Obama Oceans Task Force Report

[Zummie]

obama supporters "Are you sorry yet?"

I knew I should have voted for the senile impotent old guy and his empty headed idiot sidekick. I really f__ked up. Well, the idiot sidekick will be running in 2012 so I will get another chance to vote for her.

[Fishfinder]

Hi Charley! Glad to see that you are working with WBA. I received an e-mail this past week from NMF, it was in with alot of bottom fishing regulation changes that are coming up, but the last paragraph mentioned that if the December January sub quotas were not filled for the bluefins that they were going to extend the season until the sub quota was caught. Unfortunately some how I deleted the e-mail. Did you receive or have hear anything about the extention?

Capt. Joe Shute

[F.stop]

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." by Edmund Burke.


"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." not sure who it was written by


let's all stick together on this one guys to protect what matters most to us all as U.S. tax payers and fishermen!!!!

[Sushi50]

Ultralite,

From what I have been told by folks more familiar with CITES than me, just because a country is signatory to the CITES doesn't mean they have to comply with any restrictions imposed. They can take "reservations" with any listings and I am fairly confident most of the big BFT players other than the US would do so, including Japan, for a CITES I or II listing of BFT. And our country is not about to take any military or financial action against countries over BFT when they have terrorism and so many other issues onthe burner.

Further, a CITES II listing would only prevent international trade for those who didn't take a "reservation" - it wouldn't stop US or other fishermen from catching and selling in their own country. This would just decrease profits.

Then there is the hugely profitable black market trade that would increase if a CITES listing were to occur.

So a BFT CITES listing would most likely only hurt US fishermen and make BFT issues very messy.

The best course as I see it is to keep pushing for ICCAT reforms like the 70% quota reduction they imposed on the MED countries last month for 2010, with even more cuts in 2011 and beyond. Let the system work and keep the pressure up.

All of this was covered at the US F&WS pre-CITES meeting in DC a couple weeks ago. I attended and provided comments on behalf of WBA.

Thanks for your interest. Come to our Janaury MHC meeting (TBA) and join WBA if you're interested in supporting our fishery and learning more about the legislative and regulatory issues associated with BFT. We are in the process of reviving WBA, including the website, so look for changes soon.

Capt. Charley Pereira
Winter Bluefin Association
www.winterbluefin.org