Father’s Day Fishing Trip

The SAFMC refused to wisely manage the quotas with Trip Poundage Limits at the meeting in Orlando. They were to busy selling our Freedom. This means that the derby fisheries will continue and we must go catch some fish to pay the bills before the closures start coming.

The weather was nice for the most part and we caught some grouper, black sea bass, and silver snapper. I tried to stay inshore so we would not have to discard many vermilion snapper. We witnessed one of the unintended consequences of our fisheries mismanagement as we fished inshore. The bass pot buoys were everywhere and created a navigational hazard. The rope will wrap around the propeller if you run over one. We would then have to dive under the boat to cut the rope out. Most of the bass pot fishing in North Carolina went on during the winter months when other fish are not as available. Now the bass are flooding the market and driving down the price. Fishermen feel like they have to catch what they can when they can. The lower prices force fishermen to catch more fish and fill the quota quicker. I will ask the council at the next meeting if they are grossly incompetent or maliciously trying to waste our resources, destroy our businesses, and take our freedom.

I have warned the SAFMC and the environmental groups that the derby fisheries drastically cut our income and greatly increase our chances of injury or death. They do not care! We knew that there was a threat of thunderstorms before we went fishing. We had no choice but to go because the bills were stacking up. We had a storm come up on us Saturday night. It started  a few miles away and I tried taking some pictures. It seemed to be sitting still and I caught a few strikes. The storm died down and we ate some fresh grilled mahi mahi  and salad for dinner. Delicious. We got some sleep after that only to be woken up by the delicate sound of thunder growing louder with each passing minute. The storm got closer and the clouds burst open with blinding light and deafening thunder. I prayed that GOD would watch over us and keep us safe. Thank you LORD for answering my prayer. I only wish the entire council and the environmentalist could have been there. They might have a little more compassion on their fellow-man and get to know GOD better.

The storms continued on Father’s Day and we worked inshore some more to get away from them. We caught some nice grouper and even broke a rod getting a big one out of a rock. We got him though. We also caught one of the red snapper that are so “rare” that we are forced to discard every one we catch. The good news is that the water was shallow enough that I believe it lived.

The derby fisheries will kill more fishermen and close one fishery after another. This is so wrong and can be fixed so easily. Please call Council Chairman, Duane Harris at (912) 388-3183 and the NMFS Regional Administrator, Roy Crabtree at (727) 824-5301. Please politely ask them to wisely manage the Annual Catch Limits with Trip Poundage Limits set high for the first 75% of the quota and adjusted lower for the remaining 25%. This simple action would stabilize the weakening market for our fish with a dependable supply, make efficient use of the resource, almost eliminate by catch, save businesses, save lives and preserve liberty. Thank you for helping hard-working American fishermen responsibly harvest our Nation’s seafood  and give you access to it. Remember that an attack on commercial fishermen is also an attack on your freedom to eat fresh and safe local seafood.

Bureaucrats Sold Our Freedom for $2,000

Nine members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council sold our freedom last week for $2,000. I gave my public comments on Tuesday. I called on the members that felt compelled by hard deadlines and congress to pass Amendment 17A, to resign in protest. I asked them not to take our freedom, waste our resources, and destroy our businesses. The “men” that had told me they would not pass these laws on their loved ones, sold our freedom for $2,000. These are just 13 unelected bureaucrats that meet 4 times a year for a week. The are paid with our tax dollars to rule us with an iron fist and they have the full weight of the federal government behind them. They look down on us with contempt as we plead for mercy at their meetings. They are leeches on society. One of the evil leeches told a fellow fisherman “that he understood that I enjoyed commercial fishing for a living and was succesful, but I needed to join the rest of the human race and find another job even if it wasn’t what I enjoyed to do.” These are the kind of people our government has sent to help us. We did not ask for their help. The regulations they had put in place over the past couple of decades have worked well. They claim to have mismanaged most of those fisheries to the point of collapse. Most of America’s fisheries are recovering from overfishing in the 70′s and 80′s. There are only a handful of commercial fishermen left to keep our heritage alive and continue giving you access to safe American seafood. We are an endangered species. We are not destroying the sea the way environmentalist and bureaucrats would like to say we are. There have been some bad fishermen and fishing practices in the past and I am sure there are still a few today. The vast majority of commercial fishermen love the water and want to responsibly harvest our Nation’s seafood and give you access to it.  

