NEED YOUR HELP! With the Senate on Amendment #548 to H.R. 1

Amendment #548 to H.R. 1 , that has been passed in the House. It is vital to saving jobs and small businesses and recreational fishing across the U.S. that our Senators stop catch shares in our fisheries...

Please Tell everyone you know to CALL their senators and ask them to demand that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid include that anti-catch shares language in the bill to fund the government for the rest of the year. Thanks!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
522 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327

Here are the phone number to the Senate.

Senate Contact info
http://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf

Area code for DC is (202). Just follow the directions on the top of each of the above to get full phone number for each guy's D.C. office.

Thanks
Keith

Amendment #548 to HR 1, that has been passed in the House. It is vital to saving jobs and small businesses across the U.S. that our Senators stop catch shares in our fisheries.

You can see a sample letter you can copy and paste into an email of your own, or you can write your own, giving your opinion.

I am [Name], a fisherman from [location], I [run business , fishing vessel or recreational fishermen] and I’ve been [in this business or fishing] for [X] years.

The Senator should FULLY SUPPORT efforts to eliminate the creation of new Catch Shares progam know as the limited access privilege programs (LAPPs), also known as ITQs – when voting on the 2011 budget
A proposal in the House budget (Jones amendment #548) will stop the funding for and stop the creation of any more catch shares for the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. The Senate MUST keep this provision in the continuing resolution.

Catch shares have been used to eliminate fishermen and the JOBS they hold and hurt the economies of local fishing communities. The vast majority of recreational fishermen, commercial and recreational charter boat owners oppose catch shares and beg to keep their jobs and the recreational fishing open.

As a [captain or recreational fishermen] ,[ in the [for-hire industry that provides access to millions of recreational fishermen in the South Atlantic every year], I believe Catch Shares LAPPs will destroy my fishery and put many of the for-hire fishing vessels out of business and eliminate my job.

Catch Shares give a small percentage of fishermen ownership of fisheries and are only an economic boom for a select few lucky individuals who are given the resource at no cost so they profit 100%. The majority of fishermen go out of business losing jobs and hurting local community economies.

If the Senator supports our local recreational fisherman, fishing industry and the JOBS we produce, s/he should the keep the provisions of the Jones Amendment #548 in any continuing resolution bill and vote to keep American recreational fishermen fishing and fishermen working and providing for their families and communities.

The decisions regarding catch shares should be made by the fishermen being affected and not by the environmental organizations and the NOAA/NMFS who push them to destroy JOBS and our FISHERIES.

Thanks for your time,

Here is some background info:

WASHINGTON - Feb. 19, 2011 (Saving Seafood) - Amendment #548 to H.R. 1 sponsored by Walter Jones (R-North Carolina) and cosponsored by Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) and Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey) passed the United States House of Representatives on a recorded vote of 259-159 at 1:43 a.m.

The Amendment would prevent funds from being expended by NOAA to enact new limited access fishing programs. The Amendment, if H.R. 1 is passed by the Senate and signed into law, would prevent spending on new catch shares programs.

51 Democrats joined 208 Republicans voting in favor of the Amendment.

.

Amendment No. 548 to H.R. 1 would ensure that no funds made available in the continuing resolution may be used to develop or approve new limited access privilege programs for any fishery under the jurisdiction of the South Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, New England or Gulf of Mexico Fishery Managment Councils.

This would prevent further spending on new "Catch Shares" programs, a heavily-promoted fisheries policy of the Obama Administration under Dr. Jane Lubchenco's leadership at NOAA. The policy, backed by several environmental groups, has been controversial. The Catch Shares policy has faced widespread opposition by East Coast fishermen.

The Amendment does not affect fishing programs on the West Coast or Alaska.
_________________
Captain Keith
Admin of www.southcarolina-offshore.com
Cell: 843-907-0064
http://www.NorthMyrtleBeachFishingCharters.com
http://www.feedinfrenzycharters.com
http://www.southchathamtackle.com
http://www.BarefootFishing.net


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