Comment from thomas Kokell

In 2009 Amendment 11 to the scallop FMP arbitrarilly picked the dates 2000-2004 for the 1000 lb quota for a renewal of the LAGC permit.- In amendment 11 there was no hardship clause, or exception to the renewal reguirements. At this time my license was non-renewed and I lost the ability to fish right outside my harbor for an abundant species. In that time frame I had 2 losses- one boat sunk in 1999- and then a fire in 2003. I was only able to fish 18 moths of this 4 yr period. I appealed my denial, but my permit was taken away. This license was on my vessel for 30 + years. About 600 licenses were non-renewed out of 900. This fishery is NOT overfished, NMFS/ and the council saw the opportunity to consolidate this fishing fleet, and did without regard to the economic impact. Now 2 year later we are going to increase the LAGC limit from 400 to 600 lb per trip. WHY WAS MY LICENSE NON-RENEWED?????????? No appeal to the regional director for hardship was granted. The least acceptable flexibility would be to consider hardship cases, to make exceptions to these inflexible arbitrary rules!