U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC, has written to Sam Rauch, acting assistant administrator of NOAA fisheries, hotly opposing a NOAA plan to impose a catch shares system on shark fishing along the entire East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.
“There appears to be no evidence in the record of a formal proposal from fishermen on the Atlantic Coast requesting a catch share program for sharks in this region,” Jones wrote.
NOAA posted the catch shares proposal on its web site apparently of its own volition, Jones said.
“Why is NMFS considering a move to catch shares for sharks from Maine to Texas when apparently the only formal proposal it has received was for the Gulf of Mexico?,” he said.
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