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'I call 'em educated idiots': Fishermen speak out against NOAA and Regulations
The Destin Log ^ | 11/3/09 | Howard Morrison

Posted on 11/03/2009 5:08:13 PM PST by Howard Morrison

In mid-August, the National Marine Fisheries Service closed down the red snapper fishery, then a couple of weeks ago they took away the greater amberjack with a week left in the Fishing Rodeo - Destin's longest running fishing tournament.

I'm out here criticizing the 'do-gooder,' ” who thinks they are helping the fishery with the closures, Brunson said. “I call 'em educated idiots. They ought to listen to someone who's been fishing for more than 80 years.”

“The amberjack is what tore me up,” said the 96-year-old Capt. Reddin “Salty” Brunson, who was sporting a protest sign attached to his walker. http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/protest-11780-fishermen-long.html

(Excerpt) Read more at thedestinlog.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: destin; fishery; florida; regulation

1 posted on 11/03/2009 5:08:13 PM PST by Howard Morrison
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To: Howard Morrison

When I was a teenager, I worked at Lafountain’s wharf in Destin. It was just a sleepy fishing village then. I guess fishing is still a big industry tho the town has grown tremendously.

They also recently closed oyster industry in that area for all practical purposes. I really do think this is political. That is the most conservative part of the country.


2 posted on 11/03/2009 5:15:28 PM PST by yarddog
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To: Howard Morrison

They ought to listen to someone who’s been fishing for more than 80 years.”

Wow

Not a typo!!!

BTW Do ya think the government and the Eco Nazis will listen to this man?


3 posted on 11/03/2009 5:15:45 PM PST by DontTreadOnMe2009 (So stop treading on me already!)
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To: Howard Morrison

Sorry Capt. Brunson, but you have lost your country, your livelihood and your fishing to radical environmentalists who are now entrenched in every corner of government. You, your life, your experiences, your pleasure in fishing, your habits of 80 years count for nothing. You, sir, are a slave of the State.


4 posted on 11/03/2009 5:17:33 PM PST by La Lydia
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To: La Lydia

Think environmental anarchists. An environmental anarchists wants to control every aspect of your life to “protect the environment”. It is a new pagan religion. Unfortunately, they are in control of the US at the present time.


5 posted on 11/03/2009 5:34:38 PM PST by Citizen Tom Paine
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To: yarddog

I believe it’s political too. Very conservative in Florida’s panhandle. Military there too. Conservative + military certainly a target.


6 posted on 11/03/2009 5:38:11 PM PST by Howard Morrison (Response to Ann Uchtman)
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To: La Lydia; Howard Morrison
They ought to listen to someone who's been fishing for more than 80 years... You, your life, your experiences, your pleasure in fishing, your habits of 80 years count for nothing. You, sir, are a slave of the State.

This so true and it is so sad. We are losing our country day by day as everything becomes politicized. The idea of limits, that there are limits to authority, that there is a circle of privacy where governments do not tread, that the people themselves ought to decide what laws will rule them, and not someone who does not know their circumstance... all that is being lost.

I'm not sure how we turn it around, and if we don't, what a tragedy. We are no longer a free people and most people didn't even notice.

7 posted on 11/03/2009 5:39:48 PM PST by marron
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To: Howard Morrison

Isn’t this part of Obama’s plan to shut down fishing in the Ocean and Great Lakes?


8 posted on 11/03/2009 5:40:58 PM PST by mia
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To: Howard Morrison

I go to Destin during summer vacation sometimes lovely town


9 posted on 11/03/2009 5:54:36 PM PST by Charlespg (The Mainstream media is the enemy of democracy destroy the mainstream media)
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To: mia

It is...can’t remember the name of the Act right now but it also targets fishing in lakes and streams, give rights to our waterways to the UN. Also out to stop salt water fishing. I think most people don’t even know about this Act.


10 posted on 11/03/2009 5:59:15 PM PST by Howard Morrison (Response to Ann Uchtman)
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To: mia

It is...can’t remember the name of the Act right now but it also targets fishing in lakes and streams, give rights to our waterways to the UN. Also out to stop salt water fishing. I think most people don’t even know about this Act.


11 posted on 11/03/2009 5:59:27 PM PST by Howard Morrison (Response to Ann Uchtman)
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To: Howard Morrison

Is it H.R. 1080, The Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act of 2009?


12 posted on 11/03/2009 6:02:46 PM PST by mia
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To: Howard Morrison

Is it H.R. 1080, The Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act of 2009?


13 posted on 11/03/2009 6:03:28 PM PST by mia
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To: mia

Sorry for the double post. There was a glich in the system.


14 posted on 11/03/2009 6:04:31 PM PST by mia
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To: mia

I wish this could get some national exposure.


15 posted on 11/03/2009 6:09:22 PM PST by Howard Morrison (Response to Ann Uchtman)
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
Think environmental anarchists.

And the commercial fishing industry is America's last wild frontier where a man can invest his all, buy a boat, and make a living from what he can harvest off the wild. This ancient industry is a first casualty, and it's taken years to get here with careful propaganda and misinformation.

