Gone, Fishing?

[Tim Nunan]

http://article.nationalreview.com/427601/gone-fishing/frank-miniter?page=1

http://tinyurl.com/yk46bub

March 11, 2010 4:00 A.M.

Gone, Fishing?

Will Obama's ocean-policy task force remain in lockstep with radical greens?

So Pres. Barack Obama's "Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force" has

decided that the opinions of America's 60 million anglers aren't worthy

of its consideration.

This task force, headed by the chair of the Council on Environmental

Quality (CEQ), was charged with drafting a national ocean policy of

marine spatial planning to manage U.S. ocean territory and the Great

Lakes. Its recommendations due out later this month, could be enacted

by executive order.

Here's why anglers, and freedom-loving Americans, should be alarmed:

Without input from recreational anglers and the conservation groups that

represent them (such as Trout Unlimited, the U.S. Recreational Fishing

& Boating Coalition, and the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies)decisions made under this new national oceans policy could be used to

close saltwater and freshwater recreational-fishing areas....

(snip)

...The groups that have the task force's ear are preservationist and

anti-resource-management groups such as Defenders of Wildlife, the World Wildlife Fund, and Greenpeace, groups that don't think humans have a right to catch fish or kill deer in the first place. These groups

collaborated on a document entitled "Transition Green," published in

late 2008. This paper doesn�t differentiate commercial fishermen from

America's anglers - the environmental groups act as if commercial

long-liners fishing miles off shore are the same as people who buy a

state fishing license and tote a tackle box to the nearby lakeshore.

And, as it turns out, everything this White House task force is doing

precisely mirrors what the greens' position paper outlined.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Tim Nunan
punctuation

[E4 No More]

Kind of makes you wish that someone would declare open season on those groups.

[Guest SUNTZU]

Barack "Executive Order" Obama strikes again.

Edited March 12, 2010 by SUNTZU

[setsdw]

I say we need to just give Obama a sheriff star and a cap gun and let him clean out Dodge himself. If he wants to issue excutive orders like that then he needs to personally enforce them.

[Guest cjr]

These people are out of control,if they take all my hobbies away what do they think I will resort to.I may need to take my tax dollars and move to bluer waters.

[Guest Rainmaker]

That article looks like an editorial.

"The groups that have the task force's ear are preservationist and

anti-resource-management groups such as Defenders of Wildlife, the World Wildlife Fund, and Greenpeace, groups that don't think humans have a right to catch fish or kill deer in the first place"

I'm sorry, but this just sounds like fear mongering. The democratic party is teetering politically over healthcare as it is, and somebody thinks their next move is to ban fishing and hunting nationwide? So their plan is to aggravate the public as greatly as possible and push fishers into the conservative camp?

I have problems with Obama. I had problems with Bush. I was worried during both presidencies. But this kind of stuff is just jumping the shark, man.

For the record, here's the original editorial that started all this;

Public input period for federal fishery strategy has ended - ESPN

And here's the *apology* ESPN issued when it realized rumors were getting started.

ESPNOutdoors.com: From the editor - ESPN

On a side note, if there weren't any regulation of public lands and waters at all, there probably wouldn't be any fish or deer left for you to hunt.

Rumors like this are designed to hit emotional buttons that make you stop thinking and start lining up behind one group or another.

EDIT: Upon further research, this guy puts it much more eloquently than I'm capable.

http://www.examiner.com/x-37128-Charlotte-Fishing-Examiner~y2010m3d9-ESPN-claims-Obama-is-about-to-ban-fishing

Edited March 12, 2010 by Rainmaker

[setsdw]

I'm waiting for someone to come out with "They can have my tackle box, when the pry it from my cold dead fingers!"

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Just have to take an AR out in the boat when you want to fish. See how much they enforce it. That might be the return message to the one these fools send.

[Il Duce]

They have have my Penn reels when they pry them from my cold dead hands

[Wingshooter]

Congress is being called in to vote on an "Environmentalist's Wateway Bill" today. Michelle Bachman said on Fox News that she didn't know if this is the one that bans fishing or not.

**Update:

Ok, it seems like this vote today is not about banning fishing. It is about releasing water to some swing CA congressmen votes for health care.

Edited March 19, 2010 by Batman