Where to Fish

New Marine Protected areas

Anybody else see this yet? From the Center for Coastal Conservation ...

CONSERVATIONISTS DECRY SECRET WHITE HOUSE MOVE

In its final days in office, the Bush Administration is bypassing the established regulatory process regarding marine conservation by issuing a proclamation that will arbitrarily lock out America’s sportsmen and women from 200,000 square miles of U.S. waters, officials at the Center for Coastal Conservation said today.

The Center expressed its disappointment in the Administration’s planned January 6 announcement of marine monuments in the western and central Pacific Ocean.

The Antiquities Act is being used to declare marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean at three locations: Rose Atoll, the Mariana Trench and the Pacific Remote Island Area (PRIA). Each new monument will forbid recreational fishing out to a 50-nautical-mile radius.

The determination of these monuments has stunned conservationists across the country.

“This secret process is deplorable,” said Center President Jeff Angers. “There has been no environmental review; no public input, and no public formulation of the proposal for comment. It is not reviewable by any court, and it sidestepped Congressional objections. This is stunning from an Administration that leaves office in less than three weeks.”

Barring access to recreational fishing is bad for anglers, and it’s bad for the economy, noted Mike Nussman, president of the American Sportfishing Association. “At a time when the boating and angling industries are suffering the problems of the larger economy, this decision is so disappointing,” he said.

Recreational fishing and boating organizations lobbied White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton against this declaration.

“Jim Connaughton will go down in the annals of angling as the Grinch who kicked Americans out of America’s public waters – with no scientific basis,” said Jack Lawton, Jr., chairman of the Center.

President-elect Obama committed to a better process for recreational anglers in his October 2008 interview with Sport Fishing magazine: “The decision to establish marine reserves should be made as a result of a transparent, science-based process and be the least intrusive possible to get the job done.”

Recreational fishermen are considered this nation's first conservationists. They care about the environment, and they will accept almost any form of management, including no-fishing areas, as long as the management is intended to promote the health of the nation’s fishery resources. The establishment of huge, arbitrary no-fishing zones, without scientific basis, runs counter to this ethic.