Hi Jim,
This affects both the recs and comms. Closed or reductions means just that for ALL of us. We all have to fight this battle together. One of the problems is that PB/CB owners and commercial boat owners are independently owned, basically small business owners. A closed season means many will go out of business. There will be a ripple effect.
Both groups have very little money in a war chest for this fight.`
We, NY and NJ are in the midst of letter writting campagnes. The Unted Boatmen of NY recently hopped up their website to include a MAYDAY MAYDAY screen that you click onto. Then you fill our several boxes, name and address etc and an email with your name on it goes to the President, 4 members of Congeress based on your zip code and the head of DEC (not sure of Title). Now I think it can include 50 States.
Check out
www.unitedboatmennewyork.com
United we stand or divided we fall.
I am running a raffle to raise as much money as I can in a very short time, the end of Sept. People have donated fantastic prizes and as of right now the tolal in less than a week is $3270! Yes a bit short of $50,000 but headed in the right direction.
For info purposes I write this. Go to
www.noreast.com place cursor on INTERACTIVE, a column of options appears and click on DISCUSSIONS. This brings up a list of forum choices. Click on General Fishing Forum and read the sticky threads.
This is a coast wise problem. See what you can get from your DEP. Keep your eyes and ears open.
I think I read somewhere that Delaware and Maryland are involved also.
Capt Neil