In The News: WFTS-TV/Tampa Highlights Concerns over NOAA’s Proposed Vessel Speed Restriction

This week, Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy (CSP), appeared in a Tampa Bay area news segment on WFTS-TV/ABC reporting on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) proposed vessel speed restrictions.

"We are a $31.3 billion business here in Florida," said Jeff Angers. "There's over a million registered boaters in the state of Florida, about 7,000 businesses and over 110,000 jobs depend on recreational boating."

In the segment, Angers raised concerns over an overly restrictive vessel speed restriction NOAA is currently pursuing. The current petition in the Gulf of Mexico would implement a mandatory 10 knot speed limit for all boats throughout a vast portion of the Gulf and restrict vessels from traveling at night. Industry experts fear these restrictions would be detrimental to local businesses and coastal economies without providing a data-driven solution to protecting marine wildlife.

"We're trying to guide NOAA to a better solution, which is to focus on technology. You know, fisherman and boaters can see on their consoles where the fish are, where other boats are, and there's no reason we can't develop the technology to know when there is a whale in the water near us, and that's where we're focused," said Angers.

To see the full segment with the Center for Sportfishing Policy's Jeff Angers on ABC Action News in Tampa Bay, watch here.