Help stop a long term cobia closure: tell the Senate to vote yes on HR 1335

ez2cdave · February 20, 2016, 04:07:02 PM

Help stop a long term cobia closure: tell the Senate to vote yes on HR 1335

Folks, SAMFC is closing down cobia season in federal waters on June 15th, and is trying to force North Carolina and Virginia to do the same in state waters. North Carolina just reduced their daily creel limit, but are being told that will only add a handful of days to the season. The Senate Committee of Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard will be meeting Tuesday, February 23rd, to discuss HR 1335 Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act legislation that will allow more fisherman input in the calculation of the annual catch limits, and provide more redress for fishermen and flexibility in the management plans that consider local economy. If this legislation isn't passed, it is likely that we will see early closures of the cobia fishery for the foreseeable future.

Please contact the following Senators who are members of the subcommittee. Here are their email links.

Marco Rubio: http://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
Ted Cruz: http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=email_senator
Kelly Ayotte: https://www.ayotte.senate.gov/?p=contact
Ron Johnson: http://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/pub...ex.cfm/contact
Roger Wicker : https://www.wicker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
Dan Sullivan: http://www.sullivan.senate.gov/contact/email
Cory Booker: https://www.booker.senate.gov/?p=contact
Maria Cantwell: http://www.cantwell.senate.gov/publi...fm/email-maria
Richard Blumenthal www.blumenthal.senate.gov/contact/
Brian Schatz www.schatz.senate.gov/contact
Gary Peters www.peters.senate.gov/contact/email-gary
Ed Markey www.markey.senate.gov/contact

You can use my letter, but please personalize it with your own words. If they get 30 versions of the same letter, they will ignore it:

I am writing to ask for your support to pass HR 1335, Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act. South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council has announced that they will close federal waters to cobia fishing from Georgia to New York on June 15th as result of the mid-Atlantic states exceeding the annual catch limit for cobia in 2015. SAFMC is also leveraging states to issue closures in state waters, or they will be non-compliant with the Magnuson-Stevens Act. This closure will be devastating to recreational and charter boat fishermen. Prime season for cobia is May-August in North Carolina, with fish not arriving for pier anglers until around July 1. Cobia generally are not caught in the Chesapeake Bay until at least the first of June.

Recreational anglers do not dispute that the ACL was exceeded. However, SAFMC split the old Atlantic ACL of 1.4 million pounds into two zones at the end of 2014. One (Florida from Key West to the Georgia state line) received 880,000 pounds of the ACL quota of cobia. The other (Georgia to New York) only received 620,000 pounds of quota even though NOAA's own data indicates that cobia populations and the number of people targeting cobia is much higher in Virginia and North Carolina. With this allocation of the quota, even a record poor season would have likely exceeded the ACL. We were set up for this closure, and there appears to be no redress for fishermen, who only found out about the potential closures a week ago and now it appears to be rote.

I am a recreational angler who travels to the Bay and North Carolina to target these fish. However, countless friends make their living as charter boat captains, tackle shop owners, custom rod builders, lure designers, and pier employees. Many of them could lose half to almost all their business because of this ruling, despite the fact that SAFMC's North Carolina representative stated at the North Carolina Marine Fishery Council meeting today that cobia are "not overfished." The population is as strong as I can recall it being in my 20 years of saltwater fishing. We just had a record season. Fishermen at these meetings have been absolutely open to reducing creel limits, increasing size limits, and instituting boat limits. NOAA, SAFMC, and other agencies appear to be unmoved and there is no redress.

Please help us. This legislation appears to give fishermen some form of redress in the face of sketchy ACL determinations by NOAA. It makes collection more accurate. And hopefully, it will defeat bureaucrats who rationalize that the same number of people catching more fish is indicative of there being more fish to catch, not less. We have issues with fisheries management. Cobia has been a success and there is a thriving recreational industry around the species. Don't let NOAA do this. Please move the bill forward in Committee.

Keta · February 20, 2016, 04:22:18 PM

Is there a ligament conservation reason for this? I thought cobia were a fast growing, fast breading fish and their population was healthy. More
anti consumptive user federal BS?

broschro · February 20, 2016, 05:48:21 PM

It is nonsense! Red snapper has been closed for 5 years or more and we cant get away from them. They are thick as thieves.

ez2cdave · February 20, 2016, 09:40:46 PM

LIBERALS never rely on "FACTS" . . . The only PUSH their "AGENDA" !!!

surfcaster · February 20, 2016, 09:54:25 PM

Fishing closures are a sore spot for me.Atlantic Cod has been closed up here for a year now, It's putting a hurting on the local recreational charter& partyboat business. while the draggers can still strip the ocean floor for other species throwing the dead cod bycatch overboard. so much for conservation.

broschro · February 20, 2016, 11:05:23 PM

Sickening

Newell Nut · February 21, 2016, 12:00:34 AM

We got a 30 lb cobia today on the pastime and a pile of red snappers. Only a few tiny mangos and muttons for keepers and a few lanes. Captain Al got a mess of porgies and redeyes. Lots of juvenile kings were caught today too.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/deepseafishingdaytona/albums/72157664748668771

Reel 224 · February 21, 2016, 12:54:26 AM

Quote from: Newell Nut on February 21, 2016, 12:00:34 AM
We got a 30 lb cobia today on the pastime and a pile of red snappers. Only a few tiny mangos and muttons for keepers and a few lanes. Captain Al got a mess of porgies and redeyes. Lots of juvenile kings were caught today too.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/deepseafishingdaytona/albums/72157664748668771

Ruth and I have to move to Florida.

Joe

oc1 · February 21, 2016, 08:06:45 AM

I was a liaison to SAFMC way back when. My impression was they were a limp tool organization that was unable to implement a regulation until it was too late to accomplish the intended goal. Guess things have changed. Port Royal Sound had a huge pre-spawning cobia run where they were annually hammered like ducks in a barrel. Maybe that's changed too.
-steve