Enemies of Recreational Fishing Identified

If you are to defend what you love from threats, you must first identify the enemies. For recreational fishing, here are the big three:

1. Animal rights groups. Historically, organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Humane Society of the United States have been the most vocal in their opposition to fishing, as well as hunting and trapping. PETA especially has made a name for itself with campaigns that are more goofy than effective.

They aren’t the No. 1 threat anymore. But because of their deep pockets and alliances with left-wing environmental groups, they are a force to be reckoned with and concerned about. Check out their history at the Activistcash website: PETA and HSUS.

2. Big-government advocates in the Obama administration and their well-funded non-government allies, including Environmental Defense Fund and Pew Environmental Trusts. Via Catch Shares, the National Ocean Council, and other schemes, they want to limit access to fisheries and to tell us where we and cannot fish.  They pursue their objectives under the guise of ending “overfishing.”

Check out this great article about the Catch Shares scheme at The American Thinker.

And here’s one of the latest examples of the anti-fishing misinformation campaign, as reported by the Center for Coastal Conservation.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the chief threat here, with director Jane Lubchenco as the 500-pound gorilla in the room. She served on the board of the Pew Oceans Commission and was a trustee for the EDF.

Some of these people are anti-fishing. Others aren’t necessary against it, but don’t care about recreational fishing’s vast historic, cultural, and economic value. They would consider its demise an acceptable loss for implementation of their big-government vision in which public access to a public resource is limited, while a favored few reap huge profits.

Continued

Assault on Recreational Fishing Continues from Environmental Left

Check out this great article at The Online Fisherman.

I don’t know how recently it was written, but the important message still is current: Recreational fishing is under assault from those on the environmental left, through all kinds of schemes, strategies, organizations, and government agencies, including Catch Shares, marine protected areas, the National Ocean Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Pew Environmental Trust, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As the manager of federal fisheries, NOAA is populated by big-government bureaucrats who want to limit participation and set up a system for selling fish, not saving them.

The article contains a couple of minor errors, not the fault of The Online Fisherman. The president of the American Sportfishing Association is Mike Nussman, not “Nussbaum.” And the website that concerned anglers should visit is Keep America Fishing, not Freedom to Fish.

Asian Carp Threaten Minnesota, Wisconsin Inland Waters

Whether an electric barrier will keep Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes remains to be seen. Personally, I think that it’s already too late, but evidence has not yet been found to confirm that.

What is certain, however, is that not all of the Asian carp hung a right at the Illinois River, with Lake Michigan as their objective. Many have continued to migrate up the Mississippi, where they threaten to overwhelm rivers in Minnesota and Wisconsin as they have in Missouri, Illinois, and elsewhere.

Here’s the latest evidence, according to the Journal Sentinel:

A bighead carp was caught in the Lower Wisconsin River, about 60 miles from its confluence with the Mississippi.

Additionally, the Minnesota DNR reported that 22 of 50 samples taken on a 4.3-mile stretch of the St. Croix River tested positive for silver carp. That area is about 50 miles upstream from the Mississippi.

"We need the federal government to recognize the importance of the Mississippi River basin's invasive species problem and give it the attention and funding it deserves," said Bob Wakeman, the DNR's invasive species coordinator.

Read the entire story here.

Snakeheads Expand Range, Endanger Fisheries

Since the fall of 2010, five snakeheads have been caught in the watershed of the Nanticoke River. The Nanticoke flows down the Delmarva Peninsula, through Delaware and Maryland, and into Chesapeake Bay on the eastern side.

That suggests that the exotic predators have successfully migrated out of the Potomac River on the western side and across the bay. Likely they are in other bay tributaries as well.

At a glance, recreational anglers might think that having an aggressive, toothy predator added to sport fisheries is a good thing. The problem with that is an exotic species in a new environment brings with it unpredictable --- and possibly catastrophic --- consequences.

An introduced species encounters new forage, new habitat, and new competition for both. Occasionally it brings with it a new disease.

Sometimes it falters; sometimes it dominates, as we are seeing right now with Asian carp in many of our waterways. Will snakeheads do the same?

Your Help Needed to Keep Federal Fish Hatcheries Operating

Angling opportunities could be greatly reduced as a result of cuts to the federal budget, unless you and other activists convince Congress to act.

The situation is this: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) could close nine federal hatcheries that raise and release millions of fish annually for recreational fishing. They do so as mitigation for loss of native fisheries due to water development projects (dams).

In response to cuts in the budget, FWS has proposed an $11 million reduction in hatchery funding. “The impacts of these closures will hit both anglers and local economics hard, as the operations of these hatcheries help support more than 3,500 jobs and have an annual economic impact of more than $325,” says the American Sportfishing Association (ASA).

FWS intends to direct money cut from the hatcheries budget to other programs and new initiatives that “make few contributions to recreational fisheries,” ASA adds.

To keep the hatcheries operating, FWS either must be assured of full reimbursement for operation  or restoration of base funding until reimbursements are negotiated.

To make that happen, we must motivate our members of Congress to act to save the hatcheries. Go here at Keep America Fishing to send a letter.