LI farmers and fishermen outline problems for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Long Island farmers and fishermen on Saturday outlined many complicated and pressing problems to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Their to-do list included: cleansing polluted bays by reconnecting them to the sea, obtaining an emergency permit to use a banned pesticide, policing counterfeit seafood, and securing seasonal workers despite an immigration crackdown. Gillibrand, who stands for election in the fall and who might have presidential aspirations, vowed to “elevate” many concerns aired at a panel she convened that was hosted by the Ammerman campus of Suffolk County Community College in Selden. >click to read<16:37
“To Charles Witek, a recreational fisherman who said bills reauthorizing the main federal law regulating fish populations could jeopardize its science-based decisions, she said she would work on drafting an “oppositional” bill and contact her Republican counterpart on his proposal.”
Please don’t play politics on this Fisheries Bill, Sen. Gillibrand. There is nothing in The Fisheries Bill that jeopardizes science based management. On the contrary, the Bill advocates getting rid of artificial (not science based) arbitrary stock rebuilding timelines, and instead, advocating cooperative stock research and co-governance thus utilizing generations of fishermen knowledge and real time data! The Fisheries Bill will only enhance the scientific efficacy of management and benefit the resource—-without destroying local fishing communities and tens of thousands of jobs!