We Need Everyone to Help! Public Comment – Bluefin
Posted on
July 28, 2014 by
KC Brotherton
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On Thursday, July 24th NOAA submitted a notice to the Federal
Register petitioning the prohibition of Pacific bluefin tuna fishing.
Public comments in response to the petition will be accepted until September 22nd, 2014.
It is critical that you submit comments in response to the proposed management changes.
To see the petition
click here. Or here for a .
pdf.
HOW TO SUBMIT A COMMENT:
We HIGHLY recommend you submit a
comment via mail on letterhead. This method often has more weighted
value than electronic submissions and is more likely to be read.
- Mail: Submit written comments to: Mark Helvey, NMFS West Coast
Region, 501 W. Ocean Blvd., Ste. 4200, Long Beach, CA 90802. Attn:
Pacific Bluefin Tuna.
All comments will generally be posted to
http://www.regulations.gov
without change. All Personal Identifying Information (name, address,
etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible.
NMFS will also accept anonymous comments (enter “N/A” in the required
fields if you wish to remain anonymous).
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR COMMENT:
A guideline or idea of what to submit because as we all know, we’ll
have a much stronger impact by keeping a positive attitude in our
comments;
An example from the angler’s point of view:
[b]As a recreational angler, I have seen schools of
Bluefin Tuna in excess of 100 tons over the past few Couple of Seasons.
This year in 2014, we have now witnessed the largest Schools of BFT in
recent memory. Bluefin Tuna are very elusive and in my opinion one of
the hardest Fish to figure out. Most of the time when we have spotted
schools of Bluefin, they remain “Boat shy” where we cannot even get
close to the body of fish. In many instances where we have been able to
slide the boat next to a school and put our lines in the water – they
typically refuse to bite.[/b]
[b] [/b]
[b]They are a witty and a challenging adversary, not to
mention amazing to eat. Each one I’ve caught has been appreciated. I
definitely do not want to see the desolation of bluefin tuna and hope
that a compromise of bag limits could be the common sense solution
rather than all out ban which would directly affect many people’s
livelihoods and dampen passion.[/b]
*We encourage ALL individuals who could be impacted (family members,
crew, anglers, etc) to submit a comment – the more comments = more
support. Spread the word.
