This proud fishing heritage is not exclusive to the Florida Panhandle; it has been shared by generations of families along the rivers, lakes, and coastlines of America. However, the freedom to enjoy this lifestyle is at risk like never before.
In breathtaking fashion, Washington bureaucrats have launched a concerted effort to conquer our coastlines. Before a Natural Resources Committee hearing last fall, NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco assured members that President Obama’s National Ocean Policy would not grant any new federal authority or impose any new regulations on America’s fisheries. However, buried 30 pages deep in the administration’s Ocean Policy Task Force report was language permitting additional “regulations, where appropriate, that include enforcement as a critical component.”
The steady expansion of regulatory control over our oceans kills jobs and crushes coastal economies. There is no better example of this than the expansion of catch share programs, a cap-and-trade style of fisheries management that rations the amount of fish that can be caught each year. By gifting a select few with shares of the annual allowable catch, NOAA is privatizing access to a once open fishery. This could force many recreational and small scale fishermen to give up their livelihood altogether.
Making matters worse, we are dealing with unreliable science that attempts to determine the universe of fish and count the fish that recreational anglers catch. “Fatally flawed” is the term used by the National Research Center to describe the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey. Congress mandated that the survey be replaced in 2009, but NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service have failed to correct the data.
Read the complete opinion piece in The Hill