raytownbassclub.net - Recreational Angling in Peril

Robert Montgomery of ESPN Outdoors writes that, "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 imperils not just the sport we love, but countless jobs associated with recreational fishing. People that work for boat manufacturers, rod and lure companies, to people in the tourist industry could easily be out of work if the current administration bans fishing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has teamed itself with the Obama administration and other "environmentalist" groups who are opposed to allowing anglers to "use" our natural and man-made waterways for recreational fishing. With callous disregard for sportsmen, middle class laborers, and small business owners, it appears that NOAA will send recommendations to President Obama later this month (March, 2010) regarding access for fishing, and the president will follow these recommendations via executive order by the end of this month.

To be fair, the NOAA led by a woman named Jane Lubchenco, has not voiced any negative press about the sport fishing community, but she certainly has not endorsed the sport either. Montgomery writes, "Additionally, Lubchenco and others in the administration have close ties to environmental groups who would like nothing better than to ban recreational angling. And evidence suggests that these organizations have been the engine behind the task force since before Obama issued a memo creating it last June."

The balance of the piece by Montgomery focuses on the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife and other so-called "environmentalist" groups and their attempts to dismantle the scientific framework that has been so successful in populating and re-populating our fisheries in the U.S.

This is an opportunity for the fishing and sporting communities to unite. Contact your congressional representatives and voice your concerns. Tell them to stop this insanity. Many hunting and fishing groups were lured into voting for President Obama in 2008 because of his stated goals of cleaning up the environment from the Bush-era policies of energy exploration. What these groups did not consider was that once clean, this administration does not want anyone fishing in our waters.

Please read the full article at ESPN Outdoors.