Feb 24th Noon to 3PM
Organized demonstration against the unintended negative impatcts of the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act
I must admit complete ignorance of this issue. Elaborate?
This is a problem in the salt. The law stipulates deadlines to rebuild the stock of fish species. The problems are that the guidelines are unrealistic on some species and way under on others.
An example is Fluke that are at their highest population in 15 years and rebuilding well based on current minimum length and seasons are having to close the seasons because of the arbitrary date to have the stock rebuilt to the historical high from many years ago when no good science was available to measure stock.
The spiny dogfish has never had a significant population in our area and are now everywhere. The law requires limits on their harvest when their overpopulation is the cause of problems for many other species. The law only allows them to consider the impact of comercial and recreational fishermen harvest on the population, not the impact of one species on another.
The science used to determine harvest rates has been very poor using random calls to coastal residents to poll for catch rates. This is the reason for the new salt water registry so they can target fishermen in these polls instead of just random population...
I think as our elected representative that you should march on Washington. Let us know how it goes. :grin:
A million fisherman march - great idea. Gotta check my schedule, I love crowds.
Quote from: bassboogieman on January 16, 2010, 07:16:03 PM
A million fisherman march - great idea. Gotta check my schedule, I love crowds.
eat some chili before ya go. its a natural defense