Please Read And Help Out If You Can

Post by **Scoop Sea** » June 5th, 2016, 11:37 pm

I sent the below short email to Governor Scott this evening. I'm hoping others will contact his office as well. Our Chairman of our BOCC advised he will propose a referendum at tomorrow night's BOCC meeting seeking assistance with this request. Furthermore, a couple of other folks in the political scene at the State level said they will reach out as well. However, I believe it will be better received if the Governor's Office hears from the folks impacted directly, so if you are so inclined and support this proposal, please feel free to reach out to the Governor's Office.

Good Evening Governor Scott, et al:
Due to the impending Tropical Storm Colin, a vast amount of the Gulf Coast of Florida will be negatively impacted. More specifically, the 9 day Federal Gulf Red Snapper Season will be impacted for at least 3 days, which will prohibit thousands of Florida residents, business owners, tourists, etc from realizing the benefits of having the full 9 day season. In turn, I would like to respectfully request that you contact NOAA and the other federal officials responsible for determining the federal fishing season and ask them to extend the Federal Gulf Red Snapper season 3 days to account for the missed opportunities caused by the impacts of Tropical Storm Colin. Therefore, if approved, the Federal Gulf Red Snapper season would be extended until midnight on Sunday June 12th.
Please do not hesitate to contact me via email or my cell phone, should you or your staff have any comments, questions, or concerns, pertaining to this request.
In advance, thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
Respectfully,
Chris Russell
Wakulla County

I can tell you this, the Snapper Season has been a boom for our economy here in Wakulla County and hopefully it won't be cut short by a third due to a Tropical Storm.
Here's a photo of our catch from Friday. We also had a pretty good day Thursday. We tried it today but had to turn around due to the weather...

Post by **roadtrip** » June 6th, 2016, 6:12 am

Haha , I like your style but your trying to reason with folks that set the nine day season to begin with. This storm is doesn't effect their thinking one bit in fact they probably like the fact less fish will be caught. I'll give it a try with you though!

Post by **Dubble Trubble** » June 6th, 2016, 7:26 am

While you are at it, ask him to have them abolish the IRS. That would probably be easier to get through!

I applaud your effort though.

Dubble

Post by **bman** » June 6th, 2016, 10:06 am

BRAVO!!!

I'll make it easy on you guys..

Here is the contact link - http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/ ... -governor/

Post by **Scoop Sea** » June 6th, 2016, 11:27 am

There's no doubt that I'm an eternal optimist and suspect this may not happen, but IMHO it never hurts to try.

Thanks BMAN for the link folks can use. Feel free to contact your local State reps as well. My State Rep, Representative Beshears (who is one heckuva a fine fella) has advised me that he will reach out to Gov. Scott's Office.

We may not be able to get the season extended for this week, but we may be able to gain those 3 days back later on this year.

For our friends up in Georgia, etc a call down to the Governor's Office indicating that you all would come on down this weekend to fish for snapper if the season is extended would be helpful.

Here's the bottom line, here in Wakulla County we rely heavily on the fishing industry and having another weekend of Snapper Season in Florida would help us out tremendously. As a disclaimer, I have no economic interest/benefit from the season being prolonged, (recreationally, yes as I love to fish) other than seeing folks in my County and the other small counties on the coastline benefit from this coming to fruition.

EddieJoe · Post by **EddieJoe** » June 6th, 2016, 6:02 pm

Wish you could find an elected official who actually would pressure their own appointees to vote for the family fisherman over restaurants. They won't, even though they talk otherwise. Any personal red snapper harvest, even 9 days or less, is far less important than year round on the menu for tourists.
No harm in trying but don't expect much. Ask Rep. Beshears if he is willing to support cancelling the commercial season or the special commercial guide boat extended season so the rest of us 20 million folks get a couple of months to fish for ourselves instead.

If not, we get nine days, tropical storm doesn't matter.

That's the choice.

Post by **MudDucker** » June 7th, 2016, 7:12 am

Who is setting this season, the state or the feds? Red snapper can be caught in state waters, but the bulk of them are further out.

Post by **bman** » June 8th, 2016, 2:34 pm

How about that!

EddieJoe · Post by **EddieJoe** » June 8th, 2016, 5:25 pm

I was wrong! You helped! Thanks a lot to scoop!
EJ

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Post by **Salty Gator** » June 8th, 2016, 5:31 pm

Nice, now let's all hold our breath and wait for the reply. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst

Post by **bman** » June 8th, 2016, 6:56 pm

SOUTHEAST FISHERY BULLETIN
(Gulf of Mexico)

FB16-040

Sustainable Fisheries
727-824-5305

June 8, 2016

NOAA Fisheries Extends the Private Angler's Red Snapper Recreational Fishing Season for 2 days in the Gulf of Mexico

NOAA Fisheries is extending the red snapper recreational fishing season for private anglers in the Gulf of Mexico due to impacts of Tropical Storm Colin. The private angler component's federal-water fishing season was scheduled to close at 12:01 a.m. (local time) Friday June 10, 2016. NOAA Fisheries is extending the federal season for two additional days; the private angler red snapper federal season will close at 12:01 a.m. (local time) Sunday, June 12, 2016. This extension is in response to requests the agency received from concerned anglers.

PLEASE NOTE: This extension applies only to Gulf of Mexico federal waters (seaward of 9 nautical miles). Regulations in state waters vary among states. Please refer to state regulations when fishing in state waters.

Post by **Scoop Sea** » June 8th, 2016, 11:08 pm

Some of my buddies knocked me pretty hard for trying to get the Snapper season extended, but like I told them, I wouldn't have ever had the chance to marry my wife if I hand't ever asked her on the first date.

We had some fine folks helping us out on this issue. First of all, Governor Scott did an outstanding job working on this and he actually asked for the full 3 days I outlined in my letter to him, asked for 3, got 2 and by-gumby that's great. . State Rep. Beshears helped out, our local Wakulla County BOCC got on board, as well as our local Chamber. Had some folks get with Congresswoman Graham's office and she helped out from her end.

In a nutshell, it was a common sense move and I'm glad the Feds got on board.

Now the question is this: who all is fishing Friday or Saturday for Snapper?

Post by **MudDucker** » June 9th, 2016, 5:50 am

Scoop Sea wrote:Some of my buddies knocked me pretty hard for trying to get the Snapper season extended, but like I told them, I wouldn't have ever had the chance to marry my wife if I hand't ever asked her on the first date.

We had some fine folks helping us out on this issue. First of all, Governor Scott did an outstanding job working on this and he actually asked for the full 3 days I outlined in my letter to him, asked for 3, got 2 and by-gumby that's great. . State Rep. Beshears helped out, our local Wakulla County BOCC got on board, as well as our local Chamber. Had some folks get with Congresswoman Graham's office and she helped out from her end.

In a nutshell, it was a common sense move and I'm glad the Feds got on board.

Now the question is this: who all is fishing Friday or Saturday for Snapper?

Kudos!

Post by **roadtrip** » June 9th, 2016, 7:40 am

Way to go Scoop! I'll be out there!!

Post by **Salty Gator** » June 9th, 2016, 12:53 pm

Exhale. Nice work scoop. You never know

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