Comment from George Lemieux, Jr., Full Strike Anglers

Gentlemen: As a charter boat captain and tuna fisherman, I would like to state my objections to the United States releasing any portion of our tuna quota to any foreign country. The regulations under which we operate have lead both to the protection and building of the resource as well as underharvest in reference to quota allotments. While commercial fisherman in the US are restricted to harvesting fish 73" or greater the remaining countries under the ICCAT take fish 45"+ and have exceeded their quotas by thousands of tons in past year. How does it make sense to now give these countries additional quota and still say were are trying to protect/rebuild the resource. US fisherman could easily fill the quota by allowing changing in the regulations such as allowing daily limits for each DAS spent on any tuna trip, allowing charter boats to fish both commercially and recreationally on the same trip, and increasing season length and limits for commercial fishing. In these difficult economic times I find it hard to believe that the Commerce Department is looking to take away economic means from its own citizens and threaten to destroy the conservation/rebuilding efforts we fisherman made in the past few years. Respectfully submitted,