Descending Device. http://www.thefishgrip.net/#
This video shows why we need a dependable supply of safe American seafood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0F8x4i5GYE
Here is the link to another story about why safe American seafood is so much better than most foreign imports. http://www.globalpost.com/series/thailand-seafood-slavery
This is a great song and video by a fellow fisherman from Australia facing similar fishery mismanagement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1vFZm1W_g8
This is an article about the Environmental Defense Fund and catch shares. It is well written and worth reading. http://islandfreepress.org/2010Archives/11.10.2010-HereComeCatchSharesHowNOAAAndTheEnvironmentalDefenseFundPlanToDestroyNorthCarolinasWorkingWatermen.html
This is a wonderful article about catch shares in the American Thinker. http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/noaas_catch_shares_fisheries_d.html
Rep. Barney Frank supports commercial fishermen and seafood consumers. Please read this op-ed and related article. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110112/NEWS/110119956
This best version of the Star Spangled Banner I have ever heard. Whitney peaked with the bombs bursting in air. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE
Here are a couple of links to information about Agenda 21. This is a plan that politicians and environmentalist from around the globe came up with at the Earth Summit back in the early 1990's. It contains guidelines for politicians and their corporate cohorts to control land use, energy production, fisheries, and almost every aspect of of our lives. http://www.freedomadvocates.org/articles/oceans_-_coasts/the_wizardry_behind_fishery_management_2004061598/
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/un_agenda_21_coming_to_a_neigh.html
Updates
We have had some great victories to tell you about. The only reason we won anything is because good people like you made your voice heard. I hope that seeing a few examples of how you can make a difference will inspire you to get or stay involved in this fight.
1. We sent the Sec. of Commerce, Gary Locke, postcards asking him not to sign Amendment 17A or B. Those two amendments would have closed the vast majority of our South Atlantic seafloor to almost all recreational and commercial bottom fishing. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council passed both amendments and Sec. Locke signed them into law. Public pressure forced a new stock assessment and suspension of the Amendment 17A 4,800 square mile area closure. The Amendment 17B area closure is still in place and has taken our freedom to fish on the seafloor from water deeper than 240' from Virginia to Key West. This closure is based on the lack of data on two fish and uses Agenda 21's Precautionary Principal. Because of the public outcry, the council recently voted to suspend the entire 17B area closure. The entire closure was suspended on May 10, 2012! This is a great victory that wouldn't have happened without public support.
2. Public opposition has forced the SAFMC to drop the catch share scam that they had been pushing for. Congressman Walter B. Jones was successful in defunding 54 millions dollars in the 2011 budget that would have been used to advance catch shares. Catch shares are a way to allocate shares of fish between fishermen based on past catch histories. Catch shares have reduced the size of fishing fleets by about a third in every fishery they "help". They put control of our fisheries into the hands of a few with the money to buy up the shares. There are much better ways to manage our fisheries. Catch shares are not even a management tool as much as they are an allocation tool. Public opposition stopped another attempt to privatize our public resources with an Exempted Fishing Permit.
3. The North Carolina Legislature is trying to take our freedom to sell Speckled Trout, Red Drum, and Striped Bass. This would lead to a ban on any commercial fishery that interacted with any of those fish. The bill is HB-353. It would take 97% of North Carolinian's freedom to access many kinds of local seafood. We have beat it this for now, but it will be back. Please read the post below about this bill and help me stop this attack on our freedom. We have once again stopped gamefish status in a new bill, HB-983. Please go to the link provided if you are interested in seeing some alternative solutions that will limit waste, promote tourism, feed more people, and protect our public resources for future generations. http://www.freefish7.com/nc-visioning-project.html
4. Public opposition has stopped the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council in the last two meeting from passing a law requiring commercial snapper/grouper fishermen to install Orwellian Vessel Monitoring Systems on our boats and pay some corporation $50 a month to spy on us. We need to keep the pressure on them if we are going to stop this attack on our Constitutional Rights permanently. Please send the council an email opposing Vessel Monitoring Systems. safmc@safmc.net We have once again stopped the council from passing a Vessel Monitoring System law thanks to public opposition.
