Tuesday, November 10, 2009
RFA & ALLIES FILE SUIT ON SEA BASS
Charges NMFS With "Failure to Comply With The Law"
In a 40-page legal challenge submitted before the U.S. District Court of New Jersey on November 4, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) and industry allies have officially brought legal action against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke due to the recent recreational closure of the Atlantic recreational black sea bass fishery. The challenge contends that the recent closure is not only unprecedented for a fish whose stocks are considered rebuilt and not overfished, but that the action is also based upon "misapplication and misuse of a fatally flawed angler survey which NMFS itself has acknowledged is not to be used for this type of decision."
Filed for a dozen specifically named plaintiffs, the official complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief requested expedited consideration in hopes of reversing the six-month sea bass closure as quickly as possible on behalf all saltwater anglers and fishery dependent businesses. According to Capt. Tony Bogan, plaintiff of the United Boatmen, the recent closure of sea bass is only a part of legal equation. "This goes way behind sea bass," Bogan said of the legal argument, adding "it addresses the potential action by NMFS in the future to arbitrarily close fisheries on a whim or because of survey trends or ideology.'
By closing a recreational fishery based on the fatally flawed recreational survey (MRFSS), the suit contends that the government violated numerous provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and National Standard guidelines issued by NMFS. Additionally, it charges the defendants with ignoring countervailing information and for failure to consider less severe alternatives. "As a result of defendants' actions, and failure to comply with the law, the Plaintiffs have suffered, and will continue to suffer, immediate, substantial and irreparable harm, for which there is no adequate remedy at law, and for which they seek expedited relief."
Herb Moore, Jr., RFA co-counsel said the disregard for the spirit and intent of the Magnuson Stevens Act is one thing, but the clear disregard for the legal requirements of the federal fisheries law is something that leads him to be cautiously optimistic. "These cases are very hard to win, but I think we've got some very strong arguments," Moore said, adding "NMFS was extremely arrogant with their sea bass decision and we're calling them out on this one." Moore charges that NMFS was very deliberate in their actions, explaining "they purposely chose an insular approach designed to block public scrutiny by claiming that they had good cause to waive prior notice and the opportunity for public comment."
To view full legal challenge submitted on behalf of the recreational fishing community, visit the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) homepage at www.joinrfa.org (see RFA Legal Defense Fund - The Fight For Angler's Rights.) Anglers and business owners interested in joining the coalition and supporting the legal challenge are encouraged to look for the Donate button on the RFA homepage. Donations may also be mailed to:
RFA Legal Defense Fund
PO Box 3080
New Gretna, NJ 08224
A national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues, the RFA is dedicating all checks made payable to the RFA Legal Defense Fund directly towards these legal efforts outlined above. All donations will be tracked individually, from all groups and individual anglers.
As of the court filing date, $18,855 in donations have been collected towards the initial challenge, though the plaintiffs expect that the real fight is now set to begin.
"This is the beginning of the battle, not the ending by any means," said Moore.
About Recreational Fishing Alliance
The Recreational Fishing Alliance is a national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation's saltwater fisheries. For more information, call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit www.joinrfa.org.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
After reading the next two blogs scroll down until you get to the telephone number and the website address. PLEASE make contact. This person is the CANCER of recreational fishing industry.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
RFA TESTIFIES AT CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON MAGNUSON
Anglers Charge NMFS With Failing To Meet Mandates
On October 27, the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife held an oversight hearing on implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006 (MSA). Testifying on behalf the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), Herb Moore, Jr. charged the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) with managing the recreational fishing sector using poor statistical data and by attempting to meet arbitrary rebuilding timelines without adequately fulfilling their own commitments.
"Unfortunately, many in the recreational fishing public have come to view our federal government as the enemy - having experienced decades of larger and larger minimum size limits, shorter seasons and smaller bag limits in fisheries that we know are healthy," Moore said, adding "We believe NMFS needs a complete overhaul in how it views recreational fishing and we believe this Congress can help."
Congress mandated extensive improvements to recreational data collection programs in the 2006 MSA reauthorization. "Unfortunately, NMFS has not met its mandates," Moore said. "The problems with MRFSS have been well-documented for years and it took an act of Congress to get NMFS to move on this, but the process has been slow."
