Just took this off the LA Sportsman site:
 
Fisherman Heads Up/Obama has plans for you
This was pulled off of ESPN today and Rush also just spoke about. Essentially it is a story about how the Obama administration is on the verge of outright banning or severely restricting all recreational sport fishing in the United States.
 
Ya'll keep on, keep on fighting with one another about Big Lake,Lake Ponchatrain, dog hunting vs. still, bow vs. gun, etc.
 
These people are on the move while we argue with ourselves. Classic.
 
Maybe this article will help ya'll wake up and realize what is being done to you, while your not paying attention. Oh yea, thanks to all the necesiant knuckle heads who voted for this Clown. Way to go.
 
Obama administration will accept no more public input for federal fishery strategy
 
 
 
By Robert Montgomery
ESPNOutdoors.com
 
The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.
Anglering for access united we fish rally capitol washington fishing
AP/Luis M. AlvarezOne sign at the United We Fish rally at the Capital summed up the feelings of recreational and commercial fishermen.
This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still is "fluid" and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn't issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters.
 
That's a disappointment, but not really a surprise for fishing industry insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the process was a charade from the beginning.
 
"When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.
 
"Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored.
 
"In spite of what we hear daily in the press about the President's concern for jobs and the economy and contrary to what he stated in the June order creating this process, we have seen no evidence from NOAA or the task force that recreational fishing and related jobs are receiving any priority."
 
PHOTO GALLERY
Fisheries In Danger
 
Consequently, unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for "marine spatial planning" by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations — whatever they may be.
 
Led by NOAA's Jane Lubchenco, the task force has shown no overt dislike of recreational angling, but its indifference to the economic, social and biological value of the sport has been deafening.
 
Additionally, Lubchenco and others in the administration have close ties to environmental groups who would like nothing better than to ban recreational angling. And evidence suggests that these organizations have been the engine behind the task force since before Obama issued a memo creating it last June.
 
As ESPN previously reported, WWF, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, Pew Environment Group and others produced a document entitled "Transition Green" shortly after Obama was elected in 2008. What has happened since suggests that the task force has been in lockstep with that position paper.
 
Then in late summer, just after he created the task force, these groups produced "Recommendations for the Adoption and Implementation of an Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes National Policy." This document makes repeated references to "overfishing," but doesn't once reference recreational angling, its importance, and its benefits, both to participants and the resource.
 
Additionally, some of these same organizations have revealed their anti-fishing bias by playing fast and loose with "facts," in attempts to ban tackle containing lead in the United States and Canada.
 
That same tunnel vision, in which recreational angling and commercial fishing are indiscriminately lumped together as harmful to the resource, has persisted with the task force, despite protests by the angling industry.
 
As more evidence of collusion, the green groups began clamoring for an Executive Order to implement the task force's recommendations even before the public comment period ended in February. Fishing advocates had no idea that this was coming.
 
Perhaps not so coincidentally, the New York Times reported on Feb. 12 that "President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities."
Anglering for access
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Morlock fears that "what we're seeing coming at us is an attempted dismantling of the science-based fish and wildlife model that has served us so well. There's no basis in science for the agendas of these groups who are trying to push the public out of being able to fish and recreate.
 
"Conflicts (user) are overstated and problems are manufactured. It's all just an excuse to put us off the water."
 
In the wake of the task force's framework document, the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF) and its partners in the U.S. Recreational Fishing & Boating Coalition against voiced their concerns to the administration.
 
"Some of the potential policy implications of this interim framework have the potential to be a real threat to recreational anglers who not only contribute billions of dollars to the economy and millions of dollars in tax revenues to support fisheries conservation, but who are also the backbone of the American fish and wildlife conservation ethic," said CSF President Jeff Crane.
 
Morlock, a member of the CSF board, added, "There are over one million jobs in America supported coast to coast by recreational fishing. The task force has not included any accountability requirements in their reports for evaluating or mitigating how the new policies they are drafting will impact the fishing industry or related economies.
 
"Given that the scope of this process appears to include a new set of policies for all coastal and inland waters of the United States, the omission of economic considerations is inexcusable."
 
This is not the only access issue threatening the public's right to fish, but it definitely is the most serious, according to Chris Horton, national conservation director for BASS.
 
