Fishing Regulations

[buddha]

Here is an email sent to me by the owner of the fishing lodge where I will be working in Alaska this summer.

Please read it.

We in California are not the only ones being affected by fishing regulations.

All,

The U.S. Department of Commerce in conjunction with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has been steadily implementing more and more regulations and restrictions to recreational and charter fisherman around the country. Recently imposed and extreme regulations are too numerous to mention. NOAA must be challenged and required to act more responsibly or the recreational and saltwater charter fishieries we all have come to know, enjoy and appreciate will become so regulated that it will become irrelevant.

I own an operate a small lodge (Alaska's Kodiak Island Resort) in Larsen Bay, Alaska (est. 2006) and deep sea charter boats (A&B Charters Inc.) in Naples, Fl. The new NOAA fishing regulations in both areas are causing both businesses great harm and will eventually force us to retire unless dramatic action is taken.

NOAA is required by statute to conduct economic impact studies before implementing new regulations. This is to make certain the un-intended consequences of new regulations to don't cause more harm than good. Unfortunately, through bureaucratic maneuvering, they circumvent this process and others to accomplish their objectives.

In Alaska, NOAA has implemented a new limited entry charter halibut program that is forcing a reduction in established charter halibut boats by forty percent. Please go to the Charter Operators of Alaska website (http://www.charteroperatorsofalaska.org/) for more information and or take a brief moment to fill out the attached petition letter (http://www.change.org/petitions/save...g-for-tomorrow) to the President and members of congress asking them to intervene. Your help is urgently needed to turn this bureaucratic nightmare around. Personal comments added to the petition are particularly compelling, suggested and welcome.

Thank you for in advance for your understating,

Captain Allen Walburn
Alaska's Kodiak Island Resort
A&B Charters Inc.