Plato said long ago that “The price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men.” The apathy of many fishermen including myself has left us to be ruled by evil men. It is not to late for us to stand united with the American people who we provide with fresh seafood. We the people have the power to demand common sense regulations based on sound science that allow hard-working American fishermen to survive. Those bureaucrats think the American people will sit by and do nothing as they attack a minority group without the money, power, or numbers to defend itself. They depend on apathy to allow them to slowly cut away at our liberty. This is a chance to take a stand and stop the evils of bureaucracy from destroying a way of life that goes back to days of Jesus and before. Commercial fishing cannot be that bad if Jesus and some of his apostles did it. 

The Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke still has to sign his name to Amendments 17A and B. He is the last man standing between common sense and the closure of most of the U.S. South Atlantic sea floor to recreational and commercial fishing. Please contact Sec. Locke and ask him not to sign Amendments 17A and B. It is just that simple. We can keep this freedom to fish if enough Americans will take a few minutes to do this. Please do not sit by apathetically and do nothing as evil triumphs over a minority group that is the real endangered species. Please remember that this is your freedom to fish or enjoy safe American seafood. Here is the Secretary’s contact information.

Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke                                                U.S. Department of Commerce 1401 Constitution Ave., NW Washington, DC 20230

1-202-482-2000

TheSec@doc.gov

Headed to Orlando to Defend our Freedom

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) will be meeting at the Renaissance Orlando Airport Hotel, June 7-11. They will begin working on the Trip Poundage Limits (TPL’s) we have been asking for. The council member that contacted me said they would be to busy passing 17A to put TPL’s in place at this meeting. They could pass an emergency proclamation to put them in place at this meeting if they cared about the fish or the fishermen. They are far more interested in mandating the waste of our resources and taking our freedom with their corrupt law. 

Amendment 17A will do many terrible things to the fish, fishermen, and every American that enjoys our Nation’s seafood. The first thing it will do is close 6,000 square miles of our sea floor to recreational and commercial bottom fishing. It will force all fishermen to discard every Red Snapper we catch. They think the circle hooks they will force us to use will reduce release mortality. They have no idea what they are doing. The circle hooks break the jaw of a fish if they are not properly removed. That released fish then slowly starves to death. How compassionate of them. The government scientists will determine when the quota is met by guessing when enough of the discarded snapper have starved to death or died from decompression damage. Amendment 17A will give those unelected bureaucrats the power to take “unspecified drastic action” to stop the capture of any more Red Snapper when the quota is met. They can close most of the U.S. South Atlantic sea floor to all bottom fishing. They will hire anyone but the fishermen that know how and where to catch snapper to go out and do independent sampling to collect data on them. Why can’t we keep at least 1 per person per day to collect the data and not waste the resource? I know why. That would make sense.   

We the people can stop this attack on our freedom if we stand united. I will be going to Orlando to fight in person. There are some simple things you can do at home to help. You can contact the SAFMC and NMFS to ask them to put Trip Poundage Limits in place now with the emergency rule. Please also ask them not to take your freedom with Amendment 17A. You can call the Sec. of Commerce, Gary Locke and ask him not to sign Amendment 17A or B into law. 17B has been passed by the council and is waiting for his signature. That law will take our freedom to bottom fish anywhere beyond 240 feet of water from Virginia to Key West. That closure is due to the lack of data on Warsaw Grouper and Speckled Hind. They maliciously cut away at Lady Liberty with their laws based on ignorance. She is dying the death of a 1,000 cuts at the hands of politicians and bureaucrats that are just trying to “help”. Please help me fight the evils of bureaucracy that Joseph Pew warned of with the purchase of a calendar. I do not want a hand out but I do need your help defending our freedom. You can see more about the calendar at the Natural Art Photography Shop. Here is the contact information for the Sec. of Commerce, SAFMC, and NMFS.

Sec. of Commerce, Gary Locke   TheSec@doc.gov  (202)482-2000

NMFS Regional Administrator, Roy Crabtree (727)824-5301

SAFMC safmc@safmc.net  866-723-6210

Thank you for your support. We can make our government do the right things if we stand together. Please make a few phone calls if nothing else. Remember the Edmond Burke quote. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” I call on you to do something to stop the triumph of evil over common sense and the freedom GOD gave us. I also ask you to pray that my trip will be safe and successful.

