JUNE 19, 2012 |
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Fighting for Our Freedom to Fish |
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Today's guest: Chris McCaffity |
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SHOW APPEARANCES:
JUNE 19, 2011
NOVEMBER 20, 2011
JUNE 17,
2012 |
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Public Comments Regarding Amendment 24. |
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CHRIS
McCAFFITY |
About Chris
McCaffity
My name is Chris McCaffity. I am a commercial fisherman who has been offering common sense solutions that would mitigate the severe negative impacts associated with regulations passed by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council that fail to comply with many of the mandates in the Magnuson-Stevens Act. I have ZERO confidence in the SAFMC’s ability to properly manage ANYTHING! The minions of environmental “charities” like Pew and EDF along with their puppets in the leadership of the multiple layers of fishery bureaucracy are either grossly incompetent or they are maliciously mismanaging our fisheries in an attempt to advance other agendas.
Roy Crabtree has stated that
the South Atlantic snapper/grouper fishery will be managed much like
the Gulf. He said they will start with derby fisheries to “manage”
the reduced quotas and then “try” Trip Poundage Limits before using
catch shares to “save” our fisheries. The proper use of TPLs would
achieve all of the honorable goals of catch shares without the
“unintended” consequences like fleet reductions that destroy an
average of 1/3 of the permit holder’s businesses in every fishery
catch share schemes “help”. I do not believe for one second that the
SAFMC has given up on catch shares even though they voted not to
continue pursuing them. I believe the leadership is simply giving
their feeble attempts at TPLs a chance to fail. The Vermilion
Snapper fishery is a perfect example of how their versions of TPLs
are set up to fail. They did nothing to extend the season or limit
Regulatory Discards compared to a derby fishery.
Amendment 24 follows the
pattern Roy Crabtree planned for. They are planning to “manage” the
Red Grouper quota as a derby fishery and warn us that this WILL
cause the fishery to be shut down early! Next year they are planning
to use a Regulatory Amendment to implement their version of TPLs. If
past TPLs are any indication of how they will be set up for Red
Grouper, the TPLs will be set up in the most incompetent way
possible. After their lame versions of TPLs fail, they will say they
have tried everything else and catch shares are the only solution
left. This seems to be more malicious than incompetent.
I again publicly call on
Congress to pass a bill that will allow permit holders in a federal
fishery to have final approval of all Amendments with a 2/3 majority
vote. We should have access to all documents available to the
councils and come up with alternative management plans using the
existing Total Allowable Catches while following ALL of the mandates
in the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Congress should set up a peer review
panel to insure all management plans submitted by the regional
councils and the permit holders comply with the MSA. All existing
regulations should be reviewed by the panel and allow the permit
holders to offer alternatives for the regulations that fail to
comply with the MSA. |
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This is how the Red Grouper fishery should be managed. |
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1. The way the
council split the quota between recreational fishermen and
consumers should be reversed. The council in their infinite
wisdom decided to allocate about 400,000 pounds of the quota to
recreational fishermen even though their average annual catch is
only about 150,000 pounds. The commercial quota will be set at
around 300,000 pounds even though our annual catches average
about 400,000 pounds. REALLY! This is the height of bureaucratic
incompetence. Anyone with half a brain could look at those
numbers and know they should be reversed. That would still give
recreational fishermen a quota that is twice their average
annual catch. That still seems a little unfair to the consumers
of Red Grouper, but at least it makes much more sense.
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2. The size
limit for Red Grouper should be removed and the quota increased
as the waste associated with size limits ends. Removing only the
larger breeding stock of fish leads to truncated stocks and
reduces the overall health of a fishery and the average size of
the fish in it.
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3. The
commercial Red Grouper quota should be PROPERLY managed with
possession limits instead of creating another derby fishery that
threatens our safety at sea, creates Regulatory Discards, and
denies consumer’s access to Red Grouper for long periods. Here
is how the TPLs should be set up.A. Set a 100 pound by-catch
allowance during the four month spawning season closure. This
would keep fishermen from targeting Red Grouper during the
spawning season, but we could make efficient use of those we
accidentally catch. Those fish would create revenue and feed
people instead of TONS of them slowly dying and going to waste.
The circle hooks fishermen are now forced to use break a fish’s
jaw if they are not removed properly. Those poor fish slowly
starve to death if infection or decompression damage does not
kill them first.
