Earlier this month, a group of tackle industry, boatbuilding
industry and anglers’ rights groups, which
have banded together under the banner of the Center for Coastal Conservation,
announced their latest plan for gutting the conservation and stock rebuilding
provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
They call it “Let America Fish.”
Details remain a little sketchy, but given that the Center supported and praised
H.R. 1335, the “Strengthening
Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act”
introduced by Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska), which would have emasculated
key provisions of Magnuson-Stevens, it’s safe assume that if the Center is
behind something, it’s probably not anything good.
“a communications campaign focused on adjustments to the
Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) that benefit recreational fishing. The campaign highlights the impact of the
recreational fishing and boating industries on the U.S. economy, speaks to the
conservation efforts put forth by recreational anglers, and sheds light on the
fact that the current laws are unbalanced thereby severely limiting access for
recreational anglers”.
Put in plain language, Let America Fish is a propaganda
campaign aimed at weakening the conservation provisions of Magnuson-Stevens, so
that some businesses can make more money and some fishermen can kill more fish
until overfishing and declining abundance brings the Center’s efforts to their crashing
and inevitable conclusion.
There’s nothing particularly new here. There have always been businesses eager to
profit at the expense of healthy fish stocks, and there has always been an
irresponsible element within the recreational fishing community that was
willing to abet their efforts.
The last big manifestation came in early 2012, when the
so-called “Keep Fishermen Fishing” rally was held outside the Capitol Building
in Washington, D.C.
That event was spearheaded by a group operating under the
banner of FishUnited.com, which sponsored a
similar “United We Fish” rally two years before. At the time, FishUnited issued this mission
statement:
“’Keep Fishermen Fishing’ states its mission as ‘to pass
federal legislation to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act.’
“Coalition partners will educate and inform legislators and
the general public on the onerous and devastating effect the current law is
having on angler access and the angling experience, the systematic destruction
of both recreational and commercial fishing communities and businesses by
attempting to rebuild our Nation’s fisheries at the expense of our fishermen
instead of for the benefit of them and the nation as a whole…”
In other words, FishUnited, like the Center, wanted to
weaken Magnuson-Stevens so that businesses could make more money and anglers
could kill more fish until the stocks come crashing down.
“…those who took in the ‘Keep America Fishing’ event were
stronger in passion, volume and anger.
There was little backpatting, laughter, or any
kids-in-the-park-on-a-nice-day feeling.
“They wore shirts that compared the national fisheries
management to Nazis.
“They bore signs that said, ‘How high up is the corruption?’;
‘Give it back, thief’; and ‘Jesus was a fisherman, why can’t we be?’”
Let America Fish is clearly designed to stir up the same
sort of sentiments. Jeff
Angers, the Center’s President, even uses language that sounds much like that
used by Fishing United.
“Through the ‘Let America Fish’ campaign, we hope to help
lawmakers and the general public understand why current federal fisheries law
is unfair to the recreational angling community. Revising federal law and agency guidance will
insure fair and reasonable access to America’s fisheries and improve fisheries
management to guide the future of recreational fishing and boating,”
In fact, Angers’ language is so close to that of
FishingUnited that it’s fair to wonder whether Keep Fishermen Fishing was the
model for Let America Fish.
However, the efforts differ in one important aspect. While Keep Fishermen Fishing and United We Fish
were broad-based demonstrations that, as the latter name suggests, were
intended to bring commercial and recreational fishermen together in common
cause, Let America Fish is much more narrowly-focused. It is designed to bring more money into the
coffers of the recreational fishing and boatbuilding industries by allowing
anglers to kill too many fish.
Such
focus is clear in the Center’s statement that
“As a group, recreational anglers provide a greater economic impact
than industrial commercial fishermen.
America’s 11 million recreational saltwater anglers make a combined
economic contribution of $70 billion annually, spend $26.5 billion each year,
and create 455,000 American jobs.”
Let America Fish differs in another aspect as well; it communicates
a far more hypocritical message than did Keep Fishermen Fishing and United We
Fish.
The latter efforts did not try to conceal their goals. They argued that Magnuson-Stevens was hurting
fishermen’s bottom lines, to the extent that some were forced to go out of
business, and called for the law to be revised to fishermen them kill more
fish. There was none of the simpering
language employed by the Center, saying that Magnuson-Stevens needed “adjustments”,
or that the goal was merely “revising” and “fixing” the statute.
Keep America Fishing and United We Fish also didn’t insult
the public’s intelligence by saying on one hand that
“recreational anglers have led the way to maintain
sustainable fish populations”
and
“Our goal is to sustain healthy fish stocks”
while, on the other hand, working to cripple the
conservation and stock rebuilding provisions created by the Sustainable
Fisheries Act of 1996, which are the very provisions that ensure that American
fisheries and fish stocks will remain healthy and sustainable.
Still, United We Fish, Keep Fishermen Fishing and Let
America Fish are, at heart, all variations on the same theme.
All are efforts to weaken Magnuson-Stevens, the most
successful fisheries management law in the world.
And all deserve to fail.
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