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Ladies and gentleman Mr. Crabtree has sent his preliminary report to the council, I will attach part of the report below.
Now remember that the formula works on TAC (total allowable catch) that is expressed in pounds. So his report cites that he does not yet have the data from the headboat sector and he does not yet have the data from Texas state waters. Without this data he is reporting that we caught 125% of what we were allowed to catch. Certainly this overage will go up when they add the other two sectors into the mix. Now the law states that any overage must be taken out of the following year. So we can almost predict that the numbers will show that we caught about 150% during a shortened season, then you figure Texas has extended their season, you can almost bet that to gain this back they are going to look at taking more then 50% of our already shortened season away from us this year.
Now remember, keep it straight in your head, the report states that we caught fewer fish (shorter season) but we caught fish that weighted more (healthier stock) and now becaue of this we are going to get penalized again.
The next Gulf Council meeting is coming in a couple of weeks in Mississippi but I am getting to the point that I do not know if attending these meetings is going to help, we either need legal action or someone at the federal level to rein in NMFS and this BS science.
Here's a portion of the report. .....................
Recreational: (NOTE: The following landings and percentages represent only Waves 1-5 for the
Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey, and do not include headboat or Texas landings.)
Red Snapper: Landings are estimated at 3,068,184 pounds or 125 percent of the quota.
Preliminary review of the landings information indicate fewer but larger red snapper are being
harvested compared to previous years.
Greater Amberjack and Gray Triggerfish: Approximately 76 percent of the recreational greater
amberjack recreational quota was landed through October, and more than 88 percent of the
recreational annual catch limit (ACL) for gray triggerfish was landed.
Gag and Red Grouper: Amendment 30B will establish ACLs for the recreational fishery for both
gag (2.59 million pounds) and red grouper (1.85 million pounds) for 2009. Through October
2008, gag landings were at 101 percent of the designated ACL, and 127 percent of the designated
2.06 million pound catch target. Red grouper landings, through October, were estimated at 42
percent of the ACL.
Seasonal Closures: A recreational closure for gag from February 1 through March 3 1 is enacted
in federal waters and Florida state waters. A federal water closure from February 15 through
March 14 is in effect for red and black groupers, but there is no recreational closure for red and
black grouper in Florida State waters.
Permits Status
Active permits as of January 12,2009:
1,594 moratorium Gulf shrimp permits and 282 royal red shrimp endorsements
the report states that we caught fewer fish (shorter season) but we caught fish that weighted more (healthier stock) and now becaue of this we are going to get penalized again. .
Only an entity of the Gubment could come up with chit like this!!!
Problem is, you're pretty correct, there's very little we can do. These dumb arses aren't elected, no voting them out. Right?
How do they get their numbers? I caught a lot, but I never reported catching a single snapper. It seems like their numbers can't be very accurate.
I believe they count the entire GOM and the Atlantic sea board which snapper are not as prevalent in S. Florida and the east coast, they only count natural bottom, nothing man made ie: all of the over 4000 oil rigs, several 1000 man made reefs in Al. it's unfreakin believable the amount of snapper that are out there and they say they are being over fished. There is and artificial reef from about 10-12 miles south of Dauphin Island and Gulf Shores 1 mile or less in any direction out to about 50 miles not to mention the 1000's of private reefs put out by charter captains EVERY year. Mr Crabtree has apparently never been fish in over here. They are going to f@ck us again on this issue until it just wont be any fun to go fishing and the tree huggers win F@CK EM ALL I say
Kinda off track, but maybe not. I work offshore and witness alot of illegal fishing being done. I work for a drilling company and all we have is shallow water rigs that on average can drill up to 200feet or so. Usually they are working on existing wells, so the depth is further decreased to 100-150 feet. I travel from rig to rig, so I get to see allot of our different location throughout the La and TX Gulf coast. Recently I was on one out of Fourchon in the South Timbalier blocks. Work boats would deliver supplies to the rigs. One in particular really caught my attention. While they were unloading the drill pipe,(which is a long process) one of the guys on the boat was hand lining with a diamond jig. In about an hours time he managed to fill up a 55 gal plastic barrel with 10lb-20lb snapper. Once filled, he cleaned them all, then went fishing again. He actually filled it up again, but by this time, the boat had moved to the opposite side of the rig and he was catching much smaller fish, probably undersized to 5lbs. It took alot of smaller fish to fill that barrel up again. Several other work boats and crew boats that came to the rig would also fish while they were there and load up on the snapper. In my travels to the different rigs, I have seen work boats, crew boats, platform workers, and even third party contractors on our rigs catching loads of snapper. Why is NMFS not trying to do something about this? I am not sure how much good it will do, but I am leaning very heavily toward fileing reports with La wildlife and fisheries through their operation game thief program the next time I witness this occurring. Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to guys fishing while they are working offshore, but I feel they need to be responsible and follow the same rules everyone else does. Can you imagine how many fish are being caught daily like this?
Do you ever report things like this? These guys hould be held accountable just like the fools that thought they could keep their 900 snapper last year. There's no reason they should be able to hide behind the safety of their work boats.
Woody, I have been kinda on the fence about it. It never really sunk in til I started fishing offshore again. Now I am seeing first hand how it is affecting the limits and seasons for all of us. I am going to start reporting though.
Laying the ground work for more snapper BS