"With what's being created, the same principles could apply inland as apply to the oceans," he said. "Under the guise of 'marine spatial planning' entire watersheds could be shut down, even 2,000 miles up a river drainage from the ocean.
 
"Every angler needs to be aware because if it's not happening in your backyard today or tomorrow, it will be eventually.
 
"We have one of the largest voting blocks in the country and we need to use it. We must not sit idly by."
 
The above article was taken today from ESPN outdoors website.  
 

Guess we'll just have to haul all our boats up to DC and park them on the White House lawn with FOR SALE signs on them.  

I still have not found anyone who voted for him!
Rattlecork

I work ALL over the country and have yet to meet someone in the blue collar world ( or anyone) who will admit to a vote "For Change".
 
Don't know if I am ready to grease the bearings to head to DC and not ready to put up the " For Sale Sign" yet but will still struggle to get a small fix of what the trips t the disappering coastline bring to me special. Sumtin gotta be done i rember a couple of tips with the almost 4 buck a gallon gas. Running a zuki helps but. But  I guess I will complain whenever I can about it until footbll season again.
 
It took me almost 3 years to register just to say sumtin. Hmmm

I work with plenty of people who voted for him, but only about 1% can or truthfully will tell you why. And almost none of them know about any of the policies he campaigned on!

Here's a group that has been monitoring and responding.     
 
Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Information
 
In June, 2009, President Obama created the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. The Task Force, led by the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), was charged with drafting a national ocean policy and developing a framework for marine spatial planning for conserving and managing the United States ocean territory and the Great Lakes. The policy will govern ocean and Great Lakes resource management and coordinate efforts among countless federal, state and local agencies.
 
Without recreational angler input, decisions made under this national oceans policy could be used to unnecessarily close saltwater and freshwater recreational fishing areas.
 
The Task Force was given 90 days to develop these basic recommendations, and 180 days to develop a comprehensive framework for coastal and marine spatial planning.
 
Interim Report
The Task Force released its Interim Report on September 17, 2009 which was open for a 30-day public review and comment period. The single most obvious flaw in the report is the omission of responsibly regulated recreational fishing as a key activity for the oceans and the Great Lakes. This is of concern to America's 60 million anglers, whose conservation, economic and social contributions should be recognized as a key component of the policy.
 
In addition, as a national policy document governing the oceans and Great Lakes, the report is skewed toward a preservationist policy of locking up public waters instead of one that promotes sustainable uses such as recreational fishing.
 
Interim Framework
On December 9, 2009, the Task Force then released its Interim Framework for Marine Spatial Planning. A coalition of ten of the leading recreational fishing and boating organizations submitted joint comments on the Interim Framework.
 
While the goal of improving coordination among the federal and state agencies that manage or regulate our oceans and coasts is a laudable goal and efforts should be made to achieve it, the Interim Framework, however, raises more questions than it answers and appears to call for significant, fundamental changes to both the regulatory structure and statutory authorities that form the basis for nearly every aspect of oceans management and use. Of particular concern is the potential creation of new bureaucracies that would impose top-down regulations, which would impinge on state agencies which have primary jurisdiction for resident fish and wildlife.
 
Send a Letter!
Your input is needed to ensure that this new national policy does not restrict people from enjoying saltwater and freshwater recreational fishing.
 
It is important that the administration recognizes and promotes the economic and conservation contributions of outdoor recreation, including recreational fishing and boating. Without such recognition, decisions made under this national oceans and Great Lakes policy could be used to close saltwater and freshwater recreational fishing areas.
 
Click here http://www.capwiz.com/keepamericafishing/issues/alert/?alertid=14653146 or visit to send a letter to President Obama and other key policy makers urging the Task Force to include recreational fishing and boating in the national policy. When you send this letter to President Obama, it will automatically be sent to your Members of Congress.
Make sure your voice is heard so that anglers' and boaters’ conservation, economic and social contributions are recognized as a key component of the policy.
 
 
Rattlecork, I'm boating with you!!!!  

That ignorant bastard has no respect for states rights.  If he has his way he will make himself the king of the U. S.  I guess all the state wildlife and fisheries employees will be out of work once the feds take over.

I hope Snopes is correct.