Good News

I am happy to report on something good. That complaining about how bad our fishery is being managed was getting old. I have to point out the problems but I want to work together to fix them. A voting member of the SAFMC called me today. He wanted to talk with me about Trip Poundage Limits (TPL’s) for vermilion snapper. Our united voice is getting their attention. He said they would be trying to put TPL’s in place for vermilion snapper at the June Meeting. It sounds like they will set the TPL high for the first %75 of the quota and reduce the TPL for the remaining %25 to a level that will leave the season open for most of the year. I thanked him for listening and told him that should be the model for the rest of the fish they manage. He is a good man who has voted to defend our freedom. I would like to thank the members of the council that have opposed Amendments based on admittedly flawed data. I renew my call on those members that feel compelled by congress to take their fellow American’s jobs, heritage, pride, and freedom, TO STEP DOWN. RESIGN IN PROTEST! DO NOT TAKE MY FREEDOM!

This is great news. It changes my approach to the June meeting. We still have to stop Amendment 17A. We must also work with the council to set the TPL at that meeting. I will write a letter opposing 17A and laying out my vision of how the fishery should be managed. This will also be my written comments that I submit at the meeting. I am asking you to send signed copies of the letter to the SAFMC, NMFS, NOAA, and the SEC. of Commerce if you agree with it. You can request a copy at freefish7@hotmail.com. Stand with me. Send the letters and we will win this battle. Thank you for your support.

Stand with me and our united voice will win!

My Fellow Americans,

Time is running out. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) is going to pass Amendment 17 A at the June meeting in Orlando. That terrible Amendment will give those unelected bureaucrats the power to take “unspecified drastic action” as they see fit. Read their spring newsletter at www.safmc.net to see a sugar-coated version of what they are doing.

The SAFMC has shown gross incompetence in the management measures they have enforced so far. They claim to have mismanaged our fishery to the point of collapse for decades. Council Chairman, Duanne Harris testified before Congress on Oct. 27 2009. He said that the current data delivery system is grossly inadequate to properly implement the system of annual catch limits (ACLs), accountability measures (AMs), and management measures that the Council is establishing in Snapper Grouper FMP Amendments 17A and 17B and the Comprehensive ACL Amendment. The current mismanagement has turned a recovering fishery into a wasteful, destructive, unsafe, and unprofitable nightmare. We have to stop them from passing any more Amendments that take more freedom, destroy more lives, and waste more resources. 

The hard deadlines that PEW “charitable” Trust, EDF, Oceana, and others lobbied Congress to include in the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, require the use of admittedly flawed best available data. The hard deadlines also force the council to take swift and drastic action. Our President appointed Dr. Jane Lubchenco as the NOAA Administrator. She was working for Pew before that. She is a special interest insider from a Billion Dollar multi national “charitable organization”. She is in control of NMFS and every fishery management council in America. That seems like a conflict of interest. The commercial fishermen they are so callously attacking are a minority group. Does that mean that their attacks are a hate crime? The fishermen and our proud heritage are an endangered species. Would they have mercy on us if we were some indigenous tribe that progress threatened? I have pleaded for mercy from these “charities” and received none.  

We have a chance to stop a massive bureaucracy from using bad science and hard deadlines to crush our Liberty and destroy our fishery. I truly fear for our Country if all of our Government agencies are run like NOAA, NMFS, and the SAFMC. They are all layers of one big bureaucracy under the Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke. We must stand united against this Billion Dollar bureaucracy and their attacks on our GOD given freedom to fish. They count on the apathy of those not directly affected by their laws. They think you will do nothing as evil triumphs over a minority group without the power, money, or numbers to defend itself. I call on all of my fellow Liberty Loving Americans to stand with me and peacefully defend this freedom I love. I will stand with you if a freedom you cherish is threatened and you are willing to defend it. This stand could be the one that exposes the corruption and abuse of authority that plagues most government bureaucracies with the power to help you. Please read my posts to learn what I am asking you to do. I have a way to fund this fight and I am willing to peacefully defend our GOD given freedom until it is safe.

The SAFMC meeting in Orlando will have a live video feed at www.safmc.net for the Mon. meeting at 6:00 PM and Tue. at 6:30 PM. You can watch as I ask the council questions like these. Who writes these Amendments? Has every council member read the entire Amendment 17A? What kind of “unspecified drastic action” does the council intend to take? Why can’t we keep the Red Snapper we catch until the ACL is filled? The scientists would not have to guess at how many discarded Red Snapper have died. They will have accurate data that lets everyone know when the ACL is met. Then the council can take their”unspecified drastic action” to stop the by catch of any Red Snapper. Data could be collected from the fish and fishermen without the great expense of research vessels.                

This site is not just about selling calendars. That is just my way of using the talent GOD gave me and the free market to create another source of income for myself and fund my fight. The more money I raise, the harder and longer I can fight.

