Government regulations imposed on recreational fishing for red snapper, amberjack and other Gulf of Mexico fish have decimated the region’s charter boat industry, area fishermen told Sen. George LeMieux, R-Florida, Tuesday, January 12, during his Bay County visit.
After listening to the fishermen’s complaints about the application of the Reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (RMSA) of 2007, particularly its lack of emphasis on accurate data collection and socioeconomic impacts caused by government regulations, LeMieux said he would push for more flexibility in the law to preserve jobs threatened by reduced fish catches and shortened Gulf of Mexico fishing seasons.
“We need help, sir, and we need it now,” said Chuck Guilford, a former Mexico Beach mayor and charter boat owner, to LeMieux at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.
Part of Tuesday’s discussion between LeMieux and the fishermen centered around RMSA’s national standard 8, a provision of the act that addresses the balancing of conservation needs with a fishery’s social and economic importance to communities affected by management actions.
Several participants at Tuesday’s meeting complained to LeMieux that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failed to acknowledge the economic hardship brought on by its regulations and needed better funding to produce more accurate data.
Read the complete story at The Panama City News Herald.