Yes another petition!!! But it just takes a minute and an impressive # of signatures can hopefully give some weight to the position of those of us who asking for their protection. Here it is -- it's only been up for a little over 24 hours and already is up to over 1200 signatures. We want to get to 10,000 before the October 19th and 20th FWC Workshops that have been scheduled specifically to address the lemon shark issue.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/urgent-he...ct-lemon-sharks
And more importantly if you're in Florida, please, please come to one of the FWC Public Lemon Shark Workshops:
Oct. 19th - Fort Myers, FL - 6pm - 8pm - Joseph P. D'Alessandro Office Complex, 2295 Victoria Ave.
Oct. 20th - Dania Beach, FL - 6pm -8pm - IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum, 300 Gulf Stream Way.
The FWC representatives there count the number of people present at the meetings and how many people speak. It really does make a difference!
And to give an idea of why this issue is so crucial, I think the following comment made by Walt Stearns says it best:
Walt, as many of you know, is the person who actually discovered the lemon shark aggregations in Florida and has been studying them with Dr Gruber for the past several years. He made the following comment:
An added note: Even NOAA, in a recently published a risk-analysis paper (Cortes et al 2008), reported the lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) is the most vulnerable of all the large coastal sharks to overfishing. To the commercial fishermen, Florida's lemon shark aggregations can be turned into the literal version of shooting fish in a barrel. If you need to see an example, look to the schooling hammerheads in the Sea of Cortez. They, for intensive purposes have been eradicated from that part of the world through commercial practices. Fortunately for schooling hammerheads, there are still alternative populations remaining in parts of the world like the Galapagos, Cocos, Malpelo or Socorro Islands. For lemons, the line in the sand is here in Florida.
Bottom line, it's really important! Please sign and by all means if you can make it to one of the Lemon Shark Workshops, please, please come and speak. We can help with talking points. Please message me if you will be able to attend one of the Workshops.
Thanks!!
Mary