 Please read my postings.  Then print, sign and mail the letter I attached in the Updated Plans posting to the addresses provide. All I ask of you is to mail a few letters out and consider buying a quality product you need anyway and also makes a great gift. I would also like to get as many people as I can, to stand with me as I speak to the council. It would send a powerful message to them if my fellow Americans were lined up down the hall and out into the street. Please contact me if you know anyone around Orlando that would be interested in meeting me there. I have spoken at several Tea Party events about this issue. I know what I am talking about and I can deliver my message clearly and firmly. I assure you it will be worth watching on the live video feed. I need to raise the money to get there. I ask non profits to consider buying the calendars in bulk at a discount to resell as a fundraiser. This would be a great way to reach many different markets and help everyone involved. Thank you for your support.

I have reached out to the environmental groups and the Government organizations that influence fishery policy. I did not just complain about what they are doing. I offered common sense solutions to some very real problems. I have been rejected by everyone I talked with. I would like to work together toward a healthy fishery that can be responsibly harvested. I respectfully ask those people and groups mentioned in this post to work with me. I love my fishery and have plans that would make it a model for other fisheries around the world. Please give me a chance to explain my short-term plans to stabilize the fishery, rebuild stocks, and make efficient use of the resource. I have long-term plans that could greatly increase the total biomass the South Atlantic could support. I ask all of these groups to at the very least, provide a dignified way out to fishermen. The money spent putting us out of work could have funded a buy out of the entire South Atlantic snapper grouper fleet. I would also like you to consider this. Is the loss of liberty any less tragic if it is taken with good intentions by fellow Americans, rather than foreign enemies? Please accept my olive branch.        

Natural Art Photography Shop

Thank you for your interest in the 2011 Natural Art calendar. The photos below are in the calendar and are some I have taken while working on or being around the water. I have been blessed to get to see all kinds of great things as a fisherman. I do not use filters or photo shop in my photography. I believe things are perfect the way GOD made them.

 I am having trouble setting up paypal directly on this page. You can place orders at naturalart7@hotmail.com. The calendars are $10 and you can get a 8×10 print of any photo on this sight in an 11×14 matte for $25. I will e-mail you an invoice from paypal. I apologize for the extra steps. This is new to me and I will continue to work on setting it up right. Our Government has taken my ability to earn a living on the water and I needed to get started right away. I need to go to Orlando in June for the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting. The council will be passing Amendment 17 A unless enough good Americans stand with me and peacefully ask them not to take our freedom. That amendment will close thousands of square miles of our sea floor to recreational and commercial fishing. It will also give them the authority to take “unspecified drastic action” to stop the capture of any more Red Snapper after the quota is filled. They will force us to discard every one we catch until they decide enough of them have slowly died from decompression damage to fill the quota. These unelected bureaucrats will then have the power to shut down the entire U.S. South Atlantic with their “unspecified drastic action”. We can still stop this terrible Amendment from becoming law if enough Americans will send the letter and help fund this fight to defend our GOD given freedom. You can read the letter and print it from a word document attached in the Updated Plans post.

I am asking everyone that reads this, to consider giving a calendar as a Fathers Day gift or for any other gift giving day. I hope you will buy one for yourself as well. I am not asking for a hand out. I want to use the free market and the talent GOD gave me to support myself and fund this fight. We can keep this liberty if we stand united. I will stand with you if a freedom you cherish is threatened and you are willing to defend it. Please remember what Edmond Burke said. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Thank you for your support. GOD bless you and this great Nation.

Cinco de Mayo Fishing Trip

The air was thick with the sweet scent of Magnolia blooms after a light rain. The sunset looked like fire in the sky. It was one of those where all the elements line up for a dramatic and beautiful farewell from the sun. I urge parents with young kids to take them out to see those special events and take some pictures while they will still let you. The forecast was calling for light winds and calm seas for the next three days. The grouper and silver snapper had just opened up after a four month closure. The greater amberjacks were legal again after a one month closure. It was time for the mahi to show up. I was getting a little excited about going fishing for the first time in over a month.

The ride out was calm with some fog that got thicker as we went farther out. I love my radar. We tied rigs and sharpened the hooks on the way in anticipation of hungry grouper. We averaged 8 knots on our 40 mile run. There were several ocean sunfish or mola mola on the surface. They are neat looking fish. We had one around 750 pounds come right up behind the boat while we were fishing. I could not get the camera in time for a good picture. Look up mola mola online to see what they look like. I saw one by our boat a few years ago jump high in the air and land on its side with a splash that could be seen a mile away. It is hard to believe they can launch their massive bodies out of the water like that without a tail. 

