re: Snapper reports?

I mean that we asked for regional management. This is what happened when we did what we had to do to move towards regional management.

Were you at the LDWF and Gulf Council meetings?

Which partisan politician is finger pointing? Look, this snapper issue is like getting in shape. The first few weeks at the gym suck and hurt, but the payoff will be good over time.

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I cant think of any other federal laws that are based on what state you are from. If they have a quota for the entire gulf, then they essentially view the entire gulf as one location. So if I pull up to the same rig as someone from Alabama, he can legally catch fish and I can be prosecuted for it? Just sounds like federal discrimination to me. Can someone explain how this is legal?

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The Fed has a uniform law, state quotas. The STATES are electing not to obey this uniform law. The point of the Fed action is to try to keep the state quotas uniform, not the enforcement activities.

I totally understand what you are getting at, but it's just not the case.

Now the state is asking us all to submit our daily catch when we hit the dock. The fed can then subpoena that information and use it to ratchet down the remaining quota. It just feels like there's "one step forward, two steps back" in our near future.

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If they have a quota for the entire gulf, then they essentially view the entire gulf as one location

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Let me cloud this thing up a little more. There was some backroom BS that went down at last GC meeting with the Charter Rep from FL changing her vote after a closed meeting at lunch. They also voted to give NOAA the authority in case of emergency to shut down federal waters off individual states coastlines. Is it legal? Don't know, but I doubt it makes it through the court system to benefit LA anglers this season if it isn't.

I like how they threw MS and AL a bone and made their seasons longer.

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Go frick yourself.

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Whoa dude. Jester not so jolly today?

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I have also spoken to LDWF scientists who disagree with the way the state proceeded.

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Has to be the same guys that got on their knees and blew Crabtree at the Commision meeting. Same guys that said rigs only provide a limited amount of structure for snapper.

If you have some alternative answer for this debacle, please let me know. Status quo wasn't it. I was all for the shortened season and bag limits year ago, they were getting pounded. Now I catch them on top, on trolling baits and in places I've never seen them and I've been going out there since 76. The red snapper should have been a poster child for proper management and the Feds have figured out a way to screw up success.

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Has to be the same guys that got on their knees and blew Crabtree at the Commision meeting. Same guys that said rigs only provide a limited amount of structure for snapper.

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I can say without a doubt that it was not the same guys, but I'll leave it at that. I can assure you these would never dare go on record opposing "the plan."

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If you have some alternative answer for this debacle, please let me know. Status quo wasn't it.

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At this point, for this season, and until the higher courts OVERTURN a federal law, the status quo was better for me, as a fisherman, than where we are today. If the courts do not rule in our favor, we definitely could end up in a worse place. Does the state then crawfish back into compliance?

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I was all for the shortened season and bag limits year ago, they were getting pounded. Now I catch them on top, on trolling baits and in places I've never seen them and I've been going out there since 76. The red snapper should have been a poster child for proper management and the Feds have figured out a way to screw up success.

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I agree with this. Again, they have come back, but I think changing the way they survey (including artificial reef fish) would be far more beneficial not only to us as fisherman, but to the fisheries as a whole. This could also be used to more adequately fight the dismantling of rigs.

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The point of the Fed action is to try to keep the state quotas uniform

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Except for the fact that the states do not have uniform habitat or fish populations. IF the entire gulf had as many rigs as TX/LA then maybe.

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The point of the Fed action is to try to keep the state quotas uniform

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Why do they want uniform state quotas?

They don't want the state quotas to be uniform. They have a quota known as TAC for all of the gulf based on recreational and commercial catch. The reason we have 9 days as opposed to the other states 20+ days is because we hold the largest amount of snapper off our coast and they believe our new state season will exponentially increase the TAC so they countered it by giving us a short federal season. The only problem is that the Feds assessment on total catch is a complete mythical estimation with no concrete numbers. They have no clue how many fish louisiana recreational fisherman catch and thats why i like the states new measures of requiring snapper landing reports if selected to give one. This information will prove to the feds that their math is off. They also don't take into account all the new habitat that has been created since taking snapper population assessments. All that new habitat has created exponentially more snapper that they don't even take into account for calculating the health of the red snapper stocks since they only check natural bottom for red snapper stocks.