Say goodbye to red snapper season

Its all about the dollar with the guys (and their lawyers) on the commercial end of things. True there are more recreational fishermen that commercial but we are a badly disorganized unruly mob...and we are and shall continue to be treated that way until we come together with some kind of "lobbyist" group. That's right lobbyist....that and a sackful of crooked lawyers (apologies to the 16 honest lawyers out there) are what got this whole stinking mess started and unfortunately led to this.
Money, it's the language they speak.

Oh and I don't want to shut down the commercial fleet. They are just trying to make a living and like any business looking for ways to boost their profit margins.

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Originally Posted by Wildh2oskier

Oh and I don't want to shut down the commercial fleet. They are just trying to make a living and like any business looking for ways to boost their profit margins.

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i completely agree im a commercial fisherman myself ( just mullet and spanish and kings , stuff like that) but i dont get why anyone would ever not want comercial fisherman hell there the ones that put fish on the table for ppl who dont go fishin

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Originally Posted by southernfishin

i completely agree im a commercial fisherman myself ( just mullet and spanish and kings , stuff like that) but i dont get why anyone would ever not want comercial fisherman hell there the ones that put fish on the table for ppl who dont go fishin

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When most people here say "commercial fisherman," we are thinking about people we know -- small time, family owned type stuff. Unfortunately, the reality is that stock shares are mostly owned by a small, well organized, increasingly centralized group of "snapper barons" who know how to lobby. The sad truth is that even though NMFS is the heart of the problem, the interests of commercial, private recreational, and charter boats are at odds with one another. My prediction for next year is charter boats will have quotas they can catch at any time while the rec season is a week or less.

Bradley Byrne comments:

Congressman Byrne offers bill to repeal 'inflexible' Gulf of Mexico fishing quotas | AL.com

The bill... would repeal a subsection of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act

Zero days for Alabama as of today. That's going to be over a half million dollar hit to our business compared to the 40 days we thought we were getting...

---And Alabama fishermen are being penalized for the actions of Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

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Originally Posted by john g

Zero days for Alabama as of today. That's going to be over a half million dollar hit to our business compared to the 40 days we thought we were getting...

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Is this confirmed or just assuming because of other states' decisions?

Though the effect on us is a bitter pill to swallow, I do think other states are doing the right thing by fighting the feds.

Also, if the stocks are in such dire shape, prove it to me by shutting down the commercial fishery. Until they discuss that, NMFS is full of crap.

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Originally Posted by Pierless

Is this confirmed or just assuming because of other states' decisions?

Though the effect on us is a bitter pill to swallow, I do think other states are doing the right thing by fighting the feds.

Also, if the stocks are in such dire shape, prove it to me by shutting down the commercial fishery. Until they discuss that, NMFS is full of crap.

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I personally believe that the commercial fishermen should be the first ones affected by the quota adjustments, not the other way around. The shutting down of the recreational and charter boat snapper season will not only affect the boats and the tackle stores, but the community as a whole. Everybody from the boat owners all the way down to McDonald's is going to feel the effects of their decision. I am not a big fan of snapper fishing personally, but I don't want to see my friends having to worry about where they are going to make money to support their family because somebody who was given inaccurate data, and probably doesn't even fish, made the decision to take away their livelihood.