Below you will find info from the tackle dealer Shimano. The key to this is the apparent attitude shift from supporting the enviros to now calling for recs to stand against them because the head of Shimano now understands that the enviros intend to shut fishing down. Thanks EDF!!!!

I went to the web site listed below and it has the exact post of what is below. It also has a link for you to send an e-mail to your congressman and senator about this fiasco that Washington is trying to pull off. If our children and grandchildren are going to be able to fish we are going to have to fight for it and let Washington know we will not be silent.

Jim Smarr

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SHIMANO AMERICAN CORPORATION
News Release

FEDS TO 60 MILLION AMERICAN ANGLERS: WE DON’T NEED YOU

A recently published administration document outlines a structure that could result in closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas across America.

The White House created an Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force in June and gave them only 90 days to develop a comprehensive federal policy for all U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes waters. Under the guise of 'protecting' these areas, the current second phase of the Task Force direction is to develop zoning which may permanently close vast areas of fishing waters nationwide. This is to be completed by December 9, 2009.

Dave Pfeiffer, President of Shimano American Corporation explained, "In spite of extensive submissions from the recreational fishing community to the Task Force in person and in writing, they failed to include any mention of the over one million jobs or the 6o million anglers which may be affected by the new policies coast to coast. Input from the environmental groups who want to put us off the water was adopted into the report verbatim - the key points we submitted as an industry were ignored."

Recreational fishing generates a $125 billion annual economy in the United States and supports jobs in every state according to government figures. Through the Sport Fish Restoration program, anglers have provided more than $5 billion through excise taxes on fishing tackle to fishery conservation and education for decades.

In addition to the economic aspects, anglers lead the nation in volunteer conservation efforts on behalf of improving fish habitat, water quality and related environmental areas.

"There was no mention of the fishery conservation efforts which anglers have led for over 50 years in every state - an environmental success story that has no equal in the world", said Phil Morlock, Director, Environmental Affairs for Shimano. "The Task Force did not make any distinction between the dramatic differences between harmful commercial fishing harvest methods and recreational fishing, even though we spelled it out for them in detail."

Claiming to be the result of a public consultation process the report states, "Having considered a broad range of public comments, this report reflects the requests and concerns of all interested parties."

The original White House memo and not surprisingly the Task Force report contains multiple references to developing a national policy where Great Lakes and coastal regions are managed, "consistent with international law, including customary international law as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea" - a 300-page treaty the U.S. has never ratified.

"We question what implications there will be for state authority and jurisdiction in the Great Lakes and coastal regions if the U.S. adopts the U.N. Treaty," said Pfeiffer.

The report makes it clear that future authority for implementing the policy for coastal and inland waters will fall under White House jurisdiction with a new National Ocean Council comprised of over 20 federal agencies at Cabinet Secretary or Deputy Secretary level. No reference to Congressional jurisdiction is indicated.

"This significant change in U.S. policy direction is the result of a 90-day fire drill process as ordered by the President that, not surprisingly, lacks balance, clarity and quality in the end product," said Morlock. "People who simply want to take their kids fishing on public waters deserve better from their government," he added.

Shimano is joining with other members of the recreational fishing industry to urge anglers to contact their members of Congress and the administration to request this process be required to adopt the economic, conservation and social contributions of recreational fishing as key elements of the policy. It is critical that we ensure Congressional oversight and state jurisdiction and management continues.

E-letters can be sent to the administration and members of Congress by visiting KeepAmericanFishing.org  http://www.keepamericafishing.org/index.html . The future of fishing is in your hands.

Editor’s Note: Phil Morlock is attending Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus functions this week in Washington, DC, but will make himself available for questions, interviews on this. Contact John Mazurkiewicz with Catalyst Marketing for arrangements.

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Dr. Robert Shipp, Chair
Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council
2203 N. Lois Avenue, Suite 1100
Tampa, FL 33607
October 13, 2009 (wow, talk about back to the Future!)

