PANAMA CITY, Fla. — August 25, 2012 — The bulk of some 60 bright-orange clad fishermen stood applauding after Donald Waters delivered testimony Saturday at a congressional hearing in Panama City.
After the crescendo of clapping hands, “we got our word in,” came from one of the audience members gather at Florida State University Panama City.
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee oversight field hearing, titled “Fishing Jobs: How Strengthening America’s Fisheries Strengthens Our Economy,” was called by chairman of the Natural Resources Committee Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, to gather information on how data collection and management policies have affected local fisheries.
In turn, the hearing drew concerned commercial fishers from along the Gulf of Mexico.
“With all due respect, we don’t need Congress taking us back to the failures of the past,” Waters said. “We need you to help us address the changes of the future. . . . Do not turn back the clock, help us conserve our fisheries and jobs for tomorrow.”
Many of the commercial fishermen, wearing shirts that read “Keep catch-shares on the table, Keep fish on the table,” agreed with Waters’ sentiments to not reform current policies. The main concern being on guidelines set by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which is up for reauthorization as soon as 2013.
“We have a system that is working, or else we wouldn’t be here fighting.” Waters said.
However, Southerland said the current legislation is not working for all.
“The federal government should have no role in picking winners and losers in hopes of locking up our fisheries with overregulation, free of congressional oversight and public opinion,” Southerland said.
Most of the witness testimony during the hearing focused on the reliance on bad data’s effects, not just on commercial and recreational fishing jobs, but also small businesses and entire local economies, according to Hastings.
“One of the things that bothered me is a lot of the decisions made were made on old or not accurate data,” Hastings said. “There needs to be a closer look at recreational fishing.”
Witnesses pointed to arbitrary deadlines and mandates, catch shares, annual catch limits and the National Ocean Policy as alternate causes for review of federal policies.
Approximately 150,000 Floridians are directly employed in fishing-related businesses — 100,000 in the commercial sector and 50,000 in the recreational sector. Florida alone accounts for nearly 40 percent of all marine recreational fishing nationally, with $5.7 billion in total sales from recreational fishing in 2011 and $5.6 billion in commercial sales in 2008.
Read the full story in the Panama City News Herald