Fed regs killing snapper with dynamite

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh My! Tom, I guess you better get your tin foil hat and run for the hills. You accuse everyone else of astroturfing, who foots your bills to troll fishing message boards peddling your message?

 

Did I say something that isn't true and documented? This is social media - very effective in getting the message out to the masses without having to pay Public Relation firms or fund/create front groups as The Environmental Defense Fund has been doing for the last few years. You ACTUALLY deny this?

The tin foil hat stuff - very "original" and illustrates your lack of self-determination and your very willingness to be a sheep here CDB.

From the dictionary;
"SELF DETERMINATION 1. the power or ability to make a decision for oneself without influence from outside."

I can document who is footing whose bills here - you calling it a conspiracy theory only draws attention to your being a fool in this charade.

Nobody is paying me to bring this information to light - I do this for the current and future generations of Gulf fishermen - nothing more, nothing less.

 

Right. So you altruistically troll fishing message boards trying to counter the evil powers that be that are nefariously trying to subvert the fishery. Yeah right.

 

Trolling the message boards? Just trying to keep everyone honest here, and when you are talking about the unsavory characters involved in this catch share scam, that's pretty much a full-time job unfortunately.

There is a LOT of misinformation and flat out lying going here for the last few years by the CFA guys - there is no denying that fact.

There is a LOT of money flowing to CFA and The Shareholders Alliance from EDF - there is no denying that fact.

Improving the data does not require the privatization of our Public Trust Resources, yet THAT is the ONLY solution as far as EDF/CFA/NMFS goes - there is no denying that fact.

It's time for us to find some common ground on improving the data, if THAT is truly what the end goal here is. The iSnapper program just may have some funding for private recs to use iSnapper this summer - that would be a good start in my book.

 

I work for one of those offshore oil companies, and we would like nothing more than to permanently plug our wells and leave the structures - because a lot of us are fisherman, and it costs an incredible amount of money to decommission platforms. Explosives are usually used because using divers to cut platform legs is extremely dangerous to the divers. Human life takes priority.

BSEE won't let us leave the structures, so they have to come out. The artificial reef sites are good, but they are probably not easily accessed by all fisherman (not enough of them).

Tom, not sure where you got your information, but platforms are not considered EFH by the feds so BSEE has free reign to make us remove them.

Oilpatch, you are correct, plenty of new shelf activity going on, but unfortunately, I do think there is a serious net loss of structures on the shelf.

 

Seems to be all in TX the decommissioning. Or there so damn many in LA I just haven't noticed lol.

 

Oilpatch,
Whether or not the attorneys have parsed the definition of EFH to include the complex ecosystems that have been built around the thousands of oil platforms, it is a moot point. The fact is that if ANYONE else was caught dynamiting and causing the destruction of the millions of corals, fans, invertebraes, etc. - we would be sent to jail, but you are correct, our federal government is endorsing the wholesale destruction of these ecosystems without any plan to mitigate the loss of that habitat. I'm not blaming the oil companies, just pointing out the hypocrisy and ineptitude of our federal fisheries management system.
Best,
Tom

 

Tom I actually agree with a lot what you say. My first posts in this thread were aimed at a member who claimed that in a decade we were going have to go off the shelf to fish. Was stating he had obviously never been to Venice or fourchon. That's all. If that is the case they had better ramp up this process ten-fold. Yes if you are in TX the chart plotter shows many many rigs that area no longer there. Not so noticeable in LA.

 

Tom I actually agree with a lot what you say. My first posts in this thread were aimed at a member who claimed that in a decade we were going have to go off the shelf to fish. Was stating he had obviously never been to Venice or fourchon. That's all. If that is the case they had better ramp up this process ten-fold. Yes if you are in TX the chart plotter shows many many rigs that area no longer there. Not so noticeable in LA.

 

Next year their might not even be a Snapper Season off Texas coast, just think no recreational Snapper, but you can go to the nearest Fish Market and buy as much as you want!!!!! Thanks to our wonderful goverment. SO MUCH for snapper !!! I'm going to pound YFT bigger fish bigger fight.

 

was it trollin or mostly jigs good to hear about the crazy snappers not sure to pick tuna or them

 

I like the idea of keeping the cutoffs because it retains a habitat for fish. I love fishing the cutoffs in the South for AJ etc. I think the temporary loss of rig fish is collateral damage and certainly better than human loss of life. The issue is that the people benefiting from the cutoff rigs (Charter captains, recreational etc) don't have any skin in the game. It would be nice to see the rigs to reefs program expanded to include cutoffs etc . Without these, and other reef projects it's hard to maintain the current fish population with current fishing pressure. Maybe have an offshore license OR an inshore license. Tax the offshore or charge more for offshore licenses and use the money for offshore rigs/reefs. Don't shoot anyone