When you listen to the media, they make it seem as if the division between pre-Catch Share fishermen, and those apposed has split the
fishery in a big controversy. The fact is in the Commercial sector, the list posted on the Facebook link represents 85% of the Gulf's
commercial anglers....and thats just the ones that are listed as opposed to Catch Shares. The recreational side represents an even
greater opposition.

Yet....The drive by the fisheries NMFS / NOAA, and a few large ENGO's led by EDF make it seem its an equal split. This
makes it particularry important to have a LARGE list of Business's, Fishing Clubs, Commercial Fishermen, Charter Fishermen,
and each individual that opposes NOAA's direction in the fisheries to sigh on in opposition to NOAA's wastefull and wreckless
fishery management.

Current Catch Share spending has created a massive deficit in fishery data, directly related to the closures we face in our waters
here on the east coast. It has nothing to do with a lack of fish, but a lack of data to manage with! NOAA has already spent
Hundreds of Millions of OUR dollars on Catch Shares!!!!! For 2012 alone they have requested $54 Million!!!! How much fishery
data could we have with that money??? With the real health of our fish stocks know, we could be keepin Red Snapper
and Black Sea Bass right now!!!

Anyone that fishes Offshore, has a stake in the game. Even inshore
only fishermen are impacted however and need to be concerned.
NOAA has been pushing their National Angler Registry, as a way
to make Federal Fishery Oversight, which they control, have a
jurisdictional say in state regulations. This would be very bad. So
far, Florida, as well as other southern states have fought this, with the
mandated Saltwater fishing license, but NOAA still wants a say in
state fisheries if possible.

NOAA's Catch Share policy has taken hundreds of millions of the taxpayer
dollars and invested it in a policy that effectivly privitizes the fishery
resource. This has been primarily a Commercial fishery management
policy, but is being pushed into the Recreational side, starting with
Charter and Head boats in the Gulf of Mexico. Though opposed by
the overwhelming majority of these Captains, it still is giong foreward!
If it is allowed to take hold there, it will likely be seen on our coast, likely
starting with Red Snapper, and possible Sea Bass. Its also a very real
possibility to see in introduced to the Private angler as a condition to
eventually reopen Red Snapper, by requiring fisherment to purchase
their Share, or 'Tags' from places like WalMart, in order to be allowed to
keep a Red Snapper. With this, there will be winners and loosers, since such
a lottery system only allows a limited participation.

These idea's have not been introduced, but have been kicked around as
a possible management measure. All of these schemes allow the near
complete lack of data to continue managing the fisheries, rather than
requiring NOAA to provide reliable data to actually manage with.

The money NOAA has spent on the Catch Shares, and proposes to
continue spending COULD easily provide a reliable data stream to
manage our fisheries in a science based manner. This however, is not
NOAA's curent policy, and exactly what is being promoted fishermen in
order to fix the broken system we have now.

Here is a study about the real cost of the catch Share programs effect
on the fishery and fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, and why we do not
want it here:

http://documents.foodandw...ookAtGulfCatchShares.pdf