My question to all this film-flam is what specific law does NOAA believe gives it the statutory authority to promulgate its National Catch Share policy? How can you rebuild something that may not need rebuilding, The EDF under the President of the Environmental Defense Fund, Fred Krupp is building nothing but a Ponzi Scheme in trying to lure more money into an already money making project that he has not controlled in the past but wishes to in the future by pitching statements like” 70% of the world’s fisheries are crashed or unsustainable. Many have just 1% of the fish that used to inhabit them. Krupp talks about the tragedy of the “commons”, the things, like oceans, we don’t own, but we all share but share is exactly what he wants to do; crop share them out and the EDF makes a bundle. Where did he come up with the number 70%? Like pulling the reverberant rabbit out of a hat, as no new data on fish stocks are available at this time but it sounds good when making a sham and one needs a mark. Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the EDF and NOAA have made Catch Shares mandatory, where as, the Magnuson-Stevens Act sets the framework for fisheries management in this country. Under the act, fisheries management councils are given the option to use a variety of measures to manage fish stocks, only one of which is catch shares. The act does not authorize the agency to promulgate a policy to encourage fishermen and councils to select catch shares over other management options. The act does not authorize the agency to spend taxpayer money to support the efforts of special interest groups seeking to petition the councils and the agency to establish more catch share programs but that is exactly what Mr. Krupp is building on; the worlds largest Ponzi Scheme where once EDF has raped humanity, it pulls out and away it goes, leaving a possible real problem, whereas there was none before. Talk about smoke and mirrors, the EDF is duping America!
As long as EDF and NOAA have all the apples in one basket, they should be able to answer a couple of quick questions, if not, it must be a shell game:
1. What specific law does NOAA believe gives it the statutory authority to promulgate its National Catch Share policy?
2. It seems as though a $1 million of the $2.2 million catch share grant program is being provided by NOAA. Exactly which account is that money coming from? The Asset Forfeiture Fund? Which specific law does NOAA believe gives it the statutory authority to spend money for this purpose and is it the official policy of the agency to spend millions to put people out of work? Since, it also seems EDF is in the shadows of all going on, you, too may answer.
3. Is it NOAA's policy to ignore the will of fishing communities - the vast majority of whom oppose catch shares - and to rig the council process to favor implementation of new catch shares programs?
In closing, to the extent that solid science demonstrates that reductions in catch in any given fishery are necessary, there are far better options than catch shares for achieving those reductions. The last thing the federal government should be doing in these economic times is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to expand a policy that will put even more Americans out of work.
I hope you will take these words to heart, and I look forward to your response and as stated earlier, if not with in a timely manner, it really must be a smoke and mirror game.
