Recreational Fishermen Thrown Under Bus by ASA, CCA, IGFA, NMMA, TBF, others

[capt. jakeg]

Say what you want about the letter, nonetheless, the agenda of Dr. Lubchenco is to close as many fisheries as possible. She has been at it on the west coast for years and now she has the power to control it all.

You guys down south might not see it yet, but just three weeks ago, she had the entire east coast north of hatteras closed to sea bass fishing for six months. Might not sound like a big deal at first glance, but this move is enough to close the vast majority of the headboats' business up here for six months. Could your business stay afloat if it were suddenly closed for six months?

Not even a month later, the next one on the table is a 35 year complete moratorium on all species of snapper and grouper. Closing snapper/grouper will run many operations, both commercial and recreational, out of business. Snapper/grouper are already heavily managed and closely watched. Surely all species of snapper/grouper are not severly overfished. Why would they just come out of the gate and push for a 35 year moratorium versus a species regulated moratoriums until population recovery? Whats the goal?

You also might not know that SAFMC (a division of NMFS and NOAA) is currently pushing to (and very likely will) close all waters 30 fathoms or deeper to bottom fishing of any type. They have even broadened their juristiction to extend past cape hatteras, and now are leaning on Virginia and other "northern" states to enforce their policies. The SAFMC cites that they have no science to support these swift changes in policy, however, they believe that internet catch reports and photos show overfishing occuring in Virginia waters.

I honestly would not be suprised if the Magnussen/Stevenson act was not attempted to be brought back into play to declare white marlin as an endangered species, closing offshore areas to fishing.

Call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever you want, but the truth is that we have a sympathist to extremist environmental groups as the controller of our fisheries. If she is not put out of office, time will prove my point. Do some researching on Dr. Lubchenco and honestly tell me that you disagree.

Glenn might be smarter than everyone else, but it aint rocket science that this administration (especially the director of NOAA) IS AGAINST FISHING, regardless of what some stupid ass letter says. Their (her) actions say a whole lot more than the letter.

[captadamnj]

There are frequent posts about "how's the fishing". We know what the question that is really being asked is "how's the catching". What then, is fishing? Well, according to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, this is how fishing is presently defined -

(16) The term "fishing" means—
(A) the catching, taking, or harvesting of fish;
(B) the attempted catching, taking, or harvesting of fish;
(C) any other activity which can reasonably be expected to result in the catching, taking, or harvesting of fish; or
(D) any operations at sea in support of, or in preparation for, any activity described in subparagraphs (A) through (C).

Seems to me the "catching" part is a pretty big piece of the pie. What's next, an amendment that makes A read "the experience of being on the water looking at fish"?

[Dave Sikorski]

Adam-

What have you done to convince the organizations to clarify their stance?

I share your concerns, but also think that some of the organizations are playing the game so they don't get stuck on the sidelines.

I also think that no matter what is done, this Admin will steam roll through any opposition they see regardless of letters etc.

So, while I see your point, and respect it, I would hope that in the future, organizations can work together on what they agree on, and use restraint when they don't always agree instead of attacking.

-D

[jawz12]

THIS IS WHY I SAVE THE MEMBERSHIP MONEY TO SUCH ALLIANCES AND BUY MORE BALLYHOO WITH IT INSTEAD OF PROVIDING A SALARY FOR SOMEONE TO HAVE A CUSH' JOB...

thank you !! some one with a brain !!! i share the same exact thoughts as you marty...
these guys are a waste of time,and money...jim donofrio is one of the biggest losers...i would never give a dime to these jerk offs...

here's a question:

if these guys really wanna help,how 'bout they work for free ??? ask the RFA how much they spent last year in lobbying...

[DaGoose]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but the enviro's have deep pockets, an aggressive agenda, and play the game extremely well. They have forced extreme closures here in So Cal with the MLPA process.

Nov 9 we find out which areas will be closed forever. And the enviro's want ALL of the prime spots like La Jolla. They even bussed in brainwashed inner-city kids at the last meeting and paraded them around the room after feeding them food and candy.

Hope you fare better than we did!

Rick

[28 Topaz]

The letter good or bad has little impact. We are getting distracted with these relatively small regulations NOAA is throwing at us. Close a fishery up north it doesn’t affect the southerners close an area in CA it doesn’t affect us back east. We are not unified because one regulation won’t affect a group from another area. Look at the big picture and see how the feds are starting to take control of our freedom to fish and aligning themselves with the extreme enviro nuts. We need to care about what happens in CA closures, the southern states grouper, and the black sea bass to the north. This administration wants a global government. They want Europe and Asia to tell us what we can fish for and they want to spread the wealth. I’m not political by nature but this is the most radical group of Politian’s I’ve seen in my lifetime

[Ultralite]

The opening paragraph is poorly worded. They were trying to say that there is more economic value to rec fishing than is represented by the actual value of the catch (i.e. price per lb). That, no one will dispute.

However, I will agree with the original poster that ASA is a piece of work. Out here in California they've pissed off everyone from the Governors Office on down, all to the detriment of rec fisherm and the outcome we'll see in the MLPA process. ASA is a trade association that represents the tackle industry. They do not represent rec anglers. Though you may think that their interests should be in alignment with rec anglers as their members sell gear to them, they are not. Their interests only align with business interests in the industry and many of those have their hands in both the commercial and recreational portions of the fishery. Anytime you add commercial to the fishing equation, the recs take back seat and suffer.

Look at the organizations that signed the letter: Evironmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ocean Conservancy, Oceana, Pew. These are all the same organizations that ASA has refused to negotiate with in the MLPA process in CA. The result is two factions: Consumptives vs Non-Consumptives, or simply fishermen vs enviros. The process is designed to achieve a result that is down the middle. In the absence of a negotiated middle ground amongst stakeholders, the implementation people force a middle ground by pulling and combining MPA designs or arrays from the respective factions. No one wins with a forced outcome. A negotiated outcome would achieve a better result, but ASA chose to draw a line in the water, save the most valuable stuff for the commercials and CPFV fleet while throwing the recs under the bus. It's all evident in the maps where the commercials lost virtually none of their squid grounds and trawl grounds, with those two fisheries comprising in excess of 80% of the total commercial fishery value. Again, they lost nothing. Similarly, the bait haulers lost virtually nothing. Who lost? The private boaters, kayakers and spear guys, the latter highly dependent on close in fisheries with safe access.

[boy-n-sea]

I won't keep any dogfish or skate and I'll release the dead carcasses of striped bass, sea bass, tog, flounder and the like back to the sea.