Obama moving to limit recreational fishing access? Fearmongering - and link to the report

[The Straight Story]

Here are two excerpts from recent news reports you might come across:

Culled out
Obama administration will accept no more public input for federal fishery strategy


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.
Anglering for access united we fish rally capitol washington fishing
AP/Luis M. AlvarezOne sign at the United We Fish rally at the Capital summed up the feelings of recreational and commercial fishermen.
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.

"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.

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.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/news/story?id=4975762

Burning Question: Is the Obama administration coming for your fishing rod?
March 9, 2010

Advocates for American anglers are getting a little nervous about an Obama adminstration task force's effort to develop a strategy for ""marine spatial planning."

Over at ESPN Outdoors, Robert Montgomery writes that the 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."

That might be someting of a stretch. The task force hasn't said it will target sport fishing, but, Montgomery says, it hasn't explicitly said it won't, either. "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," he writes.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44757&oref=todaysnews

Here is a snippet from the report (link to full report at bottom)
Takes a twist to come up with what ESPN reported

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE ADOPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN
OCEANS, COASTS, AND GREAT LAKES NATIONAL POLICY

Immediate Actions That Can Be Executed Under Existing Authority:
 Full and vigorous implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Obama Administration
should focus on the long-term goal of healthy oceans and fully restored fisheries. The interim
goal of ending overfishing, as required by law, is a critical – and achievable – step during this
Administration, and can only be met by putting in place science-based catch limits and
ensuring that those limits are being met consistently. Pursuant to statutory deadlines, dozens of
fishery management plans are currently being amended to include new management measures
in order to end and prevent overfishing, so now is the time to act. In doing so, NOAA should:

Move quickly to issue policy guidance to the regional fishery management councils that
supplements the National Standard One guidelines on key issues, so as to ensure that the
required plan amendments are adequate and timely-completed. The guidance should:

 ensure that catch levels are set sufficiently below the overfishing level to fully
account for the scientific and management uncertainty that exists in the fishery;
 ensure that catch, including bycatch, is fully and accurately accounted for;
 ensure consistent compliance with catch limits, including by use of bycatch caps;
 result in the rebuilding of stocks in as short as time period as possible; and
 ensure that councils consider catch shares and any other approaches that may meet
performance standards;

 Approve only those fishery management plans and plan amendments in which the
mechanism for specifying the annual catch levels is described in sufficient detail to ensure
that it will result in an end to overfishing, result in catch levels set below overfishing levels,
taking proper account of scientific and management uncertainty, and that use effective
accountability measures to ensure those catch levels (including bycatch) are in fact not
exceeded; and

 Implement the Magnuson-Stevens Act’s illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing
provisions and require all executive offices that represent the United States internationally
to support NOAA’s efforts and recommendations on management, enforcement, and
coordinated technical assistance for nations engaging in IUU fishing.

 Increase fishery observers to a level that provides precise and accurate estimates of catch and
bycatch for all fish species, marine mammals, seabirds, and corals. In addition, for state
fisheries that interact with species protected under the Endangered Species Act or the Marine
Mammal Protection Act, observers must be placed in those fisheries to monitor compliance
with take authorizations.

 Direct NOAA to assist the regional fishery management councils in integrating ecological
considerations into fishery management. Although optimum yield is to be set at a level which
factors in ecosystems protection, fishery managers have not consistently or fully taken these
considerations into account. NOAA should: (1) provide the necessary technical information for
factoring ecosystem considerations into the calculation of optimum yield in each fishery in
stock assessment and Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation reports; (2) work together with
the councils to develop a fisheries ecosystem plan (FEP) for each marine ecosystem; and (3)
develop technical guidance on how councils should integrate the ecological considerations into
the establishment of optimum yield and the information contained in FEPs into management
plans and actions.

 Direct NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to strengthen recovery plans for all
threatened and endangered marine and anadromous species like orca whales, Chinook salmon
and marbled murrelets, by building metrics and milestones into ESA recovery plans so that
they become actionable, accountable efforts rather than open-ended research, monitoring and
voluntary programs. In addition, review and expedite consideration of species that have been
proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act, such as herring and several species of
rockfish.

http://www.conservefish.org/storage/marinefish3/documents/rceq73109.pdf

[PDJane]

1. We should stop fishing.........

Frankly, since the pollution in fresh water streams is so bad that the stuff is dangerous, and the rest of the fish stocks are dangerously overfished. We are damaging our environment beyond repair.

[MineralMan]

2. No thanks. I've been an angler all my life.

I haven't killed a fish in over 20 years. I use barbless circle hooks and release everything unharmed. The techniques I use are virtually kill free.

You do what you do, and allow me to do what I do, and we'll all get along just fine.

By the way...are you a vegetarian?

[PDJane]

3. lacto-ovo vegetarian, as opposed to vegan.

It's not that meat eaters are anathema in my view; frankly, it's that we've overfished and over polluted and stressed to the max. You may do what you do; that's fine. But would I eat freshwater fish at the moment? No. Do I eat ocean fish? No. Not because I don't like fish or have some physical revulsion; it is, quite frankly, that we've done so many cruel and stupid and barbaric things that we have to somehow make some changes.

[laughingliberal]

6. +1

Fishing is my favorite recreational activity. I catch and release.

[anonymous171]

4. Recreational fishing is barely a drop in the bucket as far as overfishing is concerned. nt

[PDJane]

5. That is quite true, too........