Friends & anglers,
As we celebrate the Memorial Day weekend, we would like to offer our prayers to the servicemen and women standing tall to protect us, while honoring those who served our country proudly throughout our great history. We hope that all Recreational Fishing Alliance members across the country will take a moment this Memorial Day to reflect upon those courageous Americans who’ve given their lives for our great nation, and those currently fulfilling their pledge to protect freedom and democracy today on both domestic and foreign soil.
We ask too that you also say a prayer for our friends in the Gulf of Mexico, those lost during the oil rig explosion and the thousands of residents along the Louisiana coast, now feeling the grip of this catastrophic oil tragedy. America is watching, and we all hope that the worst is now behind us and a real, dedicated clean-up will ensue.
This weekend, it’s hard not to think about how our freedoms are being challenged everyday in Washington DC and throughout our coastal fishing communities, as overzealous organizations are seeking to deprive you of your access to our nation’s natural resources.
Our nation’s primary fishery law - the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act - contains restrictions that have no sound basis in science, and were put into law with help from the Pew Charitable Trusts and their friends at Environmental Defense, Natural Resource Defense Council and the Marine Fish Conservation Network. The agenda of these uncompromising Pew-funded environmental groups is pretty clear to us here at the RFA - to keep us off the water, using whatever means possible.
The question remains, why is it always the fishermen?
The day before BP’s Deepwater Horizon began dumping millions of gallons of crude oil into our marine ecosystem, the Huffington Post ran an interview with NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco which covered a series of topics, including the NOAA chief’s fondness for no-take marine reserves, privatiza