92 replies to this topic

[Isaac Szabo]

Isaac Szabo, Marble Falls, AR

[mattknepley]

Will write an individual note as well as adding my name to your letter.

[mattknepley]

Thank you for taking the time to do this Casper. As always, your presentation is very well thought out and represents us well. If this doesn't make a difference with some of those names on their, notably the NANFA BOD members and Drs. Etnier, Starnes, Jenkins and Keck, among others, then I am not really sure what else we could do.

Yes, Casper, thank you!

And for what it's worth, here's a copy of the note I penned to TWRA. It's hardly an earth shaker, but the more responses the Volunteer State gets from us NANFA types the better. Consider it as an example, heck use it as a flat-out template, if you want to write something yourself but don't think you have "the words". Honestly, though, you do have the words, whether you think you do or not. Just put something down on paper and then stamp it or email it. Better yet, do both!

107 Kitson St.
Ninety Six, SC 29666
1 May 2014

TWRA/ Fish Comments
PO Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204

Dear TWRA;

I understand your agency is reconsidering Tennessee’s fishing regulations for 2015. As a near neighbor of your great state, and as an amateur ichthyologist, I am very appreciative of your willingness to consider comments from the public as they pertain to this topic.

Tennessee is famous among native fish enthusiasts across the continent for its variety and abundance of piscine life. Although your current regulations would allow me to angle for many of these animals, they forbid me to pursue my favorite pastime, namely legally collecting nongame fish for home study and appreciation.

While this is disappointing to me personally, it is of some loss to Tennessee as well. See, I travel all over my home state in legal pursuit of nongame fish. I enjoy the same privilege in Georgia, and am excited to do be doing so with a large group of like-minded individuals in North Carolina this summer. All these expeditions result in inputting monies into local economies. Native fish enthusiasts willingly spend money on permits, licenses, gas, food, lodging, taxes, and other odds and end in our pursuits. Tennessee has seen many such funds that would have been spent in the Volunteer State funneled to Kentucky, Georgia, and North Carolina instead. My own family of four plans a vacation to the Smoky Mountain region soon. Native fish regulations as they now stand will ensure that we do so on the NC side. In addition to well known, tourist-accustomed areas, we native fish fans often travel to, and spend money in, more remote, less affluent areas. While we may not make or break any individual economy, our patronage and gratuities are very welcome in some of these poorer regions.

So consider the plea of this would-be visitor to your great state. Please reconfigure Tennessee’s laws concerning non-game fish to allow the responsible taking and possessing of nongame fishes. It would seem a wise course of action, adding resources to local economies, and ensuring a persistent, passionate following of some of your agency’s most underappreciated charges.

Sincerely,

Matthew S. Knepley
North American Native Fishes Association member
South Carolina freshwater and saltwater fishing license holder
South Carolina scientific collecting permit holder

[Michael Wolfe]

He lives down in amoungst us... and some of it has to rub off after all these years