Dr. Shipp,
The 2007 amendments to the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act were an important step towards ending overfishing and safeguarding the sustainability of our nation's fisheries. Healthy Gulf of Mexico fish populations are vital to the ecology and economy of our region. I am writing to urge the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council to establish strong, precautionary rules when implementing annual catch limits and accountability measures for Gulf fisheries. (not "if", but "when")

The following are key principles, consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the National Standard 1 guidelines, that should be applied:
• Develop clear control rules and procedures to ensure that annual catch limits account for uncertainty in scientific and management information
• Incorporate both landed catch and bycatch, a significant source of mortality for many managed species, when calculating total catch. (this is new and means those throwbacks required by the regs are counted the same as the ones in the box)
• Use "annual catch targets" and set them below required catch limits according to the uncertainty managers’ have in constraining catch and preventing overfishing. (I brought this up after the Houston meeting, but the bottom line is a smaller TAC)
• Design accountability measures that prevent limits from being exceeded, and ensure that when overages occur, the subsequent year’s catch is reduced by the value equal to the overage.
• Specify separate annual catch limits, targets, and accountability measures for commercial and recreational fishermen. Holding fishing sectors individually accountable provides an incentive to stay within allowable limits. If an entire fishery is penalized for overfishing, when only a single sector is responsible for the overage, there is little incentive to stay within catch limits.
The Gulf's ecology and the economy of our coastal towns depend on healthy, vibrant fisheries. Implementing strong, precautionary rules for establishing annual catch limits, targets, and accountability measures will help prevent overfishing and ensure a sustainable future in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thank you for your time and attention.

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The writing is all the wall for everyone to see. What we do about it will determine lots of things about fishing in the future. Remember, OC is talking about *all* fish, not just Snapper.

 The proverbial nail on the head!!!! Same story, same fish, different area, different people, same nmfs science, same nmfs mrfss data. What is the difference in the Gulf you ask? Read it and see, heads up,,,,,, no sos, no for-hire vs pri/rec, no com vs rec, why? they don't make any difference. The problem.......overfishing requirement..........The fix.......passing legislation that relaxes overfishing!!!!!!!!

----- Original Message -----

From:  ----- Original Message -----

Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 9:46 AM
Subject: Daytona Beach News-Journal article on red snapper ban

October 06, 2009

Possible ban on snapper, grouper fishing would be large-scale
    By JORDAN KAHN, Outdoors writer

Deep-sea bottom fishing in the southeast is in deep trouble.
A months-long fight between fishermen and federal fisheries managers has come to this:

By late October a decision is expected from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on whether to ban red snapper fishing for at least six months.
By spring, a final decision is expected on an indefinite ban on recreational and commercial fishing from Cape Canaveral to Charleston, S.C., for any kind of snapper or grouper.

That's 73 of the 88 species managed by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.  For Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas -- the states managed by the council -- this fishery management plan could have a very real human price.
In these states, fishing represents 4 to 6 million anglers, more than 100,000 jobs and a multi-billion dollar economic impact.

With so much at stake, the debate between fishermen and the council about the science used to manage fish stocks is boiling into a political fight to change the laws governing fishery management.

Lawsuits to stop the council have been filed in federal court. A bill that would block the council's proposals has been sent to Congress.  More than 100 fishermen attended council public hearings in Stuart in June and Charleston in September.
Capt. Jimmy Hull from Ormond Beach, who was at both meetings, said fishermen walked away feeling "totally disregarded."

'CONTENTIOUS,' 'UNPRECEDENTED'

The National Marine Fisheries Service's southeast regional administrator, Dr. Roy Crabtree, said the situation in the South Atlantic is "the most contentious" he's ever seen.

Bob Jones, who has been executive director of commercial fishing's Southeastern Fisheries Association since 1964, said the stakes have never been more serious.
"The only thing this reminds me of is the Florida net ban," Jones said, referring to a 1994 state vote to ban gill nets in inshore waters.