In the 1970s, when the environmentalist "movement" (invasion, actually) started to sprout and voted in a California Coastal Commission to "protect" the coast, my commercial fisherman dad stated to anyone who would listen: These guys are going to try to destroy us and our ability to be productive. They are Enemy No. 1 within.

Since then, virtually every successful commercial fishery among his sea-going compadres has been regulated out of existence "for its own good." Natural predators from sea otters to sea lions have been protected and their populations have exploded, taking an outrageous toll on some fisheries. Reports of "shortages" in others is a fiction of imagination (kind of like "global warming").

But they know best, these concerned "pistol-packin' Fisn n Gamers." "Educated idiots" is exactly right. Sadly, they've got America thinking that the fisheries are ailing for being overfished and that all this intrusion is legitimate, a "cure," and therefore government overtake of a whole piece of private enterprise food production is destroyed. Wiped out. Discontinued. Stopped.

And when American fishermen try to defend themselves, you know what today's America says? "You're being greedy! You're biased! You won't tell the truth because you're self-interested. You greedy bastards have destroyed your own livelihood!" They are quick to believe the Environmentalist justifications because it salves a base thing in their own cores, which is the idea that they're taking part in being smarter, more careful, more concerned, than any coarse, hayseed commercial fisherman.

It's disgusting. Envy lies at all charges of greed. Government is what's greedy, and the difference is we've given this greed machine the power of theft.

The power of the market regulates greed -- the greediest lose all. But humans who allow themselves to self-righteously stew in the victimization of "the greedy" employ that useless emotion to empower politicians who act on it -- and the greed becomes theft by a tyrannical government. All because of people indulging in envy and the lust to punish "greed."

Pray for America.

16 posted on 11/03/2009 6:14:57 PM PST by Finny ("Raise hell. Vote smart." -- Ted Nugent.)
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To: Howard Morrison
I wish it would get some national exposure also. I guess the GOP is just waiting around for all of us to get so angry more than $2 million show up in Washington. Actually, I think this could happen.

I didn't realize that HR 1080 was going to regulate streams and smaller lakes. Wait until the states pick up on this and realize they are going to lose all the fishing license revenue. And, just think, Bass pro might be a little upset because they will lose a great percentage of their profits from the sale of fishing equipment. Not to mention the manufacturers of boats, fishing equipment, etc.

Maybe we should start growing popcorn, it's going to be fun to watch all the action while people get angry over the "no fishing" regulators. Popcorn will be in great demand.

17 posted on 11/03/2009 6:16:56 PM PST by mia
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To: Finny
I just like to fish. I'm hopping mad. I can't wait to tell my family and friends that there will be no fishing on our next camping trip to the Adirandacks. They are going to be furious.

You have to just wonder, if fishing is prohibited and food becomes outrageously expensive in the near future, what are people going to do for food? Wow, this is going to affect a lot of people.

18 posted on 11/03/2009 6:23:51 PM PST by mia
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To: mia

This Explains it:
Feds to 60 Million American Anglers: We don’t need you

A recently published administration document outlines a structure that could result in closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas across America. The White House created an Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force in June and gave them only 90 days to develop a comprehensive federal policy for all U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes waters. Under the guise of ‘protecting’ these areas, the current second phase of the Task Force direction is to develop zoning which may permanently close vast areas of fishing waters nationwide. This is to be completed by December 9, 2009.

Dave Pfeiffer, President of Shimano American Corporation explained, “In spite of extensive submissions from the recreational fishing community to the Task Force in person and in writing, they failed to include any mention of the over one million jobs or the 6o million anglers which may be affected by the new policies coast to coast. Input from the environmental groups who want to put us off the water was adopted into the report verbatim – the key points we submitted as an industry were ignored.”

Recreational fishing generates a $125 billion annual economy in the United States and supports jobs in every state according to government figures. Through the Sport Fish Restoration program, anglers have provided more than $5 billion through excise taxes on fishing tackle to fishery conservation and education for decades.

In addition to the economic aspects, anglers lead the nation in volunteer conservation efforts on behalf of improving fish habitat, water quality and related environmental areas. “There was no mention of the fishery conservation efforts which anglers have led for over 50 years in every state – an environmental success story that has no equal in the world”, said Phil Morlock, Director, Environmental Affairs for Shimano. “The Task Force did not make any distinction between the dramatic differences between harmful commercial fishing harvest methods and recreational fishing, even though we spelled it out for them in detail,” added Morlock.

Claiming to be the result of a public consultation process the report states, “Having considered a broad range of public comments, this report reflects the requests and concerns of all interested parties.”

The original White House memo and not surprisingly the Task Force report contains multiple references to developing a national policy where Great Lakes and coastal regions are managed, “consistent with international law, including customary international law as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” - a 300-page treaty the U.S. has never ratified.

“We question what implications there will be for state authority and jurisdiction in the Great Lakes and coastal regions if the U.S. adopts the U.N. Treaty,” said Pfeiffer.


19 posted on 11/03/2009 6:39:54 PM PST by Howard Morrison (Response to Ann Uchtman)
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To: Howard Morrison

Thanks for the information. I passed it on to my fishing family.


20 posted on 11/03/2009 6:57:28 PM PST by mia
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