Comment from Sherylanne McCoy

The owner, captain and crew on the F/V Top Tuna, which has a directed shark permit, do NOT want catch shares. There should be a referendum held for stakeholders to vote-from what we hear at our unloading facility in Port Canaveral, the majority of the fishermen do not want catch shares. There is much concern about inaccurate stock assessments, the majority of the resource ending up in the hands of a few, a share cropper system being instituted in the federal fisheries, no catch shares for historical captains and crews, winners and losers are picked, shares not being fished and leaving no product coming across fish houses that support the infra-structure for the fishing industry, and the privatization of a natural resource. Take a vote and see if the few speaking in favor of catch shares are truly speaking for the majority of stakeholders before moving forward with a program that the industry does not want at this time. I was at the Cocoa Beach meeting and I think the message was pretty loud and clear-NO CATCH SHARES.