Fishing for controversy

In the true sense that you never know where politics will take you, I was on a boat for several hours yesterday... doing a story on one of the bigger controversies you may or may not be aware of.  The federal government and the state of Texas are at odds over Red Snapper fishing season... caught in between, the tens of thousands of recreational fishermen along the coast.  The problems of when to fish and when not to fish, whether commercial fishermen get an unfair advantage, and just how bad the over fishing problem may or may not be are only growing.  There are so many upset fishermen that Rep. Nick Lampson brought the head of the National Marine Fisheries to town tonight for a big town hall.  I mean, we're talking a couple of hundred very, very angry anglers!  I talked to some of them yesterday, and we'll have a story on it tonight at 5pm.  In the meantime, if snapper's got you all upset, here the info for the meeting:

Red Snapper Town Hall with Special Guest Dr. Roy Crabtree, Regional Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Region

Date: Friday, April 25, 2008

Time: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Location: University of Houston Clear Lake, Bayou Theatre, 2700 Bay Area Blvd, Houston, TX 77058

Comments

[Gary H]

As a recreational Red Snapper fisherman for many years and after investing a small fortune in boats, rods, reels, tackle plus all the bait, ice, etc., I know my story is repeated thousands of times up and down the Texas Coast. The removal of this economic stimulus could be devistating to an already fragile economy. The National Marine Fishery Services "NMFS" cut the Recreational season to 2 months from 6, and lowered the number of fish caught from 4 a day to only 2. The Commercial fisherman now have a 365 day season up from only 10 days a month and they are given annual quotas in thousands of pounds and are supposed to quit fishing once they meet their annual quota...yea right! This is totaly unfair and the economic impact is just beginning.