Fishing Rights- Attention all- upcoming law!

[tinymwoods]

Ok, I don't care who you voted for or support, but this is bad for all sportsmen and women. We must not let this go un noticed. I will link the page at the bottom, but here is what it says in places:

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.

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.
Consequently, unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for "marine spatial planning" by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations — whatever they may be.

Additionally, some of these same organizations have revealed their anti-fishing bias by playing fast and loose with "facts," in attempts to ban tackle containing lead in the United States and Canada.

That same tunnel vision, in which recreational angling and commercial fishing are indiscriminately lumped together as harmful to the resource, has persisted with the task force, despite protests by the angling industry.

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."

Please Pass this information along to everyone you know. I heard about this today on talk radio and was amazed. Here is the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/salt ... id=4975762

[Volfan]

Thanks for the info. I am from Tn and we love to fish. I am an avid bass fisherman but love lots of different species of fish.All sportsman need to unite. Whether it be hunting or fishing , to fight this type of BS.

[Big Dog]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100309/ts_csm/286232

[Buckshot101]

I am no Obama fan nor a Dem for that matter.........but I think that it's a rumor that has gotten blown out of proportion.

The Obama administration is backing a plan to ban the fishing of bluefin tuna to preserve it. This is a worldwide measure and vote that will take place as the bluefin tuna has decreased in numbers by 70% since 1957 and 60% in the last decade. They expect two-thirds of the 175 nations that will meet to vote on the measure will have to say yes. Japan which consumes three-fourths of the bluefin tuna in the Atlantic has said they will not abide by a ban.

[tinymwoods]

All I know is what the right wing ESPN reported. As the article states it does not say commercial vs sport fishing. This must be an evil ploy by Mickey Mouse to make Obama look bad. The news comes from a reliable source, and I think it needs our attention.

[Buckshot101]

Guess that is why ESPN retracted the article as not a news story but personal opinion by the author.........how about that for a reliable source:

Firestorms get started in a variety of ways, especially on politicized issues.

ESPNOutdoors.com inadvertently contributed to a flare-up Tuesday when we posted the latest article in a series of stories on President Barack Obama's newly created Ocean Policy Task Force, a column written by Robert Montgomery, a conservation writer for BASS since 1985. Regrettably, we made several errors in the editing and presentation of this installment. Though our series has included numerous news stories on the topic, this was not one of them -- it was an opinion piece, and should have been clearly labeled as commentary.

And while our series overall has examined several sides of the topic, this particular column was not properly balanced and failed to represent contrary points of view. We have reached out to people on every side of the issue and reported their points of view -- if they chose to respond -- throughout the series, but failed to do so in this specific column.

This series started in October and has included several updates on how the creation of the task force and its actions could impact recreational anglers. ESPNOutdoors.com should have made it clear to all readers that this was part of a larger series, and -- even though this was Montgomery's opinion, and those of the sources quoted in the column -- we should have taken more care to fairly represent opposing arguments.

We do feel it is our duty to cover issues surrounding outdoor sports to the best of our abilities, and given the nature of this task force and the potential impact on all fisherman, this was an appropriate topic to address for our audience. We take seriously the tenets of journalism that require we take an unbiased approach, and when we make mistakes in the presentation of a story or a column, it is our responsibility to admit them.

Any confusion on that part rests entirely on my shoulders as the executive editor of this site.

We have appended the original column to note that it was in fact a commentary, and we will institute more rigorous editing safeguards in order to prevent such issues in the future.
- ESPN's Steve Bowman

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/salt ... id=4982359

[tinymwoods]

They did not and can not say that the article is wrong. It was the interpretation of the law by many people including Shimano, Berkley, Nitro, Starcraft, and hundreds of others. The "opinion piece" simply said that the facts. The proposal does not distinguish a difference between commercial and pleasure fishermen. That is what the article said as fact. The rest was people's opinion and the main problem ESPN had with it was that "this particular column was not properly balanced and failed to represent contrary points of view". It was said at the top of the article: "this was Montgomery's opinion, and those of the sources quoted in the column". Amazing what political push can make people do. Why should they have to retract an article a man writes based on his beliefs and the understanding of a proposal by him and others in the business? This was posted to make people realize the power one group has and how it can affect all of us sitting idly by having no clue what is happening. How many of us had even heard of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, let alone know they were basically in charge of new regulations to "fishing" and "environmental" issues?

Just asking everyone keep urging Obama, McCain, Bush, Clinton, whoever the power is, to protect our rights to hunt and fish!