South Carolina Fishing Reports - RFA - South Carolina - Letter to Senator DeMint from RFA-SC S.632 - Recreational Fishing Alliance – South Carolina Chapter 530 Reid Street Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 March 28, 2011 The Honorable Jim DeMint United States Senate
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South Carolina Fishing Reports - RFA - South Carolina - Letter to Senator DeMint from RFA-SC S.632 - Recreational Fishing Alliance – South Carolina Chapter 530 Reid Street Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 March 28, 2011 The Honorable Jim DeMint United States Senate
South Carolina Offshore Fishing :: View topic - Letter to Senator DeMint from RFA-SC S.632
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:04 pm Post subject: Letter to Senator DeMint from RFA-SC S.632
Recreational Fishing Alliance – South Carolina Chapter
530 Reid Street
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
March 28, 2011
The Honorable Jim DeMint
United States Senate
167 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator DeMint:
We are writing to request that you add your name as a co-sponsor of Senate bill 632, which amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA) to add much needed flexibility for federal fisheries management. S. 632 was introduced this year by Senator Charles Schumer and co-sponsored by Senator Richard Burr, among others.
Recreational fishing in South Carolina was worth over $1.5 billion in 2006 according to a study by the American Sportfishing Association, but since that time the federal agencies responsible for managing our marine fisheries have implemented and sought increasingly draconian and unprecedented restrictions on our fisheries based on a federally mandated timeline for all fisheries. The agencies tell us MSFCMA is currently written in a way that allows no flexibility for them to regulate these fisheries otherwise.
Thousands of small business owners across this state who depend upon commercial and recreational fishing are already struggling simply to survive. At the same time, local biologists and fishermen see the vast majority of our fisheries as healthy or greatly progressing towards being fully rebuilt due to the successful conservation measures that have been in place. The problem is the managers are forced to meet the arbitrary and inflexible timelines in MSFCMA by any means necessary, which often includes use of extremely poor quality data and often what can only be described as mere speculation in some cases.
Fisheries managers need the ability to manage diverse fisheries based on their immediate health rather than with a “one size fits all” process that forces decisions to be made with increasingly subjective “best available” science to meet an arbitrary timeline. In our view, national fisheries conservation and management is not in any way a “one size fits all” proposition, and the thousands of struggling small businesses dependent upon recreational fishing across this state deserve better. We therefore urge you to support flexibility in rebuilding our fisheries and become a co-sponsor of S. 632.
Thank you for your hard work, and please contact us any time we can help you.
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South Carolina Fishing Reports - RFA - South Carolina - Letter to Senator DeMint from RFA-SC S.632 - Recreational Fishing Alliance – South Carolina Chapter 530 Reid Street Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 March 28, 2011 The Honorable Jim DeMint United States Senate
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