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B. Set a
1,000 pound Trip Poundage Limit until approximately 75% of
the quota has been caught. The TPL should then be adjusted
to level that would fill the quota without a long closure.
Here are examples of how the TPLs should be adjusted.
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The TPL
should remain at 1,000 pounds if there is only one month
left in the season.
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The TPL
should be decreased to 100 pounds if there are six months
left in the season.
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The TPL
should be decreased to 200 pounds if there are five months
left in the season.
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The TPL
should be decreased to 300 pounds if there are four months
left in the season.
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The TPL
should be decreased to 400 pounds if there are three months
left in the season.
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The TPL
should be decreased to 500 pounds if there are two months
left in the season.
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I understand Roy
Crabtree’s point that the SAFMC cannot adjust the TPL when EXACTLY
75% of the quota has been filled. They can however, adjust it after
somewhere between 70 and 80% of the quota has been filled. The
reduced TPLs would make it easier to extrapolate when the quota will
be filled. This will extend the season through most of the year and
limit waste. |
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The stock of Red
Grouper and everything living in the same areas could be helped
greatly with an aggressive Artificial Reef program. They are the
perfect union of aquaculture and commercially harvested wild fish.
We should be allocating some of the National Marine Fisheries
Service BILLION dollar annual budget to enhancing the resource
rather than just trying to restrict the public’s access to OUR
PUBLIC RESOURCES. The money appropriated to advancing the catch
share scheme that very few fishermen support could be used to create
new habitat. With all of their decades of collective college
education, the fishery “managers” should know the three key things
needed to increase a stock of fish. |
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1. Increase the amount of food available
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2. Increase the amount of shelter available.
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3. Predatory stress invokes a reproductive response.
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Artificial Reefs
create the base of the food chain and could greatly increase the
total biomass our South Atlantic could support. They would not only
increase the amount of seafood available for harvest, they would
help corals, turtles, and everything else that lives on and around
structure.
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Why do the fishery
bureaucrats refuse to help the fish, fishermen, and consumers? Why
are ALL of the laws they pass aimed at restricting our freedom,
destroying our jobs, wasting our resources, and denying consumer’s
access to safe American seafood? Could the Saltonstall/Kennedy tax
on imported seafood have something to do with the bureaucracy
wanting to import more seafood rather than increasing the amount of
American seafood available to consumers? That tax revenue should be
used to enhance our fisheries and promote the domestic supply of
seafood. What is it being used for now? |
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The plans I laid
out would follow all of the mandates in the MSA and help the Red
Grouper stock rebuild from decades of gross mismanagement with very
little if any negative impacts to the fish, fishermen, or consumers. |
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Please forward
these comments to anyone you think might be interested in properly
managing our public resources. |
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Help Chris |
I made a 2012 Calendar out of
pictures I have taken while working around the water. This is my way
of using the talent God gave me and the free market to fund my fight
and keep my fishing business from going bankrupt while I fight for
the proper management of our fisheries. Please consider supporting
the free market and helping me by following this link.
VISIT FREE FISH 7 GALLERY
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Thank you, |
Chris McCaffity |
www.freefish7.com
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Please contact me if you have any
questions.
freefish7@hotmail.com
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Please
visit FreeFish7.com Chris's Calendar Gallery |
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2012 Natural Art
Calendar |
This
is the cover of the 2012 Natural Art Freedom To Fish Calendar. I
want to be honest about what I am trying to with the calendar of
pictures I have taken while working around the water. I stopped
fishing when the mismanagement of our fisheries was forcing me to
discard more fish than I could legally sell. It broke my heart to
discard so many perfectly good fish to slowly die and go to waste. I
made the calendar as a way to keep my fishing business from going
bankrupt while I took the time necessary to go to fishery meetings,
send letters, make phone calls, and inform the public about how we
are losing our freedom to responsibly harvest our Nation's seafood
and provide consumers with access to a dependable supply of it. I
have also been offering common sense solutions that would stop most
of the waste and abuse that plagues our fisheries. Please take a
look at the photos in the calendar and consider the special offer I
will make for this website in the text of the December photo. |
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VISIT FREE FISH 7 GALLERY
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Websites and
material mentioned on
today's program: |
www.FreeFish7.com |
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