Awesome Proactive Opportunity!

[JLittle44]

This is exactly the sort of thing I'm always bitchin' about the council NOT focusing on. Everyone please try and make it out to this meeting and support these incrediby important issues. This is a great opportunity to do something right.

Meeting Notice Contact: Jeff Rester

228-875-5912

The Texas Habitat Protection Advisory Panel will convene to discuss Texas fishery habitat issues

The Texas Habitat Protection Advisory Panel will convene a meeting at the Hilton Houston Hobby Airport, 8181 Airport Boulevard, Houston, Texas to review and discuss fishery habitat issues. The meeting will convene at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, October 3, 2007 and is expected to adjourn by 5:00 p.m.

The advisory panel (AP) will discuss the following:

· Texas senate Bill 3 that will protect freshwater inflows to Texas estuaries environmental concerns related to vessel salvage operations in Texas

· Texas Great Barrier Reef project
· Habitat use of juvenile red snapper
· Pintail Flats Wetland Mitigation Project
· Oyster impact modeling and the dredged material management plan associated with deepening of the Matagorda Ship Channel

· Overview of sea grass protection measures in Texas bays
· Cedar Bayou/Vinson Slough habitat restoration project.

A copy of the agenda can be obtained by calling 813-348-1630.

The group is part of a three unit Habitat Protection AP of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. The principal role of the AP is to assist the Council in its attempt to maintain optimum conditions within the habitat and ecosystems supporting the marine resources of the Gulf of Mexico. Advisory panels serve as a first alert system and calls to the Council’s attention proposed projects being developed, as well as other activities that may adversely impact the Gulf marine fisheries and supporting ecosystems. The panels may also provide advice to the Council on its policies and procedures for addressing environmental affairs.

Although other issues not on the agenda may come before the panel for discussion, in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, those issues may not be the subject of formal panel action during this meeting. Panel action will be restricted to those issues specifically identified in the agenda.

The meeting is open to the public and is physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to the Council five working days prior to the meeting.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. The Council prepares fishery management plans designed to manage fishery resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

[MichaelBaranows]

Hopefully a few questions about the TGBR project will get answered. Cause I am really looking forward to get some more structure added to the Gulf. Sure would be nice to have some good places to hunt near shore if I get off work early during the week.