[seaslug44]

"Millions of American's live and recreate along our scenic coasts. For decades, recreational anglers have been the voice trumpeting ocean conservation. As active stewards of the fisheries, anglers have long pushed for limits on damaging practices like overfishing, even when it meant the difficult decision to limit our own activities.

Recently, some extreme groups came forward with their simplistic way out for fisheries conservation. Ban the angling public from large portions of our coastal waters. Shocking when you consider no scientific evidence exists to support keeping conservation-minded anglers out.

Anglers have united. Join us in protecting the fish and our freedom to fish.

Unnecessary closures are being proposed in California and elsewhere along America?s coasts. Support common-sense conservation. Support the Freedom To Fish Act. Your voice can make a difference!"

For more info, please visit;

http://www.freedomtofish.org

 

[621133]

Hi Doc-
Excellent site you posted here! It is indeed vital that every angler join this, or a similar organization dedicated to preserving our marine resources for responsible use. I am already a member of RFA and CCA- NY, and I intend to support this new effort as well. The Freedom to Fish Act is an extremely important piece of legislation, given this trend in creating so called "Marine Protected Areas". We all must contact our federal legislators and request that they support this bill.We have a "fishing friendly" President right now, let's make hay while the sun shines.

 

[seaslug44]

Thank you Bacala. I agree. But I guarantee you that 95% of our fellow anglers have no clue what the Freedom to Fish Act is, what it might do for us, or when it is going to be voted on.

 

[616787]

To anyone reading this thread.......YOU HEARD THE MAN, GO TO THE WEBSITE AND GET INVOLVED!!!!!

 

[621133]

Doc-
Thanks!!!I'm afraid you're probably right about the vast majority of anglers not knowing that a Freedom to Fish Act is even in the works in Congress. I think Noreast, and all rec. fishing publications, websites, ect. need to get as much info out as possible about it. Additionally, they must encourage anglers to, as bottomfedur said, get involved, by joining one of the angling organizations and contacting elected officials and urging them to support the Freedom to Fish Act.Finally, on Election Day, anglers have to give up a few minutes of their day, and VOTE!!!!

A quick question, Doc. In your opinion, are there any genuine conservation benefits to Marine Protected Areas? I think this whole push for more of them is just a back door attempt to slowly destroy fishing. Thanks again!

 

[seaslug44]

Bacala,

The most obvious genuine conservation benefits to Marine Protected Areas that I instantly think of is the protection of what remains of our natural reefs around the world. I've personally wittnessed the devastation in the Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas. Acres of dead coral are not a pretty sight.

There are some great studies that I can post links to here if you are interested. They show scientific proof how all of our reefs were on a collision course with true devastation. If we lose our living reefs, the whole ecosystem will be adversly affected.

As far as MPA's in areas such as here in the Noreast, it would be a total waste of time because most of our fish are migratory. These initiatives are purely based upon political, not environmental concerns. But keep your eyes and ears open because politics often screw us.

 

[621133]

Doc-
Thanks once again, yes I would be interested in any sites concerning MPAs. What you said about MPAs here in the Northeast makes a lot of sense, most species of fish up here are in different areas of the ocean at different times of the year. I can understand MPAs having a place in areas with live reefs, like you described.But, you hit it on the head:up here, it is all about politics.
I can't speak for anyone else here, but I greatly appreciate all the info on this, and other topics. Thanks Doc, we need more people like you in the angling community, and the world in general!

 

[seaslug44]

Thank you Bacala.

When it comes to politics, I haven't figured out yet how to gain control. I do my part to mail/fax letters, join the various organizations, etc... to voice my opinion. If I were wealthy and could afford to quit my job I'd run for office. That seems to be one of the only ways to effectively make a difference.

The last thing our DEC needs here in NY are closed areas of water to patrol. They lack the budget and manpower to patrol the region already. Imagine them trying to cope with the extra workload!

