Let your feelings on the “Emergency Closure” be known.
Please show your support for the Commercial Fishermen or speak your mind about your own way of life being threatened by submitting a public comment regarding the summary closure of the longline fishery. Follow the “read more” link for how to do this easily. The commercial bottom longline fishery in the Gulf of Mexico is facing an extended closure as a knee jerk reaction to threat of litigation from environmental groups using distorted or false figures to entice the public into supporting their cause.
To file a public comment, follow these simple steps.
- Click Here
- Enter your first & last name under “Submitter Information”
- List “Commercial Fisherman” or “S.O.F.A.” or “Concerned Citizen” as your Organization.
- Cut and Paste all or part of the sample letter below under “Public Comment of Submission” or write your own.
- Click Submit.
- Or: Fax to 727-824-5308 Attention: Cynthia Meyer or mail to Cynthia Meyer, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
SAMPLE LETTER:
Please reverse the Emergency Closure of the Bottom Longline Fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. This step was taken based on inaccurate figures and was not done according to guidelines set out by the ESA, as no current BiOP was used to arrive at the determination that the fishery needed to be closed. It was simply done as a reaction to fear of litigation and to appease environmental groups who use false figures, distorted facts and outright lies to influence the public to support their causes.
Please do not cave in to this kind of pressure. Please join us in insisting that the fishery in question, as well as all American fisheries, be regulated by good science, complete studies and truth, not simply threatened litigation from groups whose tactics bring their true motives into question. The fishery has demonstrated a willingness to work with NOAA and the NMFS, and even with the environmental groups so determined to shut us down, in good faith to arrive at a workable solution to this perceived problem.
This “emergency closure” based on poor science and incomplete figures should never have been implemented. NMFS should work with the fishery, as they have in the past with other fisheries, to develop methods that will help protect endangered species and our natural resources while allowing American workers to continue to work and provide for their families.
Again, you can make your public comment from the website linked here or you can fax your comments to:
727-824-5308 Attention: Cynthia Meyer or mail to Cynthia Meyer, Southeast Regional Office, NMFS, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