5. The NC Marine Fisheries Commission voted unanimously to deny a petition aimed at sinking shrimp fisheries in our sounds where the vast majority of NC shrimp are harvested due in large part to public comments. Now we need to focus on reducing by-catch and using more of what is landed. Please consider joining other concerned citizens in offering positive solutions for NC's fisheries through a Visioning Project page at this link. http://www.freefish7.com/nc-visioning-project.html
Recreational Fishermen Fear Catch Shares Will Restrict Our Freedom To Fish
I just came back from a fishhouse that is about to be turned into condos. I talked with a fishermen that attended a Catch Share meeting last year. He believes Trip Poundage Limits would help the fishery but would not remove size limits or area and seasonal closures. He said that EDF assured them at the meeting that Catch Shares would stop the closures and abolish the size limits. Why doesn't EDF support removing size limits at this time. Are they willing to maliciously support the waste of countless fish in order to advance Catch Shares? I do not for a second believe that Catch Shares will stop area and seasonal closures. EDF, PEW, and the fishery bureaucracies seem to have adopted the radical theory that "the ends justify the means". Catch shares are not only going to destroy America's commercial fishing heritage and jobs. Catch Shares are coming for charter boats and recreational fishermen. Please read this letter from a recreational fisherman. He did a great job of explaining things. http://www.biggamefishingjournal.com/editorial06.html
Gamefish Bill Threatens Our Freedom To Eat Three Delicious Fish From NC Waters
I would like to start by reminding everyone that all fish are gifts from God. God sent His Son as a gift to show us by example, how we should live. Jesus and some of His Disciples caught fish commercially with gill nets. Jesus fed fish to thousands of people. Fish are delicious and nutritious for a reason. God intended for us to eat them. He also gave us our freedom. The brave men and women in America’s military defend that freedom for us. Many have laid down their life so that we may be free. H-353 dishonors those soldier’s sacrifices and God’s gifts by taking our freedom to eat some fish and turning them into toys for a privileged few to play with.
H-353 is the bill that attempts to make Speckled Trout, Red Drum, and Striped Bass "gamefish". That very name implies that a few misguided "sportsmen" view these fish as nothing more than toys. They would take the vast majority of North Carolinian's freedom to eat these delicious fish just because they think it will make their toys bigger and easier to play with. These fish are public resources that everyone should have access to.
If you ever want to eat a Striped Bass, Speckled Trout, or Red Drum again without catching it yourself, let our public servants know. Representative McCormick sponsored the bill to list these three species as gamefish in H-353. He is the Chairman of a Committee holding hearings on H-353. The people behind getting him to sponsor this bill have been contacting all of the relevant politicians to assure its passage. I agree that these fish need better management, but this is not it. We can keep our freedom to eat these delicious and nutritious fish if enough concerned citizens will contact Representative McCormick and politely ask him to immediately withdraw H-353. darrell.mccormick@ncleg.net (919) 733-5654 Please contact Governor Perdue also. governor.office@nc.gov (800) 662-7952
Here is a link to the bill. http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2011/Bills/House/PDF/H353v1.pdf
It is always great to see our elected officials give this kind of power to unelected bureaucrats. "SECTION 2.(d) The Marine Fisheries Commission may adopt any rules necessary for the implementation of this section." They can enforce this attack on our freedom by any means necessary!
Here is a link to a study by the General Assembly that explains how HB-353 would cost N.C. between 15 and 20 million dollars a year in funding. http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2011/FiscalNotes/House/PDF/HFN0353v1.pdf
Please keep in mind that HB-353 is designed to lead to a ban on commercial fisheries that interact with any of the fish listed in the bill. You will in time lose your access to local Shrimp, Spots, Flounder, and other delicious N.C. seafood. HB-353 violates the Fisheries Reform Act that requires every fishery to be managed for the benefit of ALL user groups. Please help me stop this attack on our freedom to fish and eat local seafood.
NOAA's Catch Share Scheme Defunded
I am proud to say that my Representative sponsored the amendment to defund NOAA's catch share scam in the 2011 budget. Please call his office and thank him for supporting our freedom to fish and eat local seafood. N.C. (252)-931-1003 DC (202)-225-3415
We are winning some battles because good people like you are learning about this issue and getting involved. Knowledge is power and we have power in numbers. We the People have more power than any weapon if we will educate ourselves and unite to peacefully defend our God given freedoms with our words, ideas, and votes. Remember, you can vote with your money as well and have a bigger impact than voting for a politician in most cases. Our dollar is about as weak as the minds of the bureaucrats that rule our fisheries. You can add some value to your dollar by spending it in locally owned businesses. Try to eat local food from locally owned restaurants. Look for locally made arts and crafts for birthday and Christmas presents instead of giving Chinese token gifts. Help your neighbor and it will come back to you in some form. If nothing else, it will make you feel good about yourself. Thank you all for your support.
Link To Info About Corruption In NOAA and Congress
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/opinion/x1527125620/Editorial-Misdirected-funds-cry-out-for-freeze-on-NOAAs-spending
Congressman Jones Is Part Of Bipartisan Effort To Stop Catch Shares
http://www.seafoodsustainability.us/uploads/BIPARTISAN_OPPOSITION_TO_CATCH_SHARES.pdf
Agenda 21 Info
Please follow these links that will inform you about how the UN's Agenda 21 is taking our freedom to eat American seafood and for farmers to grow our food.
This is a news report about how NMFS is now putting farmers out of work. http://by145w.bay145.mail.live.com/default.aspx#!/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=2145281254!fid=1&fav=1&n=849692663&mid=3d40fa2d-a6b1-11e0-8a71-002264c1d5b6&fv=1
This is a website that explains how Agenda 21 is taking our liberty. http://www.takingliberty.us/TLHome.html
This is a government website that shows the links between our government and the UN's Agenda 21. http://www.fedcenter.gov/programs/sustainability/
This is a link to the Agenda 21 document. http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/Agenda21.pdf
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
Many of the government agencies and environmental organizations that worked together on Agenda 21 are also members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucn.org/about/union/members/who_members/members_database/ This union creates a conflict of interest when environmental organization members sue government agency members trying to get various parts of Agenda 21 implemented.