South Carolina charter and party boat Captain Mark Brown said "NMFS continues to move forward like a run-away train," and testified that MSA requirements were leading to the draconian management measures on the red snapper fishery. "These measures are due to the mandates of the rigid and inflexible timeframes set forth within the MSA and are being forced upon the fishermen without sound statistics and without a clear understanding of why fisheries managers are forced to accept scientific information that makes absolutely no sense," Brown said, while vocalizing his support for the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act.
Sponsored in the House by Rep. Frank Pallone (HR 1584) and in the Senate by Sen. Charles Schumer (S 1255), this "flexibility" legislation would extend the time period for rebuilding certain overfished fisheries provided that certain conditions are met. Pallone noted that because the best available science is generally uncertain, it creates total allowable landing figures that unduly restrict the fishermen, which contributes to his concerns about the rebuilding targets. "Other factors should be included in determining rebuilding targets besides fishing, for instance are environmental factors such as the development and degradation of estuaries," Pallone said, adding that the best way to address these issues in his opinion is through HR 1584 and S 1255.
"Magnuson is clearly a broken instrument of the law that needs to be fixed to allow for more access, conservation, and rebuilding," said Capt. Brown in his testimony.
Click here to read the full RFA report from the October 27 hearing in DC.
To download a copy of Herb Moore's submitted comments to Congress, click here.
For an archived audio version, visit http://resourcescommittee.house.gov.
About Recreational Fishing Alliance
The Recreational Fishing Alliance is a national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation's saltwater fisheries. For more information, call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit www.joinrfa.org.
On October 27, the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife held an oversight hearing on implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006 (MSA). Testifying on behalf the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), Herb Moore, Jr. charged the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) with managing the recreational fishing sector using poor statistical data and by attempting to meet arbitrary rebuilding timelines without adequately fulfilling their own commitments.
"Unfortunately, many in the recreational fishing public have come to view our federal government as the enemy - having experienced decades of larger and larger minimum size limits, shorter seasons and smaller bag limits in fisheries that we know are healthy," Moore said, adding "We believe NMFS needs a complete overhaul in how it views recreational fishing and we believe this Congress can help."
Congress mandated extensive improvements to recreational data collection programs in the 2006 MSA reauthorization. "Unfortunately, NMFS has not met its mandates," Moore said. "The problems with MRFSS have been well-documented for years and it took an act of Congress to get NMFS to move on this, but the process has been slow."
South Carolina charter and party boat Captain Mark Brown said "NMFS continues to move forward like a run-away train," and testified that MSA requirements were leading to the draconian management measures on the red snapper fishery. "These measures are due to the mandates of the rigid and inflexible timeframes set forth within the MSA and are being forced upon the fishermen without sound statistics and without a clear understanding of why fisheries managers are forced to accept scientific information that makes absolutely no sense," Brown said, while vocalizing his support for the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act.
Sponsored in the House by Rep. Frank Pallone (HR 1584) and in the Senate by Sen. Charles Schumer (S 1255), this "flexibility" legislation would extend the time period for rebuilding certain overfished fisheries provided that certain conditions are met. Pallone noted that because the best available science is generally uncertain, it creates total allowable landing figures that unduly restrict the fishermen, which contributes to his concerns about the rebuilding targets. "Other factors should be included in determining rebuilding targets besides fishing, for instance are environmental factors such as the development and degradation of estuaries," Pallone said, adding that the best way to address these issues in his opinion is through HR 1584 and S 1255.
"Magnuson is clearly a broken instrument of the law that needs to be fixed to allow for more access, conservation, and rebuilding," said Capt. Brown in his testimony.
Click here to read the full RFA report from the October 27 hearing in DC.
To download a copy of Herb Moore's submitted comments to Congress, click here.
For an archived audio version, visit http://resourcescommittee.house.gov.
About Recreational Fishing Alliance
The Recreational Fishing Alliance is a national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation's saltwater fisheries. For more information, call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit www.joinrfa.org.
RFA & ALLIES WILL SUE TO REOPEN SEA BASS FISHERY
“UNPRECEDENTED” FEDERAL CLOSURE FORCES FISHERMEN INTO LEGAL ACTION
In the midst of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, our federal government has chosen to shut down the recreational fishery for black sea bass for the next six months (effective Monday, October 5, 2009) based on survey data that’s been described as “fatally flawed” by the National Academy of Sciences (read “Fatally Flawed" Science is Killing America's Number One Outdoor Pastime special report at www.joinrfa.org.)
