# Party Boat Fleet Owner Making Customers Sign Anti-Recreation Snapper Fishing Petition



## trippcasey (Jul 18, 2017)

This post has since been removed because of all of the negative remarks and reviews that have flooded his page since he posted it. I posted the entire post on a thread in the GA Coastal Fishing forum titled !!please read!!. This fleet owner is having all of his customers sign a petition to shut down recreational fishing of red snapper in order to keep his business rolling and profits up at our expense. He is then going to take all of these signatures to DC with his other fleet owning buddies in order to lobby support to close our already small red snapper season. Many of the people who sign this petition have no idea about the fishery or the regulations. A lot of them have never even seen a red snapper before boarding this guys boats. He currently owns 3 large party style boats and makes multiple trips per day, leading to hundreds of signatures each day. This is the battle we have ahead of us if we want equal access to our God given natural resources. I encourage each of you to visit his page and let you know how he feels. I also encourage you to write anyone who he might lobby to, and the Gulf Coast Council to express your thoughts on his bully practices in order to bolster his petition numbers. He knows he cant go door to door and get signatures because most will kick him off their property. So he cheats in order to show a false number of "diverse fishermen" who "agree" with his stance. Let your voice be heard.


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## trippcasey (Jul 18, 2017)

Below is the post in its entirety copied from his facebook page before it was deleted. 

This is a petition we are having customers sign aboard our boats. The Federal government agency that regulates our fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service(NMFS), has done a fabulous job with Red Snapper. Anyone who has been fishing with us over the last few years has seen the benefits of these regulations. We are catching more Red Snapper now than any other time in our past. There have recently been some rule changes that could hurt this stock rebuilding plan. They have ruled to open more harvest for the private, boat owning public. This sounds good on the surface. But, what is not explained, is that this has the potential to shorten future harvest for other user groups. Mainly, the customers that fish our boats! We have enjoyed a 49 day Red Snapper season this year and would like that trend to continue.
As the owner of the Double Eagle Fleet, I am joining a few other Headboat owners on a trip to Washington, DC. We plan to meet with Senators and Congressman to explain what these rule changes may cause. In the past, we have meet with officials from the 5 Gulf states. On this trip, we plan to meet with officials from several states. Some of these members, who vote on rule changes, do not know all of the specifics and how it effects fisherman.
We are looking for YOUR support. Please like this post or reply with with name, city and state. This will allow us to show these officials the diverse group of fisherman that use the Double Eagle, and boats like ours, to access the Gulf of Mexico fishery. The more likes, names and city/states that we get, the more congressional members we will meet with. Please help us take this message to Washington and help us keep access to our fisheries open to all Americans. Not just the ones who own there own boats.
Thank you
Captain Chad Haggert


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## Lineside Fever (Jul 18, 2017)

*Party Boat*

How do we voice our displeasure? This guy is a nut!!


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## mdgreco191 (Jul 19, 2017)

I had heard some grumblings about the double eagle when I was in Tampa Bay earlier this year.  Looks like they were valid!  I am glad I went out on Hubbards instead.

This jerk needs to be boycotted!


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## jeremyledford (Jul 19, 2017)

Lineside Fever said:


> How do we voice our displeasure? This guy is a nut!!



Get on Facebook and leave your review.That is the forum they chose to announce it on. Let the nucklehead reap the consequences.


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## jeremyledford (Jul 19, 2017)

mdgreco191 said:


> I had heard some grumblings about the double eagle when I was in Tampa Bay earlier this year.  Looks like they were valid!  I am glad I went out on Hubbards instead.
> 
> This jerk needs to be boycotted!



Pensacola Fishing Forum has a list of the known charter captains that do this in a sticky thread. You don't have to be a member to view. Take a look before booking but sure glad you went with Hubbards!


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## trippcasey (Jul 19, 2017)

The first thing I would do is go on their facebook page and leave a negative review explaining the petition and how he is looking to limit the rights of recreational anglers and everyday hard working Americans. Do the same on google reviews. Then write the Gulf Coast Fishing Council explaining that this guy is forcing a petition on customers who board his boat to bolster petition support numbers for his cause. Many of these people are from out of town and really have no idea what it is they are signing. He is literally padding his petition numbers based off the ignorance of people who are mostly not anglers, or people that have nothing to do with this issue. I really don't know what else to do. I've been looking into the RFA. Im not one for lobby groups, but this group seems like a decent one to join. I think the best thing we can do is to do what we can to hurt his business in the form of negative reviews and bad press. Word of mouth travels, and lots of people will check facebook and google for reviews before spending money. There are probably many other things to do, but I dont have a clue. We just dont have the resources like these guys do to make our voice heard. Money talks in DC. I dont know about you, but I "aint got" much of that.