Some Good News
We stopped HB-353 in the last Legislative session. We would have lost our freedom to access some of North Carolina's most delicious seafood if that bill passed.
The SAFMC voted unanimously to suspend the entire Amendment 17b area closure. On January 1, 2012 we will get back our freedom to fish on the majority of our South Atlantic seafloor. That freedom would have been lost forever if we did nothing. This is a GREAT victory. I would like to thank everyone that contacted the SAFMC and Sec. Locke or sent a postcard to him. We have power in numbers. Our united voice was loud enough that they gave us back some of our freedom.
The House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing about the mismanagement of our fisheries by NOAA, NMFS, and the regional councils. The postcards you sent helped to get the ball rolling on a full investigation into the corruption and incompetence that plagues our fishery bureaucracies.
The Carolina Journal has a front page story in next month's issue about the "gamefish" bill. Here is a link to the on-line version.
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=8099
Mismanagement Updates
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has mismanaged the recreational Black Sea Bass quota and caused the fishery to be closed on October 17, 2011.
The council is planning to violate the Magnuson-Stevens Act by reducing the Wreckfish quota based soley on the lack of effort due to an earlier catch share scheme that destroyed the fishery.
The council is planning ahead to shut the commercial Red Grouper fishery down early next year. This is there brilliant plan. Give recreational fishermen 400,000 pounds of the quota when their average landings are around 100,000 pounds. They will graciously give the consumers access to 300,000 pounds when our average landings are around 400,000 pounds. They could have actually increased both quotas and helped everyone. They could remove the size limits and stop wasting tons of perfectly good Red Grouper that are discarded to slowly die and go to waste. This would increase the quotas enough that closures would not be necessary without Trip Poundage Limits (TPLs) to manage the quotas. With the quota as it is, we need TPLs set at 1,000 pounds until about 75% of the quota has been caught. The TPL should then be adjusted up or down to a level that would fill the quota without any long closure. It should go up to 1,500 pounds if there is only one month left. The TPL should be reduced to 100 pounds if there are six months left in the season.
NOAA Extends Public Comment Period For Suspending Massive Area Closure
NOAA has extended the public comment period for suspending the Amendment 17B area closure that used Agenda 21's Precautionary Principal to take our freedom to fish on the majority of our South Atlantic seafloor based on the lack of data on two fish. Please submit a comment supporting the suspension of the Amendment 17B area closure in Regulatory Amendment 11 at this link. http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=NOAA-NMFS-2011-0209-0001 Please also contact Commerce Sec., Bryson about this. thesec@doc.gov (202)-482-2000 We The People have the power to get this freedom back if enough of us will make our voices heard.
Public Comments Not Allowed
My State Representative, Pat McElraft invited me to give my public comments to the committee on Feb. 2 2012. I was later informed that there would be no public comment period at that meeting. I was told that there were too many people that wanted to speak on this issue. It seems to me like that is a good thing that so many concerned citizens wanted to use their Constitutional Right to peacefully defend their position on an issue. Our public servants do not seem to like it if somebody like me can expose the lies and offers common sense alternatives. There are two more committee hearings scheduled. Please ask the co-chairs of that committee to allow the public to speak at these hearings regardless of how long it takes. Senator Brown and Rep. McCormick are the public servants that you need to contact. darrell.mccormick@ncleg.net harry.brown@ncleg.net Please also let them know you oppose HB-353. You can learn more about that bill half way up this updates page. You can also read a first draft of the written public comments I will submit to the committee at the bottom of the Public Comments page. I would like to hear your opinion about my comments before submitting the final draft. freefish7@hotmail.com Thank you.
Massive Amendment 17A Area Closure Suspended
This is a HUGE victory. It is rare that we get back a freedom our government has taken from us.
Fishing For Freedom Across America
Please keep me in your prayers as I travel across America giving speeches, doing interviews, and talking with anyone willing to listen about how we can have a much more responsible harvest of our Nation's seafood.
Petition Apposing United Nations Law Of The Sea Treaty
http://dickmorris.rallycongress.com/6749/fight-treaty-that-cedes-our-sovereignty/
We Stopped A Law Forcing Fishermen To Install Corporate Spy Devices On Private Property
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council decided to wait until their March 2013 meeting to vote on a law forcing commercial snapper/grouper fishermen to install Orwellian spy devices on our boats and pay some corporation to spy on us. The only reason they did not pass it in the December session is because enough good citizens opposed this attack on our Constitutional Rights. We can stop this in March IF enough people contact the council opposing Orwellian spy devices. safmc@safmc.net
Frankenfish Article About How Genetically Modified Species Could End Up On Your Plate
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=12680
Two HUGE Victories!
We stopped the latest gamefish bill in NC and the proposed Vessel Monitoring System law for South Atlantic snapper/grouper fishermen. The only reason we stopped either of these attacks on our freedom to fish is because enough good people publicly opposed them.