The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) and our local industry allies from New York to the Carolinas are fighting back against this unprecedented and unwarranted shutdown of the black sea bass fishery by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). RFA members throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic believe this is a battle that must be fought, regardless of the outcome and have demanded that we take action. What is at stake is nothing less than our very future as recreational fishermen, and the future of our recreational fishing industry.
During the first days of the closure, a grassroots effort within the recreational fishing community resulted in a successful pledge drive of support for legal action. At the same time, a team of qualified fisheries attorneys and industry professionals was reviewing NMFS’ federal ruling and poring through pages of legal documentation to develop a proper legal strategy. Tackle shop owners and party/charter captains up and down the East Coast, along with scores of individual anglers and RFA members who’ve had enough of these arbitrary federal decisions, have been making donations to the RFA Legal Defense Fund, established specifically for issues like this.
Our legal team is currently working on our plan of attack; now it’s time that we ask individual anglers to come together and support this effort!
According to the scientists' own data, black sea bass is a healthy stock - they are not overfished, no overfishing is occurring, and the most recent stock assessment places the spawning stock biomass (SSB) at 103% of their target. In fact, the SSB has been at or above this level for the past decade. Yet, despite this scientific information, the recreational angling community is being denied access to this vitally important fishery due to “fatally flawed” information coming from the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey, or MRFSS.
What’s worse is that there seems to be no end in sight to the MRFSS assault. Today it’s the complete shutdown of a healthy sea bass fishery. Next, we can expect an impact on the summer flounder limits for 2010, and scup soon after that. Could striped bass be next? How about tog? If “fatally flawed” data has not impacted your favorite fishery, rest assured it will happen soon enough if we don’t take a stand today. Where does it end if we allow the federal government to continue to use a broken system to deny recreational anglers access to healthy fisheries?
The RFA has assembled an experienced legal team to take on the case to overturn the federal shutdown of the recreational black sea bass fishery. The attorneys involved are fishermen themselves who have fought these battles before so they know this specialized area of the law and there’s no learning curve to be climbed. They’ve already begun working on the case and have formulated a preliminary strategy to challenge this closure under existing federal law.
Litigation is inherently uncertain, and there’s no way to guarantee a successful outcome. However, you can guarantee that if NMFS gets away with this closure, there will be more recreational closures to come. In the coming days, we will be drafting an official complaint which demands that the improper closure of sea bass be set aside.
Now it’s time we unite and show the federal government that recreational anglers will not tolerate arbitrary and capricious regulatory actions that inhibit our ability to utilize a healthy resource, thus violating the very laws set forth by the Magnuson Stevens Act.
If you’re a member of the recreational fishing industry who has already committed to the fight with a pledge, you can support this effort by sending a check today made payable to the “RFA Legal Defense Fund” as follows:
RFA Legal Defense Fund
PO Box 3080
New Gretna, NJ 08224
Please be sure to write "Sea Bass" in the memo of the check and make a notation on the outside of the envelope to the same effect. Your timely response is to the benefit of us all. The Recreational Fishing Alliance will be dedicating all checks made payable to the RFA Legal Defense Fund directly towards these legal efforts outlined above. All donations will be tracked individually, from all groups and individual anglers.
he RFA has also set up a special online account through PayPal in which individual anglers can also make a donation. Many of the tackle shops and captains who rely on your valued service have pledged up to $500 apiece towards the fight. As an individual angler trying to make an honest stand in a tough economy, whatever donation you can offer towards the RFA Legal Defense Fund will be much appreciated.
Visit www.joinrfa.org and look for the DONATE button on the homepage to support the RFA Legal Defense Fund. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation’s saltwater fisheries. To protect your right to fish tomorrow, join the RFA today at www.joinrfa.org or by calling 888-JOIN-RFA.
In the midst of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, our federal government has chosen to shut down the recreational fishery for black sea bass for the next six months (effective Monday, October 5, 2009) based on survey data that’s been described as “fatally flawed” by the National Academy of Sciences (read “Fatally Flawed" Science is Killing America's Number One Outdoor Pastime special report at www.joinrfa.org.)
The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) and our local industry allies from New York to the Carolinas are fighting back against this unprecedented and unwarranted shutdown of the black sea bass fishery by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). RFA members throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic believe this is a battle that must be fought, regardless of the outcome and have demanded that we take action. What is at stake is nothing less than our very future as recreational fishermen, and the future of our recreational fishing industry.
