These are some thoughts I have on the matter that you probably are not going to hear from any mainstream media or any of the groups you’d expect to hear info from usually…
I hope this spurs some serious thought and reflection among our community.
Summary for those who do not have 15 minutes to read this entire post:
Groups we’re involved in and supportive of may have been bought out by powerful special (and conflicting) interests. It’s not grassroots anymore. It’s top-down. I’ll call it grasstops instead of grassroots. This explains the widespread disgust among the public… we can’t put our finger on the hidden hand that’s hurting us, but we know it’s there nonetheless. If we’d take the time to realize what’s happening to our organizations and communities, we’ll find the hidden hand. The grass is getting mowed, and the roots aren’t getting any water or nutrients. The grass is being ruined. Grasstop efforts disguised as grassroots efforts are ruining sportfishing and America.
People seldom realize the impact any mismanagement or ill-advised policy has on recreational fishing and related industry.
The effects of this on America as a whole are huge, yet they’re rarely realized or noticed- just written off as bitter medicine we’ve got to take because of the evil commercial fishermen and how they’ve raped our resources. If that’s the case, then how come the government itself, by it’s own very low scientific standards, has determined that less than 25% of our fisheries are actually not operating at 100+% sustainable levels? You never hear this. You only hear doom and gloom.
Why? Who profits from made-up crisis and made-up problems? Who profits when governmental policy is influenced and changed in certain ways? Are we all getting played here? Are we being carpet bagged? Sand bagged? What?
Sportsmen are who spend the real time and money in the environment, and they are on the newscasts crying about the Gulf disaster. Sportsmen will lose their liveliho
