Fulton, TX -

CALL TO ACTION

Red Snapper is an extremely valuable Texas natural resource and the lifeblood of the Gulf of Mexico recreational and charter fishing industry.  Its importance to you as an angler and to Texas coastal communities’ tourism, boating and related industries is estimated to exceed $1.7 billion annually. Unreasonable restrictions which National Marine Fisheries has placed on this fishery (and even more unreasonable restrictions they are proposing) are having a devastating impact on coastal fishing and coastal economies.    A very real danger exists that hundreds of thousands of Texans will be effectively excluded from our offshore fishing resources due to these unreasonable regulations and efforts by NMFS to force Texas to adopt these same regulations.     

The crisis we face is the result of two factors; anti-fishing environmental groups and elitist fishing organizations pursuing a policy that would sharply limit many Texan’s access to marine fisheries, and an inflexible national fisheries law that penalizes anglers even when good rebuilding progress is being made.  RFA spear-headed an effort with members of the 110^th Congress to draft a science-based revision to Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act that unfortunately died when that session ended.  We are now organizing an all out grass-roots movement to encourage all five Gulf state Governors and their Congressional delegations to support such a revision in the 111^th Congress. 

We were saddened by the recent loss of Texas Parks & Wildlife Commissioner John Parker, who had worked tirelessly to help us outline a plan to move this issue forward. Before he died, Commissioner Parker briefed Governor Perry on this issue and the Governor agreed to raise the issue with other Gulf States Governors.  Now, our job is to let all the Gulf Governors hear from the fishing communities at large that action is needed by them and state Congressional delegations to revise the Magnuson Act.   

We are asking that you write a brief letter to Governor Perry stating the importance to Texas sportsmen of getting flexibility added to the Magnuson Act, and that you do the same with your U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senators.  If you act now we’re confident our collective voices will be heard throughout the Gulf and in Washington D.C.   Governor Perry’s, Senator Hutchison’s and Senator Cornyn’s mailing and email addresses are shown below.   You can Google your U.S. Representative’s addresses. We urge you to take these actions NOW to help preserve Texan’s access to our Gulf fisheries.                                           

Sincerely, 

Jim Donofrio                                     Jim Smarr

Executive Director, RFA                  RFA-TX Chairman

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