Red Snapper Closure For 6 Months - What are they thinking???

Our friends from Deep Blue Sea sent this to out and I would ask that anyone that enjoys red snapper fishing in the Atlantic please take a few minutes to express your opinion by following the link below.

Dear Fellow Angler,

The SAFMC has voted 7 to 6 in favor of an interim rule request asking
NOAA to close the Red Snapper fishery in the South Atlantic to ALL
fishermen for 6 months.

NOAA is seeking public comment on this interim rule. Unless there is a
large outpouring of dissent from the public, this fishery will be
closed. The closure is based on fatally flawed science and grossly
inadequate economic impact studies.

What can you do? Go to http://safmc.deep-blue-sea.org and tell the NOAA,
Congress, and the Governor what you think. You can enter your comments
in one place, and they will be forwarded to all the public officials and
entered as an official comment. It will take less than 5 minutes, and
may help get Congress understand we have a broken fisheries management
system.

Whats Next?
A Bill has been introduced in the US House to to amend the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to extend the
authorized time period for rebuilding of certain overfished fisheries,
and for other purposes.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1584

A Bill has been introduced to direct the Secretary of Commerce to
conduct a study of the population of the South Atlantic red snapper
fishery, and to limit the authority of the Secretary to promulgate any
interim rule that prohibits fishing in the South Atlantic red snapper
fishery.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3307

A lawsuit has been filed in Federal court by the FRA to overturn the
recent Grouper closure.
http://www.thefra.org/FRA 16 Complaint.htm

Call your congressman and tell them to support HR3307 and HR1584

Senator Nelson 407-872-7161
Senator Martinez 407-254-2573
Congressman Grayson 407-841-1757
Congresswoman Kosmas 407-208-1106
Congressman Posey 321-632-1776
Congressman Mica 407-657-8080

Does it really matter? Public comments are an important part of
fisheries management. If they dont hear from you, they will be making
decisions affecting your access to this fishery without your input. If
access to this fishery is important to you, then it really does matter.

Is this really going to happen? Below is the text directly from the NOAA
web site, you read and decide. You can find more information on Red
Snapper and the SAMFC/NMFS/NOAA at
http://www.deep-blue-sea.org/samfc/snapper.htm.

The proposed rule would implement a prohibition on recreational and
commercial harvest of red snapper for 180 days with the possibility of
extending the interim measures for an additional 186 days. The proposed
interim rule would apply in federal waters off Florida, South Carolina,
North Carolina, and Georgia. However, provisions specified in the
interim rule would also apply to a person on board a vessel for which a
federal commercial or charter/headboat permit for the South Atlantic
snapper-grouper fishery has been issued, regardless of whether the fish
are harvested or possessed in state or federal waters. The Interim rule
is at
http://www.safmc.net/Portals/6/News/FB_Red%20SnappePR_Revised070709.pdf

Webmaster Deep-Blue-Sea.org
John Barber