The water was cold at the first place we checked. We caught an undersized grouper and a few silver snapper. We moved on out a few more miles and only caught small silver snapper. The lead felt ice cold when I brought it up from the bottom. This was not a good thing. The grouper slow down and quit feeding in cold water. I moved offshore to thirty fathoms looking for warmer water. The surface temperature went up to 64 degrees. That is still too cold for mahi in any numbers. The lead came up cold again. We caught a few trigger fish and then the vermilion snapper started biting. The vermilions are illegal to sell but we can keep 5 per person per trip to eat. The grouper did not seem to be feeding in that cold water either. The same thing happened at most of the places we fished. The vermilion snapper were big and biting. We had our limit before the end of the first day. We could have caught enough to have a great trip by the end of three days if we could target them. The refusal of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to wisely manage the low quotas with Trip Poundage Limits caused the fishery to be shut down for over three months. We are forced by their incompetent laws to discard the illegal fish even though many of them will die slowly from decompression damage. This is a slap in the face of GOD and a waste of our Nation’s natural resources. The poor catch and knowing that with common sense laws we could be filling the box, put a damper on the day. 

The next day was calm with a threat of bad weather in the distance. The water got colder over night and the grouper still did not want to bite. We caught a few of them and some trigger fish before noon. They shut down and the vermilion snapper took over. I could not get away from them. I moved inshore about 15 miles because I did not want to keep catching and throwing back fish that would likely die. I was looking for gag grouper and king mackeral. Neither one wanted to bite. The illegal black sea bass like the cooler water and fed aggressively. The lack of Trip Poundage Limits has shut them down for more than six months. The closure on Dec. 21 was an early Christmas present from National Marine Fisheries Service. The vermilion snapper were in there also. I was disgusted by the waste of GOD’s good creations and decided to go home. The water needed to warm up before the legal fish would bite. This was a sad end to a trip with such high expectations.

We sold our handful of trigger fish and three grouper the next morning. This did not even cover the expenses. It would have been a great trip if we could have kept the fish that wanted to bite. Our reward for two days at sea was some bass and snapper to eat. 

This is my common sense solution to the early closures. Set the Trip Poundage Limits high for the first 75% of the quota. Adjust the remaining 25% to a level that will fill the quota without any long closures. This simple action would stabilize the weakening market for our local seafood with a dependable supply. It would almost eliminate by catch and make efficient use of the resource. This would ease our financial burden and allow us to work in safer conditions. I have pleaded with PEW “charitable” Trust, EDF, Oceana, and many other environmental groups to stand with me and demand that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council wisely manage the quotas with Trip Poundage Limits. They all refused to help me. The council’s gross incompetence has turned a recovering fishery into a wasteful, destructive, unsafe, and unprofitable nightmare. I wanted to believe the environmental groups and bureaucrats did not understand all of the negative affects related to the early closures. I have told them loud and clear what is happening. What was their blissful ignorance is now malicious intent to financially devastate fishermen, create by catch, take our freedom, and greatly increase our risk of injury or death. It appears that some of them want fishermen to be so desperate for help that we will accept their catch share scam. They also seem to be creating a by catch crisis that they can use to shut down the entire fishery if they do not get what they want. I need your help in this fight to defend our GOD given freedom to responsibly harvest our Nation’s seafood and give you access to it. I have a letter that you can print out and send to the people I mention in it. Go to freefish7@hotmail.com to request a copy or order a calendar. I need your help funding this fight. I do not want a hand out. I do ask you to buy my calendar of photos I have taken on and around the water. They also make great gifts. Mailing a few letters and the purchase of a calendar is all I ask of my fellow Americans. I will not fish and will focus on this fight to defend our freedom if I can sell enough calendars to pay my bills. I also need to travel to Orlando for the next South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in June. They will be voting on Amendment 17 A. This is a law that will close much of the U.S. South Atlantic sea floor. I will also need to go up to Washington soon. Please consider giving a calendar as a Fathers Day gift. He will like it then and think of you every time he looks at it in 2011. Your purchase of a reasonably priced unique gift will support the free market, fishermen, and the defense of our GOD given freedom.

 Magnolia flower

Harriet L at sunsetThe ride outThank GOD for radarJay sharpening hooksAnother ship in the fogBrad & vermilion snap. Threatning sky nice day                      Eyes bulge from decompressionBlack sea bass to eatThat sucks