"Fishermen’s fear: Public's 'right to fish' shifting under Obama?" dictatorship?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Sport fishermen worry about an eroding 'right to fish' as the Obama administration shifts fishing policy to include United Nations objectives. Proponents say fishermen have much to gain by zoning uses of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems.

The Obama administration has proposed using United Nations-guided principles to expand a type of zoning to coastal and even some inland waters. That’s raising concerns among fishermen that their favorite fishing holes may soon be off-limits for bait-casting.

In the battle of incremental change that epitomizes the American conservation movement, many weekend anglers fear that the Obama administration’s promise to “fundamentally change” water management in the US will erode what they call the public’s “right to fish,” in turn creating economic losses for the $82 billion recreational fishing industry and a further deterioration of the American outdoorsman’s legacy.

“It’s not an environmentalist manifesto,” says Larry Crowder, a marine biologist at Duke University in North Carolina. “It’s multiple-use planning for the environment, and making sure various uses … are sustainable.”

We already have multiple-use planning.  Should Washington take control of every thing?  Should locals be shut out by folks that live thousands of miles away?

New way to manage marine resources

Faced with the prospect of further industrialization along America's coasts and the Great Lakes (wind turbines and natural-gas exploration, for example), the task force is charged with putting in place a new ecosystem management process called marine spatial planning.

Marine spatial planning (MSP), according to the United Nations, is “a public process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that usually have been specified through a political process."

Does the fisherman come first when polticians in Washington are involved?

Another 'Let them eat Kobe beef' moment for the first family?

Mr. Morlock points to references by the ocean task force to “one global sea” as evidence that what’s really being proposed are broad changes to America's user-funded conservation strategy, potentially affecting even inland waters.

“I suggest that the task force recommend our model to the United Nations rather than us adopting the United Nations model,” he says in a phone interview. “The American model is the best in the world, so our question is: Why seek the lowest common denominator?”

But critics still worry about the Obama administration’s ties to environmental groups that espouse “anti-use” policies that put some habitats out of reach even for rod and reel fishermen, who take only 3 percent of America’s landed catch every year.

“Angling advocates point out that senior policy officials on the task force seem inclined to ally themselves with preservationists and environmental extremists who want to create ‘no fishing’ preserves, with no scientific justification,” writes ESPN.com’s Robert Montgomery.

The final report of the task force is expected in late March. Congress will decide its fate, unless Obama issues an executive order establishing MSP as the law of the water

Dictatorship continues?

more here - http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0309/Fishermen-s-fear-Public-s-right-to-fish-shifting-under-Obama

Why aren't they publicizing these kinds of changes like they advertise the census?

[WhiskeyGirl]

There is already a registry for legal firearms bought by U.S. citizens, after passing a state exam. Criminals are exempt; they get them in other ways.

This year, we have a National Saltwater Angler Registry.

Anglers with fishing rods thus join the ranks of domestic violence offenders, sex offenders and hunters of migratory birds as people whose names must appear in a government database so their actions can be monitored, measured and controlled.

In a sense, it means our fishing rods are now registered.

They it's free (for now). Yes, just like some boat ramps used to be free. People will have to be hired to take care of the extra work. So free turns into fee. This also means it's just an excuse to get checked by Coast Guard or marine police who want to see if everything is in order.

It's one more nail in the coffin for the sportfishing industry; it means more "for sale" signs on boats.

Some people will not know about this, or they will forget to register. Since it's a federal law, I wonder if Miranda rights will be read to violators, as they were read to me for catching a legal-size flounder during a two-week period when it was illegal to do so --a $65 mistake.

I just called 888-674-7411 and got my number. I'm so proud. I am now legally allowed to catch fish -- with another license I purchased from the state of Maryland.

more here - http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20100305/OPINION01/3050340/-1/newsfront2/New-fishing-registry-turns-freedom-to-fee-dom

I wonder what the federal tax will be to fish the inland lakes and waterways? 

A lot of poor people can't afford $65.  There are many who hunt and fish to eat.

$65 isn't a lot to career politicians like the Obamas, but it is a lot to the unemployed, the underemployed, and other folks.

Is this another attempt to depopulate the rural areas?  Move everyone into urban ghettos?  Genocide?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Obama Administration Allows Factory Fish Farms in Gulf of Mexico
Statement of Food & Water Watch Fish Program Director Marianne Cufone

WASHINGTON - September 3 - "Today, the very agency tasked with conservation and management of our national fish resources, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), failed to protect fishing communities and the marine environment by allowing an unpopular and potentially harmful ocean fish farming plan for the Gulf of Mexico to pass into effect. NMFS was involved for the entire five years this plan was under discussion, and had since January of 2009 to decide whether ocean fish farming is the right thing to do for the Gulf. Time for indecision ran out today. Rather than taking a stand, the agency looked the other way and chose to stay silent, letting the plan pass by default. The agency's silence is a choice in itself: to allow development of what are essentially factory farms of the sea-dirty, crowded mass-production facilities that can harm the environment and produce lower-quality fish for consumers. The plan lacks specifics about important issues: unknown types of facilities will be able to grow unspecified types of fish in locations approved by NMFS on a case-by-case basis, from three to 200 miles offshore in the Gulf. The development of these facilities will likely cause major ecological problems, and could undercut prices local fishermen receive for their catch, threatening an already vulnerable job market.

"In addition to the overwhelming public opposition to this plan, its legality is highly questionable. Under existing federal law, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and NMFS do not have the authority to permit ocean fish farming.

more here - http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/03-13

I guess fishermen are bad for Obama's special interests, large mega fish farms...