During the first days of the closure, a grassroots effort within the recreational fishing community resulted in a successful pledge drive of support for legal action. At the same time, a team of qualified fisheries attorneys and industry professionals was reviewing NMFS’ federal ruling and poring through pages of legal documentation to develop a proper legal strategy. Tackle shop owners and party/charter captains up and down the East Coast, along with scores of individual anglers and RFA members who’ve had enough of these arbitrary federal decisions, have been making donations to the RFA Legal Defense Fund, established specifically for issues like this.
Our legal team is currently working on our plan of attack; now it’s time that we ask individual anglers to come together and support this effort!
According to the scientists' own data, black sea bass is a healthy stock - they are not overfished, no overfishing is occurring, and the most recent stock assessment places the spawning stock biomass (SSB) at 103% of their target. In fact, the SSB has been at or above this level for the past decade. Yet, despite this scientific information, the recreational angling community is being denied access to this vitally important fishery due to “fatally flawed” information coming from the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey, or MRFSS.
What’s worse is that there seems to be no end in sight to the MRFSS assault. Today it’s the complete shutdown of a healthy sea bass fishery. Next, we can expect an impact on the summer flounder limits for 2010, and scup soon after that. Could striped bass be next? How about tog? If “fatally flawed” data has not impacted your favorite fishery, rest assured it will happen soon enough if we don’t take a stand today. Where does it end if we allow the federal government to continue to use a broken system to deny recreational anglers access to healthy fisheries?
The RFA has assembled an experienced legal team to take on the case to overturn the federal shutdown of the recreational black sea bass fishery. The attorneys involved are fishermen themselves who have fought these battles before so they know this specialized area of the law and there’s no learning curve to be climbed. They’ve already begun working on the case and have formulated a preliminary strategy to challenge this closure under existing federal law.
Litigation is inherently uncertain, and there’s no way to guarantee a successful outcome. However, you can guarantee that if NMFS gets away with this closure, there will be more recreational closures to come. In the coming days, we will be drafting an official complaint which demands that the improper closure of sea bass be set aside.
Now it’s time we unite and show the federal government that recreational anglers will not tolerate arbitrary and capricious regulatory actions that inhibit our ability to utilize a healthy resource, thus violating the very laws set forth by the Magnuson Stevens Act.
If you’re a member of the recreational fishing industry who has already committed to the fight with a pledge, you can support this effort by sending a check today made payable to the “RFA Legal Defense Fund” as follows:
RFA Legal Defense Fund
PO Box 3080
New Gretna, NJ 08224
Please be sure to write "Sea Bass" in the memo of the check and make a notation on the outside of the envelope to the same effect. Your timely response is to the benefit of us all. The Recreational Fishing Alliance will be dedicating all checks made payable to the RFA Legal Defense Fund directly towards these legal efforts outlined above. All donations will be tracked individually, from all groups and individual anglers.
he RFA has also set up a special online account through PayPal in which individual anglers can also make a donation. Many of the tackle shops and captains who rely on your valued service have pledged up to $500 apiece towards the fight. As an individual angler trying to make an honest stand in a tough economy, whatever donation you can offer towards the RFA Legal Defense Fund will be much appreciated.
Visit www.joinrfa.org and look for the DONATE button on the homepage to support the RFA Legal Defense Fund. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation’s saltwater fisheries. To protect your right to fish tomorrow, join the RFA today at www.joinrfa.org or by calling 888-JOIN-RFA.
Big News a Comin'
After you read the next two newest posts you might want to try these telephone numbers and E Mail addresses.
Jane Lubchenco 1-202-482-3436 or try this Website address...
jane.lubchenco@noaa.gov.
See if you get a response.
Jane Lubchenco 1-202-482-3436 or try this Website address...
jane.lubchenco@noaa.gov.
See if you get a response.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
latest update
Hang in there. Waiting for an E Mail from RFA. Maybe a website or two to rattle their heads. !!!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
current status
OK. So we think the radio interview went well. We were REALLY impressed with the spot just before ours. At least someone else agrees the people involved with NMFS and NOAA are CLUELESS and are relying on INCORRECT data. Hope you all got to listen to a true and experienced voice (Dusty) not just ours. More info on RFA is coming soon. They may just have the answer. Hang in there with us. Oh, and thanx for ALL your support regarding your E Mails,telephone calls and letters to your legislators. This is the ONLY weapon we have to deal with these people. REMEMBER ELECTION TIME IS NEAR.
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