(Oct. 14, 2009 - Irvine, CA.)... A recently published administration document outlines a structure that could result in closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas across America. The White House created an Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force in June and gave them only 90 days to develop a comprehensive federal policy for all U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes waters. Under the guise of ’protecting’ these areas, the current second phase of the Task Force direction is to develop zoning which may permanently close vast areas of fishing waters nationwide. This is to be completed by December 9, 2009.
Dave Pfeiffer, President of Shimano American Corporation explained, "In spite of extensive submissions from the recreational fishing community to the Task Force in person and in writing, they failed to include any mention of the over one million jobs or the 6o million anglers which may be affected by the new policies coast to coast. Input from the environmental groups who want to put us off the water was adopted into the report verbatim - the key points we submitted as an industry were ignored."
Recreational fishing generates a $125 billion annual economy in the United States and supports jobs in every state according to government figures. Through the Sport Fish Restoration program, anglers have provided more than $5 billion through excise taxes on fishing tackle to fishery conservation and education for decades.
In addition to the economic aspects, anglers lead the nation in volunteer conservation efforts on behalf of improving fish habitat, water quality and related environmental areas. "There was no mention of the fishery conservation efforts which anglers have led for over 50 years in every state - an environmental success story that has no equal in the world", said Phil Morlock, Director, Environmental Affairs for Shimano. "The Task Force did not make any distinction between the dramatic differences between harmful commercial fishing harvest methods and recreational fishing, even though we spelled it out for them in detail,"added Morlock.
Claiming to be the result of a public consultation process the report states, "Having considered a broad range of public comments, this report reflects the requests and concerns of all interested parties."
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
4 comments:
These people have to be stopped before they destroy everything. We are being invaded.
This is just another step in the master plan. First, it's health care and the money supply, then the food supply. They will outlaw fishing and hunting, home gardens and private ownership of livestock. They will bankrupt the farmers through price controls and regulations. Then, they will nationalize all the farms. Once they get control of the food supply, you WILL take the mark of the beast or you will starve. This is exactly why they want to take all of our guns-so we can't fight back. That is how communism works. America had better wake up before it is too late!
Do you dummies not understand the extent of the depletion of wild fish stocks over the last 50 years. Left unchecked there will be no harvest by commercial or recreational anglers. Get off your conspiracy crap and read a book (besides an Obama is antichrist scifi novel)
While you were :spelling out" the differences did you also point out the difference between corporate,industrial commercial fishing and the small Mom and Pop operations that have the same impact a recreational fisherman has but feeds a lot more people for the resources used?
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