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## cableguychris (Jul 19, 2017)

i posted a 1 star review on his FB page yesterday


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## FishingAddict (Jul 20, 2017)

Here is what Dylan Hubbard of Hubbard's Marina has to say about it:

Want to preserve our rights to fish? Fighting other angler’s isn’t the answer… this petition is in my opinion a terrible idea and will only further divide our fishery. Yes, if the now lengthened rec season gets the for hire sector’s season shortened next year that would stink for us, but we should have NEVER been split apart to begin with. For years prior to sector separation being voted in, I personally and professionally spoke out in opposition to it along with 90% of my fellow for hire anglers. Unfortunately, there are those among us especially those in the supposed “Charter fishing association” or CFA for short that would rather be split from the rec sector because we have better data collection and can be more easily managed and accounted for. This then leads to a lower buffer which in turns leads to more fishery access. I would rather remain in the rec sector, even if this means less fishing days as a for hire angler. The reason why? I AM A RECREATIONAL ANGLER, I TAKE RECREATIONAL ANGLERS FISHING. If you fish on a private boat or pay to fish with me aren’t you still a rec angler? How does that change things? The issue is not with our fellow angler it is with NOAAs NMFS and their not so new mission to strip us of our fishing rights and monetize our fishery through allocation based management. 

*They were created to protect the fishery FOR the citizens, not to protect the fishery FROM the citizens.*

We recreational anglers (myself included) are all in need of the opportunity to fish. We are unlike commercial anglers (Who are anglers too and not inherently bad people) who need to fill a box to make money and do their jobs and feed their families. As rec anglers we want the opportunity to fill the box, the opportunity to get on the water, the opportunity to catch a trophy or get a kid hooked on the opportunity to fish. This opportunity is being threatened by petitions like this, we do not need to be fighting each other. Again, yes the idea behind it… I do understand because they are worried that the dept of commerce’s decision to go around NOAAs NMFS will hurt us next year… it might! However, the answer isn’t fighting against our fellow angler to shorten their opportunity to fish. 
The beginning of season it was announced that the ‘fed permitted for hire sector’ got 49 days of season and the rec anglers got 3 mainly because of the non compliant state seasons and the fact that the rec anglers surpassed their ‘limit’ that was set below their real limit by a buffer to account for the fact that NMFS can’t collect good data from the rec sector. Keep in mind that a fed permitted for hire vessel can’t keep a fish when its closed in fed waters even when in state waters where it’s opened. That is why the rec sector iis punished for these non compliant state seasons. For example, if the state of LA has a 365 state ARS season but only a 49 day fed season a party boat or charter boat with fed permits there can only fish 49 days while the private boat owner can go enjoy 365 days in state waters. 

The department of commerce and senate went over the heads of NOAAs NMFS gulf council to lengthen the 3 day rec sector to a lucrative weekend style rally fishery starting July 16th until sept 4th. This in my opinion was very cool (even though it didn’t help my business and could actually severly penalize it if NOAA decides to spite us next year). However, this was the first time ever that the rec angler was able to unite and call enough support and attention to the federal mismanagement and that to me is a HUGE WIN! 

We must all unite as rec, for hire, and commercial anglers to help us further our struggle against this federal mismanagement that is being swayed by special interest groups like PEW, EDF, Oceana, Ocean Conservancy and others to protect the fishery FROM the citizens instead of FOR us… 
If you agree great, if you don’t agree that’s fine too I just want to get my opinion across and call for unity not infighting and please do not think for a second we support sector separation or the catch share systems because we have been against them from the start. Keep in mind we did not participate in that head boat pilot program that gave quota to some select head boats to allow them to fish gags and ars anytime they saw fit. This allocation or catch share style management is just around the corner to becoming real in the for hire charter and head boat industry this is why this petition is praising their management style and rebuilding efforts because they support this future allocation based management. 

Commercial anglers are NOT the issue, they have been fighting for decades longer than us and for them the IFQ system is working because again they are not interested in the opportunity to fish they are all about feeding their families by filling their boxes. Keep in mind we sat by the past few decades as their livehoods were being threatened and their fleets diminished by 1,00% now that NMFS has become civil with them and the IFQ system established now they have turned their attention to the for hire and rec sectors in the past decade with the push for sector separation that allowed them to divide and conquer us and now they are pushing this allocation based management on us like they did in the commercial sector this management style will not preserve our opportunity to fish and isn’t going to work for us rec anglers because again the for hire and rec sectors are all the same we are all rec anglers… again this is all my own opinion.

Hope to see you all at the next NMFS gulf council meetin in san Antonio Texas August 7th-10th I will be there continuing the fight against the perversion of the gulf council to protect the fishery FROM us instead of FOR us. 

Tight lines to you all no matter where you stand, hope to have open access public fishery for generations to come

remember, “If you’re too busy to go fishing, You’re just too busy!”


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