TV info tonight on Great lakes & ocean Govt fishing policy

[big easy]

This may be of interest to you on the worries about the impact on great lakes and ocean fishing access.Tonight (3/9) Fox business will be interviewing people involved in this possible problem.I pasted this from another site.

Robert Montogomery's article on the ESPN Outdoors saltwater web site yesterday regarding the White House Ocean Policy and the Obama Administration's announcement on accepting no more public input on it has created quite a stir in DC. The offices of the American Sportfishing Association, the Congressional Sportsman's Foundation (CSF), Coastal Conservation Association, BASS and others are being deluged with calls from Capital Hill staffers on what they can do, and also for interviews and follow-up info from many mainstream media outlets.

Tonight at 7pm EST on Fox Business News (http://www.foxbusiness.com/our-team/on-air/index.html to find the cable station in your area), the CSF and possibly others from the sportfishing industry will be interviewed on this topic. We hope you tune in to hear more on how all of this impacts the recreational fishing industry.

Here's the link to the ESPN article by Robert Montgomery...

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/salt ... id=4975762

[kliph]

For more info on this check out the links.

http://www.capwiz.com/keepamericafishin ... d=14653146

http://wnyoutdoors.blogspot.com/

[ReelPower]

IMO, the Keep America Fishing link's email response is very well written. The policy statement paper of this executive level committee does not seem to recognize sport fishers as a group at the table.

BTW the prez has very little legal authority to dapple in Great Lake's fisheries' policy. This is more smoke than fire. Same goes for State coastal waters, to a lesser segree. Check out the committee's "authority" section in its working policy paper. Not a single citation to actual law.

[L&M]

Obama intent on ending recreational fishing in America? Column generates a strong reaction -- and a correction.

By David Figura/The Post-Standard

March 13, 2010, 9:29AM

I've received more than a dozen emails from concerned local outdoorsmen this past week saying Pres. Obama is intent on ending recreational fishing in this country -- directing my attention to an ESPN.com column written by Robert Montgomery of ESPN Outdoors, entitled "Culled Out. Public input for federal fishing strategy has ended."

The Field and Stream web site, however, described Montgomery's piece and the message it carried as "a farce."

In addition, the ESPN.com editor this week issued an apology and posted a correction concerning Montgomery's column.

Montgomery's piece begins: "The Obama administration has ended public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

"Fishing industry insiders, who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force, had grown concerned that the public input would not be taken into account."

One reader said he heard Glen Beck mention the column this week on his show.

Read the complete version of Montgomery's column.

ESPN Outdoors Executive Editor Steve Bowman's statement in regard to Montgomery's piece follows: "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."

The Obama administration has since issued a statement saying it has no such plans to end recreational fishing..

And Trout Unlimited, the Field and Stream web site reported, on Friday issued the following statement:

"Dear TU Supporters:

"We wanted to take a moment to respond to a number of you who have written to us this week concerning an ESPN piece that appeared on the ESPN Outdoors website about the draft proposal recently published by the President's Ocean Policy Task Force. The first sentence in the piece said the following: "The Obama administration has ended public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland

waters."

"...The confusion over the ESPN article led the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the coordinating entity for federal environmental efforts, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), to issue the following statements (from Eric Schwaab, NOAA's Assistant Administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service)

"The Ocean Policy Task Force has not recommended a ban on recreational fishing. The draft reports by the Ocean Policy Task Force do not contain a zoning map and do not establish any restrictions on recreational fishing, nor make any judgments about whether one ocean activity or use is better than another. Instead, the reports set up a policy and framework for effectively managing the many sustainable uses of the ocean while upholding our responsibility to be stewards of our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. As a member of the task force, NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, has said, and I echo her on this, that saltwater recreational fishing is vital to this nation and NOAA is committed to building a strong partnership with America's saltwater anglers to ensure that Americans have opportunities to fish sustainably for generations to come."

"Saltwater recreational fishing matters to me on a personal level as a recreational fisherman, it matters to millions of Americans who enjoy this great sport and it matters to our economy. Our most recent economic report shows it supports a half million jobs and generates $82 billion in sales each year. NOAA is committed to adopting policies that will ensure that current and future generations have the opportunity to enjoy the great tradition of recreational fishing."

"In our view, there is no evidence that the Obama Administration intended to use the work of the Ocean Task Force to undercut marine sport fishing."

The Field and Stream web site concludes: "At least one good thing might have come out of this farce: if the administration wasn't paying attention to the concerns voiced by recreational anglers before, you can bet it is now. And that's a good thing regardless of who's in office."

http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2010/ ... creat.html

[muskybob]

Good piece.

[borderline 350]

Dear Hank,

Thank you for digging deep on this "News Story" from ESPN. It scared the hell out of me! Another News Service with their "spin". I am tired of such poorly written stuff. And written by someone in the "Fishing Industry" !!!! It does make me extremely suspect of "News Reporting" in the MEDIA. Thanks again Hank for digging out the truth!!

Sincerely,

Jet Boat Bill on the way back to Webster, NY

[High Bidder]

One thing was not quite clearly stated and maybe this could be clarified. It indicates that the use policy of the Great Lakes was now going to be by federal mandates and not controlled by the individual States. Is that how it is now? Does anyone really know how the federal govenment is going to manage the Great Lakes or what will be their "policy"? The ESPN piece might have been a little inflamatory but until we all know just what " managing for a sustainable resource" actually means we should possibly still be a little skeptical. It might not be a chicken little story after all. From recent experience with the federal solution to the carp problem we all know that recreational fishing is in last place.

High Bidder

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

You are exactly right, High Bidder. It is full-speed ahead on Lake Trout, Atlantic Salmon, and now American eels. I don't know any stakeholders(DEC Term) who were asked their opinion on this.