AA Term of the Week: Overfishing

Want another example of tactics used by the preservationist wing of the environmental movement to ban recreational fishing wherever possible? Check out Jim Hutchinson's "Overfishing: A Term of Art" at the Recreational Fishing Alliance website.  Here's an excerpt:

"In the world of fisheries management, there is no finer example of term of art than the word overfishing. In 1996, the word was officially stolen from conservation-minded anglers and fishing industry leaders, re-written specifically to eschew obfuscation (baffle and bewilder) and ultimately to take away the fishing community’s ability to fight for access privileges under the law.

"In 2010, every time a fisherman stands up to defend his right to fish, some privileged preservationist with an ideological agenda simply has to cast a crooked finger towards the offending party and charge him with overfishing – it’s the 21st Century version of the Salem witch hunt, and any attempt to defend overfishing is tantamount to endorsing cancer. To stand in approval of overfishing is an act of environmental heresy, the offender subject to attack, consternation, contempt, public scorn and a life of dockside purgatory."

Go get 'em, Jim!

Previous AA Term of the Week: Spatial Planning

AA Term of the Week: Spatial Planning

Spatial planning is a strategy devised by the Obama Administration to determine where you can and cannot fish. Here is party line about need for spatial planning.

 Common tactic by big-government proponents is to identify a problem where none exists so that they can implement their “solution.” You see that right now with internet regulation and proposed resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine, which is anything but fair.

 Using spatial planning, the National Ocean Council will “zone” uses of our waters to avoid user conflicts --- the problem that doesn’t really exist, at least not on a scale that requires big-government micro-management. It will decide where we can do what on public waters.

 Of course, we won’t lose the right to fish all at once. We’ll lose a little bit here, a little bit there, as specific waters are “zoned” against recreational angling to better protect against us against those nasty user conflicts.  It will be death by a thousand cuts instead of by one fatal blow.

 Yes, user conflicts occasionally do occur. Possibly you’ve been involved in one. Do you think spatial planning would have solved it? If so, please tell me about it.