Welcome

Welcome to The site for protecting Florida Anglers right to fish. This will be a fishing and political blog, meaning I will state how I feel that politics alone with other government appointed commissions are affecting our rights and freedoms.

Above I use the word rights, but fishing is not really a right, but a privilege. You do not have the right to keep all the Reds that you can catch, nor blues, trout and many other species. If you break these rules you can be fined or even arrested. So you have the privilege to fish as long as you follow the rules.

With this though in mind, we depend on our elected officials to pass laws that are sound and will be followed by the appointed officials when making decisions affecting our privilege of fishing. President Obama is doing all that he can to circumvent the legislative process. Read what the RFA has to say:


12 MILLION U.S. SALTWATER ANGLERS IGNORED
NEW FEDERAL ATTEMPTS TO CIRCUMVENT LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
A recently published federal taskforce report is causing a great deal of concern for America’s
recreational fishing community. For longtime members of the Recreational Fishing Alliance
(RFA) however, the claim that saltwater anglers have been kept out of the review process is
nothing especially new. According to the RFA however, it’s good to see the national sportfishing
industry starting to report it as passionately as coastal stakeholders have for the past few years.
The report from the president’s newly appointed Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force outlines
a federal initiative that could conceivably pave the way for more restrictive governmental actions
in further denying access to recreational anglers, similar to what’s already been accomplished in
California with the marine life protection act (MLPA).
 RFA has been actively engaged in the
MLPA battle on the west coast for over seven years, as the California RFA chapter especially
has fought tirelessly against compromises made between various industry allies and hardline
environmentalist. The non-scientific based Pacific Coast closures now seem poised to extend
eastward as the new Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force has introduced a comprehensive
federal policy for all U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes waters. Under the guise of protection,
the current second phase of the Task Force direction is set to develop zoning initiatives which
could potentially close vast areas of fishable waters, permanently.
“In reviewing the Report, there are strategies, principles, objectives and other authorizing
language that stands to have profound impacts on the recreational fishing community,” said
RFA Executive Director Jim Donofrio in official comments to Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White
House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). In writing on behalf of RFA members
nationwide, Donofrio said “RFA is concerned about the relatively rapid speed at which CEQ is
advancing with this initiative and the apparent lack of opportunity the average recreational
angler will have when the final Policy and subsequent bureaucracy is put in place
In a recent meeting facilitated by RFA to introduce Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastal
stakeholders to the new Director of External Affairs, Andrew Winer, it was revealed that several
national trade and conservation groups had actually participated in the Interagency Oceans
Policy Task Force discussions. As reported by ESPN Outdoors, RFA hopes that any future
discussions involving recreational anglers that will ultimately impact coastal stakeholders will
actually include those coastal constituents. "We're hoping that after listening to the real
stakeholders who live and breathe within these vibrant coastal communities every single day,
that perhaps Mr. Winer can help us shake a little sense into these Beltway insiders who think
they understand recreational fishermen," said Jim Hutchinson, Managing Director of the RFA.
While the RFA commends CEQ for bringing wide national attention to the management of our
nation’s marine resources, as a national saltwater political action organization representing
marine businesses and users alike, RFA is opposed to any taskforce recommendations that
might be enacted through the Executive branch as opposed to through legislative efforts.
“Considering the broad implications and hundreds of stakeholders groups that will be affected,
the most appropriate course of action would be through the Legislative branch,” Donofrio said in
the letter to CEQ, adding “Stakeholders would have a greater opportunity to discuss the virtues
and flaws of the legislation in a more deliberate, transparent process.”
PRESS RELEASE
Recreational Fishing Alliance
176 B South New York Road, Galloway, NJ 08205
P: 1-888-564-6732 F: 609-404-1968
On June 18, Donofrio testified before the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee
on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife in a hearing convened to review H.R. 21, a bill which
would establish a new national policy for our oceans. The RFA was the only recreational fishing
organization invited to testify before the Congressional Committee. “RFA maintains that
Magnuson must remain the nation’s primary fisheries law and that any national ocean policy
spawned from H.R. 21 provide guidance and recommendations to Magnuson, not supersede it,”
Donofrio said during the afternoon session back in June.
Several hardline environmental groups have been pressuring Congress and the Obama
administration to implement new overriding marine laws, however, several key federal
legislators have helped stymie the repressive ocean policy legislation. “This bill’s not going to
go anywhere,” said Rep. Don Young (R-AK). “You may try to work it through the House, you
may have the Speaker help you out, but I’ll stop it dead in the Senate, because you’re not going
to mess with my waters in Alaska, you’re not going to mess with my fishermen as you’ve done
in the past,” Young added.
Donofrio said the RFA is unnerved by glaring similarities of the new report and H.R. 21, the
Ocean Conservation, Education, and National Strategy for the 21st Century Act. “This appears
to be an attempt by the Executive branch to circumvent the established legislative process and
enact policy that failed as legislation 5 years in a row,” Donofrio said, adding “RFA believes
enacting laws through Executive order and proclamation sets a dangerous precedence.”

We all need to ban together to fight to keep our oceans open to reasonable fishing regulations

Rick Hale