Galveston Public Hearing

[JLittle44]

I'm gettin' antsy! Leaving the office in 51min to head down to Galveston. Hope to see you guys there. I'll be the chubby guy with a goatee and a maroon bus shirt. I may also be the guy screaming hysterically whilst launching volleys of molding vegetables.

Hilton
5400 Seawall Blvd.
Galveston, Texas
409-744-1500

[JLittle44]

What the hell guys? I posted this over in the Florida section so that someone would read it. Texas put up a piss-poor showing at the meeting in Galveston last night. The list of who wasn't there is long and includes the RFA (who I just sent another $50 to) the CCA and every single angler and spearfisherman in Texas... except me. Yep, just me and one charterboat captain that only spoke to say that he never filled out his survey form correctly on his trips.

The Ocean Conservancy was represented as well as one other tree-hugger organization I hadn't heard of before. Council members were Charlotte Schiaffo - Tampa, DeGraaf Adams - Houston, and Assane Daigne - who knows.

I was shocked, and wished to all hell that I'd brought Denny's position statement with me because now I definitely had to stand up and speak. Pretty pitiful that the entire spearfishing community of Texas was represented by this ole idot.

My speil about the ridiculous statistics was sumarily dissmissed because they kept saying that they were under review. Sounds like you guys beat the heck out of em in Florida. My position on a closed season, was that if any, it should not be based on a quota system. Size limits only target more mature and highly reproductive fish. Discard mortality should focus on gear and education. AJ not recovering is not true and that any slow in recovery is due to long-lining, not recreational fishermen who have taken hit after hit. The whole triggerfish section is ridiculous to the point of lunacy and proves that there are REGIONAL issues that need to be dealt with as such. I managed to get through about 5 miniutes or so with only 1 small cussword that slipped out.

After sitting down, DeGraff responded that he agreed the trigger data must be wrong or at least missleading and it is a regional issue. He also agreed that AJ was not a recreational problem, but probably a commercial problem.

The unknown tree-hugger gave a canned speech that didn't grate or really bother me at all.

NO ONE ELSE SPOKE. There was a brief round table discussion on a couple of things. A little old lady started picking out things like mandatory training for commercial and charter but no mandatory for rec. She said that is like bus or taxi drivers need a drivers license but other drivers don't. I beligerently interrupted her and said that it sounded to me like buss drivers need a Class A licence and other drivers just a Class C. She said, "yeah, I guess you can do more damage with a buss." I wonder if she realized the gravity of that admission.

I then asked the council members about the inflamatory languange in the scoping document. The sentence, "Nearly all of the dead discards (99%) come from the recreational sector." I said was just irresponsible and inflamatory. Daigne said, "yes, but that's just for gag." I said, "yes, but that's not how it is being presented to the public by commercial longliners who are cutting your admittedly flawed chart right out of here and pasting it on their website." No comment.

Then dead silence. End of meeting. Man, I hope something I said was good. The members did a little head nodding and note taking while I was talking. That may be good, but it made me nervous.

I cannot believe that out of the entire state, only one recreational angler was at this meeting.

[biggsy]

Your attendance last night gives you the right to bitch at those not in attendance! Thanks for representing us in Texas! :up:

When the time comes when you can only go out and take one fish and others are bitching about not being able to take more...they don't have a right to bitch...you're a little late buddy!

Listen up Apathetic Fisherman...now is the time to bitch! Don't wait until it's too late.

[MichaelBaranows]

Thank you for going. I guess I don't pay close enough attention cause I didn't even know there was a meeting until last night when I got home and saw your post about going to Galveston.

[JLittle44]

I should have asked you about it after the meeting Tuesday.

It sounds like gags and reds got all the attention and since we don't have them here no one was interested. But they are trying to mess with the AJ limits again. That in itself is unacceptable, and I will be a raging ball of fury if I EVER have to pay a fine for a damned triggerfish.

[FISHDIVER]

Hey JLittle. Sorry no one showed up. I have been out of pocket a few days and did not know of the meeting until this morning after it was over. Can we get a petition signed to let them know how we fee?

[JLittle44]

Can we get a petition signed to let them know how we fee?

Yes.

If you have not done so, please send your comments to the Gulf Council regarding amendment 30 to amendment30scoping@gulfcouncil.org or you can go to thefra.org to sign the petition or you can go to this link http://www.gopetition.com/online/11535.html . It's very important to get active in some capacity if you truly do care about continuing to spear fish. Thanks!

[FISHDIVER]

Thanks I did that this morning

[t-rocks69]

jlittle i was home believe it or i did see your posting saying you were going but it was to late by the time i would have got to galvestion it would have been over..


next time they are having a meeting like this or any other can we make it a sticky or something that stays at the top were everyone can see it and respond to it.

also thanks for being the sole idiot there. i hope i can get you over to the house soon to test out some of my home brew on you.

off to baton rouge tommorrow

[PatMyGreen]

Thanks for attending and representing the rest of your spearing brethren. The showing here in PCB was not much better. I am sure you understand exactly why the rec sector gets the shaft now that you have a really good grasp on how deep the apathy goes.

[happyhooker]

Thanks for going and making big brother here your spill!!! I would attend more of these meetings, but never here about them untill it's to late. We should post event dates like this so more people will/can attend!

[HydroHunter]

Thanks for going, John. Did not know about the hearing. Please let me know of any future ones.
I am sure you did a great job representing us. Proud of you!