Petition the commercial shark fishing in Florida waters this winter!

[soundfield]

Please click the below link to sign the petition; we need your help to save these sharks from the needless slaughter planed for this winter in Florida waters. NOAA reopens Florida shark fishery :: Wetpixel.com

 

[kelemvor]

Is anyone at NOAA even aware that such a petition exists?

It looks like this is just a change to the existing quotas on sharks, according to the page I linked. The only shark that had a 0 quota in 2015 is the Porbeagle.

Also, it seems this will likely be fruitless. NOAA requested comments on the proposal on Aug 17 for 30 days. That's long past. This was the notification, I believe: NOAA Fisheries Announces a Proposed Rule to Establish the Quotas and Opening Dates for the 2016 Atlantic Shark Commercial Fishing Season :: Office of Sustainable Fisheries

 

[ReefGuy]

In case anyone is interested, here are the regulations: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/compliance/guides/documents/14_shark.pdf

 

[soundfield]

Yes, they're aware of this; we've sent numerous emails and have made calls to NOAA directly. Will it change anything for 2016? No, but hopefully we will gain more momentum and have a stronger voice against the fishing lobby and bring additional awareness of what's going to happen to the local Florida shark populations if this is allowed to continue. This is really a global battle and change takes time, but it's slowly happening and it's because more people are becoming aware of the shark depletions world wide. NOAA's decision to start the commercial fishing of sharks is Jan 1, 2016 when the sharks aggregate making them easy pray for fisherman. Changing the dates to later in the year would be the smart thing to do and a reasonable compromise; that's what we hope will eventually happen. The targeted killing of Lemon, Tiger and Hammerhead sharks (in our opinion) is not beneficial to anyone except the fisherman who get paid to kill them.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Yes, they're aware of this; we've sent numerous emails and have made calls to NOAA directly. Will it change anything for 2016? No, but hopefully we will gain more momentum and have a stronger voice against the fishing lobby and bring additional awareness of what's going to happen to the local Florida shark populations if this is allowed to continue. This is really a global battle and change takes time, but it's slowly happening and it's because more people are becoming aware of the shark depletions world wide. NOAA's decision to start the commercial fishing of sharks is Jan 1, 2016 when the sharks aggregate making them easy pray for fisherman. Changing the dates to later in the year would be the smart thing to do and a reasonable compromise; that's what we hope will eventually happen. The targeted killing of Lemon, Tiger and Hammerhead sharks (in our opinion) is not beneficial to anyone except the fisherman who get paid to kill them.

The shark populations in Florida are increasing rapidly... that is really pretty obvious. what will happen to shark populations in Florida if fisherman are allowed to commercially harvest (a tightly regulated fishery) ? Answer.. the population can be expected to expand further.

Why is it beneficial to change the fishing season? Is not the total allowable catch tightly regulated, monitored and the season is closed when the sustainable catch has been attained? Do you want the fisherman to burn more fuel on the water in order to harvest the same amount of sharks over a longer period? How does this benefit the sharks, the fisherman

 

[vincent54]

The aggregating Lemons are mostly pregnant females if I recall, and it is a big deal when they are fished.
Bimini Shark lab has reported a sharp decrease in Lemon nmbers. It takes a decade before the Lemon Sharks reprodce, and if yo take away the reprodcing females extinction will occr.

Ha. jst noticed the letter between t and v doesn't work.

 

[Rred]

Sorry guys, gotta disagree. I'm all for conservation and management, but species extinction is in fact the NORM on this planet. Sharks have avoided that for a very long time, it could just be their turn now. Something like 90% of all species eventually go extinct. Global climates change, meteors set the planet on fire, nasty primates with sharp sticks come looking for dinner, before it can eat them.

In 100% committed to protecting one endangered species: Mine. And sharks, from ignorance or curiosity, whatever, sometimes take a rather nasty bite out of my species.

So, you say "Shark!" and I say ""GRENADE!" and if the helicopters tracking shark migrations were to scatter grenades as they flew overhead, I'd feel much happier about WHICH species was being conserved.

 

[vincent54]

Sorry guys, gotta disagree. I'm all for conservation and management, but species extinction is in fact the NORM on this planet. Sharks have avoided that for a very long time, it could just be their turn now. Something like 90% of all species eventually go extinct. Global climates change, meteors set the planet on fire, nasty primates with sharp sticks come looking for dinner, before it can eat them.

In 100% committed to protecting one endangered species: Mine. And sharks, from ignorance or curiosity, whatever, sometimes take a rather nasty bite out of my species.

So, you say "Shark!" and I say ""GRENADE!" and if the helicopters tracking shark migrations were to scatter grenades as they flew overhead, I'd feel much happier about WHICH species was being conserved.

Maybe diving should be limited to sterile swimming pools...

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Endangered my arse. We've got over 18 million residents in FL and are climbing up past 7 billion humans worldwide; this despite our propensity to shoot, bomb, starve, run over, and otherwise kill millions of our own. Advocating wiping out sharks to preserve humanity makes about as much sense as bandaging a papercut on the pinkie toe while committing hara-kiri. If you can't deal with sharks in the ocean, dive in swimming pools or quarries so the rest of us can enjoy it.

That said, I haven't signed that petition yet; I'd like to have some better info before I take action. One piece of information I'd like to know is why the uproar about this now, when the public comment period was August 17-September 17.

 

[soundfield]

This may answer some questions: Open Season on US Coastal Sharks | X-Ray Mag