BREAKING NEWS!!!!

On Wednesday, June 16, 2004, the Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that Captain Roger Thomas would be reappointed to a third term as an At-Large voting member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council! This announcement ended months of speculation and literally thousands of hours of work by a broad coalition of recreational and commercial fishing interests, all focused on getting Roger back on the Pacific Council. SAC is proud and pleased to have had a small part in this decision that is so critical to the sportfishing industry in California, and we congratulate Captain Roger Thomas on his reappointment. We also want to congratulate all those others who worked tirelessly to make Rogers’ return to the Pacific Council a reality, including Jim Donofrio of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, Mike Nussman of the American Sportfishing Association and the members of Congress who supported Rogers’ efforts to gain a third and final term on the Council, including our long time friend Congressman Duke Cunningham.

By this release, SAC also wants to express our thanks to Kathy Fosmark, another name on the Governors’ list of candidates for the seat and a representative of the commercial fishing industry, for her kind letter to Roger upon his reappointment. Kathy’s letter is as follows:

“Roger: CONGRATULATIONS! The fishing community is so, so, very please(d) to hear of your appointment to the PFMC and hope to continue working with you. Your appointment is comforting news to many of us who rely on sound fisheries management and know how many devoted hours of hard work this job entails.”

As you can see, there was a broad range of fishing interests that came together to convince government to do the right thing. In this case, the good guy finished first!!