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.
...
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."

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.
...
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.

No, nothing has happened yet.

Recreational fishing is a big deal all across the country.

saltwater recreational fishing is a major economic driver generating more than $30 billion in economic impact and supporting nearly 350,000 jobs nationwide.

Spending on health care totals about $2.5 trillion

Employment in the huge health care sector has grown by about 427,000 jobs — nearly 3% — since the recession began in December 2007, and totaled 15.5 million jobs in April, the latest month for which U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures were available.

No, nothing has happened yet.

No, nothing has happened yet.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/Partnershi ... /index.htm



http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/200 ... nomy_N.htm





Given the relative sizes, I guess I'm pretty glad that the President has put his priorities in the right place. Hell, as you said...



Oh those poor sport fisherman who *might* be impacted a little bit! Their plight is obviously as bad as people with no insurance facing financial disaster when they get into a medical accident.

Again, though....

President Barack Obama quietly created the task force with a June 12 memo. Staffed with "senior policy-level officials" from Interior, Commerce, Agriculture, Homeland Security and other departments and agencies, the task force provides a structure and a mechanism for closures of sport fisheries not only in the blue and coastal waters of oceans, but inland, starting with the Great Lakes.

Of course, that is not the stated intent. The President said it was created "To succeed in protecting the oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes, the United States needs to act within a unifying framework under a clear national policy, including a comprehensive, ecosystem-based framework for the long-term conservation and use of our resources."

Yet those with interests in recreational fishing say early indications are that many in the administration want to take it in the direction of recreational fishing closures under the guise of better protecting those resources. They claim evidence of that can be seen in the task force's Interim Report, released on Sept. 10.

"We are completely baffled as to why the task force failed to acknowledge or include any mention of the key aspects of recreational fishing that were presented to them in detail on more than one occasion," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano American Corp./Shimano Canada Ltd. "The significant number of jobs and the economy that more than 60 million American anglers support, and the major conservation efforts by people who fish in all regions of the country, were completely ignored.

"No distinction between the obvious dramatic differences between recreational fishing and commercial harvest methods was made. This is the result of a 90-day fire-drill process, as ordered by the President that, not surprisingly, lacks balance, clarity, and quality in the end product.

Recreational and commercial fishing is big business in the United States, worth about $185 billion in sales in 2006, NOAA said. Fishing supports more than 2 million jobs, the agency said.

Although many species are overfished, there is only one marine fish species on the endangered list, the smalltooth sawfish in waters off the coast of Florida.

"We have more species that are recovering than are declining, so in terms of the ones we know enough about, the U.S. is actually doing a pretty good job," Cowan said.

The "reason" is they want to stop overfishing, but the way they are proposing it is to stop ALL fishing.

This has nothing to do with healthcare, Frib just wants to put his hyperbole for healthcare on every topic.

nothing has happened

Okay, that is a strong and testable claim. If it is true, then I agree that this legislation is fucked up and needs to be reworked. Can you provide some evidence for your claim? Ideally, this would be the text of the Interim Report mentioned in your link, but some other reputable source with links to the actual legislation would be great too.

The embassy conversation about all of the campaign doners who got cushy jobs?

What does this have to do with health care? I'm confused

Following the lead of an ESPNOutdoors.com opinion writer, who provided no evidence for his claim that a federal strategy "could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing," right-wing blogs have advanced the outlandish charge that Obama "wants to ban sport fishing." These media outlets cited the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force's interim report on coastal and marine planning, but the task force has proposed nothing of the sort.