If politicians want to protect more fish around the state, all they need to do is invest a little more in DEC ENFORCEMENT. For instance, just last month George and I were discussing how pathetic the illegal activity was at Sunken Meadow. Guys were keeping bushels of porgies before the season opened. Others were slamming every sea robin they caught into the rocks to kill them. The shoreline was paved with dead robins. This went on for weeks. A kid on this site even posted that on his 1st trip to S.M. he wittnessed the chaos. -Not a great example for adults to set for children.

Anyway, MPA's are a global topic now. Here is an article about the MPA established off the coast of Vietnam to save a valuable reef that was in Dire Straits;

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/2001-11/24/Stories/21.htm

The National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI) is very active and seeks to use MPA's purely to protect live reefs, as they were originally intended to do. There is a wealth of info on their site;

http://www.nova.edu/ocean/ncri/

The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) is doing the same downunder. They can be found at;

http://www.amcs.org.au/links/mpa.htm

WWF International has a full-length book available for free download. It's a guide to MPA's for organizations/governments who are considering creating them. The book is located here;

http://www.panda.org/resources/publications/water/mpreserves/mar_dwnld.htm

Happy reading. Let me know if there is anything more specific that you're looking for and I'll be glad to send you more links (I've got hundreds of them).

Take care!

 

[seaslug44]

SHARKS!

By the way, I forgot to mention that MPA's/no-fishing zones have a silent epidemic that politicians and environmentalists fail to admit; SHARKS!

With the absense of much larger sharks and flesh-eating whales in the food chain, HUMANS are often SHARKS' one and only predator. Take us out of the food chain and you've got a severe shark problem. Think about it; MPA's create giant dinner tables for sharks. They are like 24 hour diners.

I wittnessed the shark problem first-hand two times. The first was while permit fishing over a wreck that a guide brought us to. The wreck was just outside of the Dry Tortugas MPA. We were catching & releasing beautiful giant permit using small blue claw crabs for bait. I swear, I probably could have had a world record that day until the sharks showed. We were fighting two very large permit when lemon sharks showed and sliced the trophies in half. The guide said that the whole MPA is paved with thousands of sharks. We had to pick up and leave.

The second time was during a cruise off of the coast of NorthEast Australia. We were on our way back from the Great Barrier reef. The ship anchored overnight in a cove near Cook island, a MPA. As the chefs prepared dinner, they would throw the scraps out of the window. In the ships light I could see ACRES of blacktip reef sharks eating the kitchen scraps!!

I asked the ship's marine expert and he stated the same thing; the MPA's are now INVADED with SHARKS. It's so dangerous that many MPA's in Australia can no longer be visited by divers or snorkelers. Once again, humans were their only predator. Without us in the food chain, the whole system is out of balance. MPA's are unnatural. Yes, they save live coral. But at what expense???

Then the media wants to know why there were so many shark attacks last year!!

 

[621133]

Doc-
Thank you very much for those sites! I can kill some more time at work looking at them It seem that MPAs were created primarily to preserve live coral reefs. Seeing that we do not have them here in the Northeast, MPAs should not even be an issue up here.

What you said about MPAs contributing to the seemingly rising number of shark attacks is very logical ( but remember, logic never convinced a bureaucrat or politician). It's similar to the cougar situation in California, something a book about animal attacks I reently read documented. Obviously, cougars have bascally no natural predators, so man was always their most dangerous enemy. Now, in CA, cougars are totally protected, so while their numbers continually increase, their natural fear of man is decreasing. The author of this book said it best when he wrote something to the effect of "at one time, cougars instinctively knew that interaction with man inevitably led to a very painful hole in the side. That doesn't occur anymore, so new generations of cougars have little, or no fear of man."

Didn't mean to get off the topic, but I felt that you made a very valid point about shrk attacks and MPAs. That situation has happened with apex land predators, so why not in the oceans, too. Thanks a lot, agan, Doc!

 

[seaslug44]

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This site is still a great place to visit.

WWW.FREEDOMTOFISH.ORG