Letters

More netting letters…

Dear Mr. Holbert:

In your article about the CCA stirring trouble in Alabama, you could not have been any more on target. Unfortunately, in Florida, no matter how many times we prove facts exposing CCA lies, the vast majority of the sports editors will print whatever the CCA wants them to while intentionally keeping the truth from the public.

The first prime example is/was the CCA/Florida Redfish. The Redfish symbol stating, “Join CCA” is plastered all over vehicles…especially in South Florida, which is where I live. It was the saving of the Redfish from the evil commercial net fishermen that started everything leading to the “Net Ban” in Florida.

With so many CCA lies to disprove, a couple of months ago I began to look into the Redfish stats. I could never understand “why” the state and the CCA claimed the Redfish were in trouble in the 1980s, when everywhere I went to fish in Florida seemed loaded with them. I met a sheriff that told me the MFC had altered data to take the Redfish away from the fishermen and that the scam was exposed, but never publicized. Sure enough, he was correct.

I publicized the facts about the Redfish on our Web site http://fishingforfreedom.net/The-CCA-Redfish-Their-Symbol-Exposed

The sheriff that told me about the Redfish, well he is in this article… (Grady Johnson) http://fishingforfreedom.net/FMP-FWC-Netted-Dolphin-Fraud-Parts-1-2 Nearly everything that comes out of the CCA, and the CCA controlled FWC is a lie.

I have governmental fishery managers e-mailing me for help, claiming the CCA with their deep pockets, are lying about the commercial fishing industry at all levels of government. The managers are begging for my organization’s assistance on ways to stop the CCA. We also have an article on FFF about the CCA’s money, which much of it leads back to the CCA’s permanent chairman, and ex-president, Walter Fondren III… Heir to Exxon Oil. Hmmm. Why would Exxon want all of the fishermen out of the Gulf?

I appreciate your upholding the truth.

Dave Grix

VP Fishing For Freedom

http://fishingforfreedom.net

Mr Holbert:

Thank you for writing this article. I am the grandson and great-grandson of a commercial fisherman. I have many fond memories of fishing in the little lagoon with my grandparents.

This has been in the process for many years, starting with trout and redfish back in the ‘70s. I feel that if gill nets are going to be banned then they need to ban all gill nets including 300 ft recreational nets.

Also the cost of a recreational fishing license needs to be increased to the amount necessary to pay the current license holding commercial fishermen and their families the income that they are used to making for the rest of their life.

Sports fishermen should be banned from selling any of their catch for profit. This is a greedy attack on honest hard-working men and their families. I hope our representatives can see through the lies and misrepresentation.

Stephen Kichler

Hey Mr. Editor:

Thanks a kilo for the insights re: gill net fishing. I’ve bounced around the Internet fishing for more information and most of what I have found gainsays your remarks.

Thanks again.

Joseph Mitchell

Alabama House

Mobile

Not everyone agrees, though

To the editor:

I am involved in the effort you write about (Holbert, March 14-27) and you’re missing some facts yourself. I became involved in the net ban because I found a dead loggerhead sea turtle in a gill net. You totally missed the “bycatch” issue, the main reason they banned the nets in Florida. Remember the dead sea turtle ad? Google the phrase “the destructive gillnets” and tell me you aren’t for the ban.

And as for the “2 million Spanish” your buddy Vern Minton was quoted in the Mobile Press-Register in Oct. 2006 as saying definitively that the 2005 harvest of Spanish in Alabama was 2 million pounds. Are we not to trust the Director of Marine Resources of our own state?

And by the way, before you automatically assume that a gill net ban would put so many out of business, check your facts. (1. 70% of all gill net license holders had gross landings of less than $25,000 and I don’t mean net landings. That means they made a few bucks at best and that’s 70% chief so where are all the lost jobs? (2. We have searched in vain for a large wholesaler of Spanish in Alabama and Wallace seafood co is the biggest and is one of only two.

So, a million pounds of Spanish were caught in Alabama in 2005 and where were they processed? NOT ALABAMA. Where were they consumed? NOT ALABAMA. (3. 2.4 million pounds of mullet were harvested in 2005 mainly for roe, the fish simply being discarded. Where was the roe processed? NOT ALABAMA. Where was it consumed? NOT ALABAMA!

I am available to discuss the real facts with you anytime you wish. I am VERY involved with the net ban initiative and supplied Jamie Ison with her talking points. Call me if you want the truth.

Sam Wilson

CCA Alabama

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