Assault on fishing rights

[KJFN]

I don't know much about this but I just read this article and thought all of you should know what may be coming our way!
This is the link! I'll let you decide what it means.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltw...id=4975762
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[kochanut]

how about a copy and paste please? i cant read it at work and im interested just by the title of your post
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[c4tchNrelease]

HERE IS THE ARTICLE:

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still is "fluid" and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn't issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters.

That's a disappointment, but not really a surprise for fishing industry insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the process was a charade from the beginning.

Anglering for access
"When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.

"Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored.

"In spite of what we hear daily in the press about the President's concern for jobs and the economy and contrary to what he stated in the June order creating this process, we have seen no evidence from NOAA or the task force that recreational fishing and related jobs are receiving any priority."

Consequently, unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for "marine spatial planning" by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations — whatever they may be.

Led by NOAA's Jane Lubchenco, the task force has shown no overt dislike of recreational angling, but its indifference to the economic, social and biological value of the sport has been deafening.

Additionally, Lubchenco and others in the administration have close ties to environmental groups who would like nothing better than to ban recreational angling. And evidence suggests that these organizations have been the engine behind the task force since before Obama issued a memo creating it last June.

Anglering for access united we fish rally capitol washington fishing
AP/Luis M. AlvarezOne sign at the rally of recreational and commercial fishermen summed up the feelings.
As ESPN previously reported, WWF, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, Pew Environment Group and others produced a document entitled "Transition Green" shortly after Obama was elected in 2008. What has happened since suggests that the task force has been in lockstep with that position paper.

Then in late summer, just after he created the task force, these groups produced "Recommendations for the Adoption and Implementation of an Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes National Policy." This document makes repeated references to "overfishing," but doesn't once reference recreational angling, its importance, and its benefits, both to participants and the resource.

Additionally, some of these same organizations have revealed their anti-fishing bias by playing fast and loose with "facts," in attempts to ban tackle containing lead in the United States and Canada.

That same tunnel vision, in which recreational angling and commercial fishing are indiscriminately lumped together as harmful to the resource, has persisted with the task force, despite protests by the angling industry.

As more evidence of collusion, the green groups began clamoring for an Executive Order to implement the task force's recommendations even before the public comment period ended in February. Fishing advocates had no idea that this was coming.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the New York Times reported on Feb. 12 that "President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities."

Morlock fears that "what we're seeing coming at us is an attempted dismantling of the science-based fish and wildlife model that has served us so well. There's no basis in science for the agendas of these groups who are trying to push the public out of being able to fish and recreate.

"Conflicts (user) are overstated and problems are manufactured. It's all just an excuse to put us off the water."

In the wake of the task force's framework document, the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF) and its partners in the U.S. Recreational Fishing & Boating Coalition against voiced their concerns to the administration.

"Some of the potential policy implications of this interim framework have the potential to be a real threat to recreational anglers who not only contribute billions of dollars to the economy and millions of dollars in tax revenues to support fisheries conservation, but who are also the backbone of the American fish and wildlife conservation ethic," said CSF President Jeff Crane.

Morlock, a member of the CSF board, added, "There are over one million jobs in America supported coast to coast by recreational fishing. The task force has not included any accountability requirements in their reports for evaluating or mitigating how the new policies they are drafting will impact the fishing industry or related economies.

"Given that the scope of this process appears to include a new set of policies for all coastal and inland waters of the United States, the omission of economic considerations is inexcusable."

This is not the only access issue threatening the public's right to fish, but it definitely is the most serious, according to Chris Horton, national conservation director for BASS.

"With what's being created, the same principles could apply inland as apply to the oceans," he said. "Under the guise of 'marine spatial planning' entire watersheds could be shut down, even 2,000 miles up a river drainage from the ocean.

"Every angler needs to be aware because if it's not happening in your backyard today or tomorrow, it will be eventually.

"We have one of the largest voting blocks in the country and we need to use it. We must not sit idly by."
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[KJFN]

Thanks for coping and pasting this c4thchNrelease.
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[happybob91]

I very much appreciate you posting this, the more the days go by the less respect I have for Obama...[mad]
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[NatefromOgden]

I saw this today as well and I have just 1 thing to say about it- Barak can have my fishing pole when he pries it from my cold, dead hand!
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[TS30]

The assault on our rights that is being attempted right now in our state are far more problematic than this. Although I do find it ironic that both our federal and state governments have become anti-angler.

We need to start voicing our opinions with our votes. But it will take a breaking of the mold of party politics. I hope everyone is up for it come November.
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[walleyebob]

[quote TS30]The assault on our rights that is being attempted right now in our state are far more problematic than this.


