Bob Jones Urges Congress to Kill Bill to Take Red Snapper out of Federal Jurisdiction
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Opinion] by Bob Jones June 15, 2016
Bob Jones is the Executive Director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association
HR 3094, which in being marked up by the House Natural Resources Committee today, would remove Red Snapper from Federal Fisheries Management. The Southeaster Fisheries Association released this statement:
HR 3094 will scuttle, by action and precedence, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). We believe the MSA has done much to make US fishery resources sustainable.
Before there was a federal fishery management zone, commercial fishermen brought their issues before the state legislatures. They were assured fair hearings by legislative committees. Then some state fish commissions, in Florida for example, assumed the management without legislative oversight. The Florida Marine Fisheries Commission did come under the Governor and SIX elected Cabinet Officers for a few years where fishery issues were fully discussed.
Then an autonomous Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission was established so the commercial fishermen came under a SEVEN person group.
In Florida we started out under a 160 member legislature, then down to a SEVEN member commission and now HR 3094 places us and a billion dollar seafood industry under the whims of THREE people
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