"But this is broader than that," Jones said, "because this is a ban for everybody -- commercial, recreational, charters, divers. It's unprecedented."

To understand how the situation got to this point, you have to go back to 2006 when the Magnuson-Stevens Act governing fishery management came before Congress for reauthorization.  During that process, the act's flexible time frames for ending overfishing were removed. Now any overfishing identified before July 12, 2009, must be stopped within one year. Overfishing identified after that must be stopped in two years.

The council's stock assessment for red snapper was completed in 2008, putting it in the one-year time frame.  The assessment determined that red snapper have been fished for several decades at eight to 14 times the sustainable level and that the population has been fished down to just 3 percent of the historic virgin stock levels existing in 1945.

The reason the council decided that rebuilding red snapper stocks requires shutting down all bottom fishing is its estimation of how many red snapper die after release -- 90 percent for commercial boats and 40 percent for recreational.  Allowing bottom fishing to continue and just releasing red snapper would still kill too many red snapper to end overfishing, the council said.

POINT, COUNTERPOINT

Fishermen argue the council's science isn't sound.  They say the council hasn't provided any substantive studies on release mortality rates for red snapper.
Fishermen also dispute council estimates that older red snapper are missing from today's populations. The stock assessment indicates there haven't been any red snapper over the age of 13 in the South Atlantic since 2004. Yet, fishermen sending samples to state labs for age testing caught six fish older than 13 years in just eight days.

The council counters that 75 percent of the 237 red snapper the fishermen submitted were age 4 or younger. That just confirms the assessment's findings, the council said.

The fishing advocacy group Southeastern Fisheries Association hired a scientist to review the council's stock assessment.  That scientist says no real recreational catch data has ever existed. And that catch, according to the stock assessment, represents 66 to 75 percent of the red snapper catch since the 1980s. Since the late '70s, recreational catches have predominantly been based on the Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey.

That survey calls random households to estimate the number of fishing trips per household and combines that with surveys at fishing locations about the quantity and variety of fish caught to estimate the recreational catch.

In 2006, Dr. Patrick Sullivan of the National Academy of Sciences gave a report to Congress about that survey and called it "fatally flawed."

As a result, the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act mandated that the survey be updated by January 2009. That didn't happen, although an update is in progress.

LAWSUITS NOW, LAWSUITS LATER
The continued use of a survey Congress wants replaced is part of the legal basis for two Recreational Fisheries Alliance lawsuits against the fisheries service being heard in federal court.

Dennis O'Hern, the alliance's executive director, said as soon as the fisheries service publishes a final rule banning red snapper fishing, they'll sue them for that, too.

"It's a numbers game," O'Hern said. "We need to build a new system. They don't have anything on recreational fishing, even today. It's guesswork and speculative at best."

Crabtree of the fisheries service said they ran the snapper models 40 different ways and "it didn't make a whole lot of difference . . . every single run still shows that they're overfishing and overfished."

Capt. David Nelson of Port Orange said he has serious doubts about the council's commercial fishing data.  Nelson spearheaded the fishermen's independent aging study. He wrote a letter to Crabtree telling him when he went to Safe Harbor Seafood in Atlantic Beach to cut the ear bones out of fish needed for the study, no one there had ever seen that before. And Safe Harbor Seafood is "the red snapper capital of the South Atlantic," Nelson said.

Jones of the Southeastern Fisheries Association said this back and forth with the council has been useless.  "I'm not sure there is anything that can change the government's mind once the process gets as far as this one has," he said.
So fishermen are pursuing the possibility of amending the Magnuson Act to restore its flexible time frames.

U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, who represents parts of Volusia and Flagler counties, and 10 co-signers have introduced a bill (HR 3307) that would "direct the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a study of the population of red snapper in the south Atlantic" and obtain accurate information before imposing a ban.
jordan.kahn@news-jrnl.com</I>