Federal agency creates another paper crisis to shut down bottom fisheries

The drumbeat that some anglers may be hearing in the South Atlantic isn’t their imagination. It’s the sound of NOAA Fisheries relentless efforts to slam the door on their fishing access. Using the red snapper fishery as a stalking horse, NOAA Fisheries is preparing to take the highly unusual step of a Secretarial Amendment to impose draconian fishing closures on anglers. Measures that not even the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council thinks are necessary or warranted given what is known about the fishery…

The federal system continues to infuriate both the Gulf and South Atlantic councils and staffs as it creates paper crisis after paper crisis for various species. Stock assessments are far too infrequent, the recreational data system is a mess and economic data is non-existent. It is an outrageous situation, and the public must utterly reject this latest effort as the misguided pursuit of a federal agency that has lost its way.

Click HERE to go to the website where public comments are now being accepted until Nov. 8 on the Environmental Impact Statement. Your help is needed to shut down the Secretarial Amendment before the door is finally slammed on recreational bottom angling in the South Atlantic for good.