Stripers Forever VA - here is a message from Kevin Smith of the Coastal Conservation Association, Virginia.
Kevin is encourages those that care about the fisheries and marine resources of the
Chesapeake Bay to please call and e-mail their representatives today about SB1087, a bill to add more commercial
fishing seats to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Read on...at the end of this story from the
Virginia Pilot is the contact information for your legislators. Don't be passive, get involved.
Virginia Pilot Makes a Stand Against SB 1087, Adding 2 More Commercial
Watermen to Virginia Marine Resource Commission.
In a message dated 2/9/2009 9:48:16 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
Don't let watermen pack the fishing regulation panel
Posted to: Editorials Opinion
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 9, 2009
For decades, Virginia's waters were essentially managed by commercial
fishermen for commercial fishermen. They caught what they wanted, when they
wanted. They ignored the warning signs of trouble. They demanded proof of
problems when scientists had only incontrovertible evidence. And they
didn't stop fishing until the oysters and crabs were almost gone.
That is the tragedy of the commons - where a fisherman benefits from every
creature he catches, and the damage he does to the fishery is shared by
everyone else. When that's the case, nobody has any incentive to conserve.
The tragedy, in fact, is that self-interest induces a fisherman to take
every creature until none are left.
The Chesapeake Bay is a very big commons, and its fishery - we all know -
is a very big tragedy.
Watermen didn't cause the problems in the Bay. They are the fault of
everyone who lives and farms around it and doesn't do enough to keep modern
life out of the estuary. They are the fault of a rapacious menhaden
industry that has repeatedly, through history, depleted its own fishery.
The problems, taken all together, leave Virginians with a Bay that is
increasingly dead for much of the year, and increasingly unable to sustain
life in the rest.
Many people look at crashes in the Chesapeake Bay's crab and oyster
populations and know that continuing to hunt those species will make things
worse. They cheer the Virginia Marine Resources Commission's difficult
decision to set rules reducing the crab take long enough for the population
to recover. They mourn the damage to the fishing industry but know that it
must be protected from its own natural predation.
Some in the fishing industry, though, simply won't look beyond the damage
to their own livelihood. Because some didn't like the decision of the VMRC
on crab limits, they have set out to change the VMRC.
John Miller, a Newport News Democrat, has introduced a seemingly innocent
bill, SB1087, which passed the Senate unanimously and this week begins its
House journey. The goal of the bill is to expand the VMRC from eight
members to 10, and to add two watermen to the panel.
There is already plenty of opportunity for people affected by regulation to
be heard. This legislation would upset the balance of the commission and
shift it too far toward the interests being regulated. In other words,
because they didn't like the jury's ruling, the watermen want to build a
new jury.
Since the bill passed unanimously in the Senate, it's unlikely that
lawmakers fully understood its import, or the effect it would have on the
Bay's species. But Miller, a champion of the Bay, should've known better
than to introduce legislation that would help return Virginia's waters to a
time when they were managed by the people who profited from them.
The condition of the Bay now is evidence, clear and irrefutable, of what
happens when commercial fishing interests manage their own fishery,
unrestricted by anything other than the tragedy of the commons. Does anyone
- aside from a few commercial fishermen - want to see Virginia return to
that system?
House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources - we did
not use live links to keep this e-mail out of spam filters.
Delegate Harvey Morgan (Chair), Gloucester, (804) 698-1098,
Delegate M. Kirkland Cox, Chesterfield, (804) 698-1066,
Delegate Beverly J. Sherwood, Winchester, (804) 698-1029,
Delegate R. Lee Ware, Jr., Powhatan, (804) 698-1065,
Delegate Thomas C. Wright, Jr. Victoria, (804) 698-1061,
Delegate Robert D. Orrock, Sr., Thornburg, (804) 698-1054,
Delegate Christopher B. Saxman, Staunton, (804)698-1020,
Delegate Clarke N. Hogan, South Boston, (804) 698-1060,
Delegate Edward T. Scott, Culpeper, (804) 698-1030,
Delegate Daniel W. Marshall, III, Danville, (804) 698-1014,
Delegate Matthew J. Lohr, Harrisonburg, (804) 698-1026,
Delegate Charles D. Poindexter, Glade Hill, (804) 698-1009,
Delegate Brenda L. Pogge, Yorktown, (804) 698-1096,
Delegate Kenneth R. Plum, Reston, (804) 698-1036,
Delegate James M. Shuler, Blacksburg, (804) 698-1012,
Delegate Albert C. Eisenberg, Arlington, (804) 698-1047,
Delegate Stephen C. Shannon, Vienna, (804) 698-1035,
Delegate Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr. ,Accomac, (804) 698-1000,
Delegate David L. Bulova, Fairfax Station, (804) 698-1037,
Delegate Margaret G. Vanderhye, McLean, (804) 698-1034,
Delegate Robert W. Mathieson, Virginia Beach, (804) 698-1021,
Delegate Joseph F. Bouchard, Virginia Beach, (804) 698-1083,
Governor Tim Kaine’s office (804) 786-2211
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