What??? A few stream regulations are more problematic than an all out assault on fishing by the federal government?
Wake up!!! Any time the feds get involved in stopping fishing on a scale this large, you better hold on. Its only a matter of time before they work their way down to YOUR back yard fishing hole.
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[riverdog]

Thanks for the heads up. However that ESPN article is about the worst written article I have ever read. Pure paranoid speculation. Sounds worse than the paranoia going around 18 months ago that predicted all guns and ammo would be outlawed by now. Of course that doesn't mean there isn't reason to be concerned but with the public input now closed it would have been more helpful to alert us before this stage. It's not not clear that this will have any effect at all on recreational angling. Here's a link to a bit more balanced article if people want to actually understand the issues. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0309/F...nder-Obama
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[riverdog]

Hey don't take this personally anybody but I used to be gullible and believe the Fox news and Limbaughs of the world as well. Then one day I was driving south through that great Sage desert between Seekee and the town of Green River in Wyoming. It was a warm fall evening and I had the window down after a long day of fishing. All of a sudden I heard the growl of big engines and saw flashing orange lights. I thought for sure it was U.N. Helicopters getting ready to land and take me away for violating the rights of fish (I do read the Wyoming Boards afterall[:p]). However when I looked in my rearview mirror it was 4 Escalades going about 120 mph with flashing lights on top. I move over to let them pass. As they screamed by I read the writing on the sides of the vehicles. And to my surprise these quasi police appearing vehicles didn't say United Nations on the side. Nope every one of those suckers said Halliburton. I guess that is when I had my epiphany and started using my brain for myself.
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[Wyobraz]

I am as anti Obama and anti Liberal as they come, but there is nothing to worry about from this whole thing when it comes to an outright ban on fishing in the United States.

However there is room for concern when it comes to this panel recommending limiting recreational water uses such as boating, jet skiing, etc. If they take the same asinine approach of engines are evil as has happened in Yellowstone with snowmobiles, we could have a fight on our hands.

About the only major thing that will affect fisherman may be a recommendation to eliminate "Lead" from being used for weights or lures in our waters.

No matter what comes out of this panel's recommendation, it would still have to pass through Congress for anything to happen. If Obama were to try this through an Executive Order, I think it would see some serious legal battles.
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[doggonefishin]

I have to chuckle about this. Our own legislature today took away the rights of us fishermen by passing HB141, which will effectively overturn the Utah Supreme court Conatser decision, and you all are getting worked up over this?

Obama may not necessarily be a friend of sportsmen, but our own Legislature, who largely sit on the opposite end of the idealogical spectrum from Obama, just screwed you guys much worse today than the President ever will and I can't say I hear too much outrage. Very curious indeed.
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[TS30]

Walleybob, they already took my fishing hole today in my own backyard.

If the governor signs this into law, we just lost the ability to fish 14,000 miles of streams in Utah. You may not think that a big deal, I certainly do.
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[riverdog]

Cr@p!! I hadn't heard that HB141 passed. I guess with our Governor being a former real estate agent there's little chance he'll veto this seizure of our rights. I mean think now for the first time ever they basically do own the waterway and that makes the their land much more valuable for them and the realtors will also profit when they are involved. Only in Utah could the habitual criminals that kept people from accessing waterways legally for decades would not be prosecuted but then get the legislature to decriminalize their actions and reward them financially as well. Crime certainly paid off here.
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[FISH_OR_DIE62]

Fishing in this country is our
right because it is OUR land!!! If any of you think that
Nobama will not try to stop all fishing, then get real, because he is
in the pocket of the big city cement jungle idiot liberals who would
crap their pants if they heard a coyote bark in the night let alone
bait a hook. Make no mistake about it. Maobama is a radical communist
bent on destroying our rights that the big city liberal left hate,
such as outdoor sports and gun ownership. They want to turn us into
U.K. and Europe with them in total control. Thanks Robert Montgomery.
You have awakend a new powerful movement and don't pay any attention
to these stupid liberal plant comments. Anglers and hunters, take this
seriously. If Nobama can issue executive orders to confiscate state
lands in the west then he can try to issue an order to end fishing and
hunting. No complacence!! He thinks he is an emporer and will do
anything to advance his radical agenda to destroy the country he
hates.
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[gstott]

However there is room for concern when it comes to this panel recommending limiting recreational water uses such as boating, jet skiing, etc.

I'm certainly okay with them limiting jet ski usage[sly]
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[Everet14]

Great first post![crazy]
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[icerman]

Thanks for the "heads up". I emailed out senators and congressman! Good reasons to get involved in government and vote! Other wise the vocal minority will rule the silent majority! It is important for us to alert our elected representatives, they can't know every thing that is going on without some help/alerting!
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[riverdog]

[quote Everet14]Great first post![crazy][/quote]
+1,
What "state" lands where seized anyway by the feds and emperor?[:/]
I bet we don't hear a thing from him after the end of the month and this turns out not to effect recreational fishing at all. Probable just move on to the next conspiracy.
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[Troll]

[quote FISH_OR_DIE62] Fishing in this country is our
right because it is OUR land!!! If any of you think that
Nobama will not try to stop all fishing, then get real, because he is
in the pocket of the big city cement jungle idiot liberals who would
crap their pants if they heard a coyote bark in the night let alone
bait a hook. Make no mistake about it. Maobama is a radical communist
bent on destroying our rights that the big city liberal left hate,
such as outdoor sports and gun ownership. They want to turn us into
U.K. and Europe with them in total control. Thanks Robert Montgomery.
You have awakend a new powerful movement and don't pay any attention
to these stupid liberal plant comments. Anglers and hunters, take this
seriously. If Nobama can issue executive orders to confiscate state
lands in the west then he can try to issue an order to end fishing and
hunting. No complacence!! He thinks he is an emporer and will do
anything to advance his radical agenda to destroy the country he
hates.[/quote]

With such strong opinions on the whole matter I have to ask.
How many days did you spend at our states capitol fighting for our fishing rights in UT this year?

Of all the R's in the Senate today only 3 voted to protect your rights to fish all of your water, every one of those liberal Democrats voted to protect your rights.
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