The Honorable Vernon Gale Buchanan
Representative Vernon Gale Buchanan
FL Representative (R -13)
218 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0913
Suggested Message Subject:
Current plan to shut down bottom longlines in Gulf of Mexico is flawed.
Suggested Message Text
The current campaign to gather support for closing down bottom longlining in the Gulf of Mexico (one of the few healthy fisheries in the country) is attempting to hook well meaning people with misdirection, poor data and outright lies into supporting a cause based on emotion not fact.
This summary closure will put thousands of hard working American fishermen and seafood industry workers out of work and unable to support their families in the face of the worst economic times our country has seen in many years, while doing nothing to protect loggerhead turtles from the many very real dangers they do face.
The truth is, the numbers that were used to justify the plan that the Gulf Council has sent to NMFS are based on a small and flawed data set and are far from definitive. Please investigate this matter further before acceding to this emotion driven campaign fostered by environmental groups who simply want to shut down a fishery they believe is destructive despite the lack of any good solid science showing this to be true.
The fishermen have expressed a willingness to work with scientists and observers to arrive at a good strong data set from which we can build a fishery that will be sustainable and healthy on into our children's future, but the Gulf Council ignored this in the face of threats of litigation from the litigation machines of the extremist conservation groups. We cannot collect data or work out gear changes to limit turtle interactions if you and your colleagues allow the Gulf Council and the NMFS to summarily shut down the fishery with nothing but incomplete and flawed data to go on.
We are simply asking you to investigate the numbers these conservation groups are publicizing more carefully before joining in hasty and ill considered action to close a healthy fishery and put thousands of Americans out of work for no real reason. We in the fishing industry are confident that it will only take a close look at the numbers and the lack of data to see that the science and data are just not strong enough to justify closing down a healthy fishery. The participants in the fishery are more than willing to work with scientists to come up with good data and a better plan that would protect the loggerhead turtles while allowing a group of hardworking Americans to continue to work and support their families.
Thank you for your consideration on this matter.
Send a Message
Help bring H.R. 1584 and your support for it to the attention of your Congressmen and Senators. They don't use email so you will have to go to the websites of your Congressman and our two Senators (or your own if you aren't in Florida). The Florida Delegation's contact links and an example message you can copy and paste into the message box on their website are here.
The example message on each link page is for the Turtle vs. Longlines issue. The example message below if for H.R.1584 which is a proposed amendment to the Magnuson-Stevens Act which will, simply put, take away the excuse that NMFS keeps using that the bill gives them "no choice but to close down" fishery after fishery. It will allow for common sense and flexibility to be a part of the regulatory process.
EXAMPLE MESSAGE:
H.R. 1584: Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009 has been introduced and has been sent to the House Committee on Natural Resources . A similar version of this bill has died in committee the past two years. Please do not let this happen this year. This bill proposes nothing more than a common sense approach to fishery regulation that should have been in the re-authorized Magnuson-Stevens Act from the beginning and will help provide some desperately needed relief for beleaguered commercial fisheries and fishermen. Fishermen who are a part of your constituency and fisheries that employ thousands of your constituents both directly and in related peripheral industries such as Seafood Dealers, Truckers, Restaurants, and all tourism related industry. These fishermen are hard working Floridians who need your help in these trying times.