Conservation?  Who are they kidding?

In a move that gives whole new meaning to the term "Conservation", the CCA has initiated an attempt to grab the entire resource of the grouper fishery for the recreational sector.  Currently they "only" have an allotment of 60% of all the gag total allowable catch 20% of the red grouper TAC, 49% or the Red Snapper TAC. 73% of the Greater Amberjack TAC, 100% access to the Redfish (Red Drum), as well as a "catch target" of  480,000+ lbs of gray triggerfish compared to a commercial quota of 93,000 lbs.  "Not enough", they say, "we want it all".  This shortsighted and greedy grab attempt would take away the public's ability to order fresh caught Florida Grouper in Florida restaurants or seafood markets and would give access to an important food resource to only those with both the money and the time to go offshore and catch a grouper themselves. It would also walk all over the rights of the commercial sector, both fishermen and wholesalers, who have worked in this fishery and developed both the fishery and the market for decades.

Sources ... National Marine Fisheries Service : Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commision : Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission

This article was written a few years ago but its message is still relevant.  The headline?  "A message to recreational anglers: Quit Whining".  A woman from Cape Hatteras wrote the editorial for The Island Breeze, a North Carolina publication 10 years ago.  In part she says:

"    If recreational anglers manage to get all of this state's or this country's commercial fishermen regulated out of business, do they think that people in the USA will just stop eating seafood? Of course not! 

We'll just import more, probably from other countries that do not worry about regulations and saving the resource. So what will we have accomplished, other than to eliminate a very old and once respected occupation in this country. And, of course, to have provided more fish for recreational fishermen so they can buy more boats and gear and gas to catch more fish and make the sport fishing industry that much richer. 

The answer to the problem of course, is for commercial and recreational fishermen to work together for reasonable management of the ocean's resources—at state, national, and international levels. 
The answer is not to give exclusive rights to any fish to any of the user groups. 

The ocean's resources belong to all of the people. "

(Irene Nolan for The Island Breeze, November, 1997)

If you would like to see the recrational/commercial allotment left alone rather than re-allocated to favor a special interest group that wants to deny access to fresh Florida seafood to the majority of Florida citizens, please read and consider downloading and sending back to us the downloadable pdf file below.  We are starting a project to make postcards with the same information available at point of sale (restaurants and fish markets) and when we collect a number of them we plan on delivering them to the regulatory agencies for their consideration.

Don't print this from here and fill it out.  Go to .pdf and download, print, fill and mail that.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD, SIGN AND RETURN--HELP KEEP FRESH CAUGHT GROUPER AVAILABLE TO CONSUMERS AND RESTAURANTS