After you read the entire dialog below, please think back to the last time you participated in a fisheries meeting .... and what did you do about it ... are you doing anything?
Standing room only at this meeting held at Cabellas in Hartford the other night. A lot of opposition to the proposed fishing license fee increase.
As you can see by the picture it was "standing room only."
What you cannot see from this picture is "who" was there - but I can tell you this .... only TWO (2) industry professionals were there. I was one of them, and Greg Dubrule was the other.
Below is a copy/paste from a Facebook conversation I had with a guy out of NY who is active in the fishery process.
Paul ... I cannot believe the amount of complaining that goes on with no participation from those who stand to lose the most .... it just blows my mind.
Phil - yeah - license meetings seem to be a hot ticket these days! Of course we've been warning people for years - their reaction? "ahhh - it'll never happen HERE!" yeah right - now it's too late to put the horse back in the barn.
Paul - You got that right Phil ..... Same problem with the regulations - everyone says no to everything - then "it" hits the fan and they begin to scream like a bunch of babies. Fishermen should have been part of the solution since 1976 instead of part of the problem. Access to a public resource, regulated with tax dollars is not an option in ANY other form of business.
Observation - I was one of 2 people in the fishing business there - the rest were hunters. Lack of participation does not give the right to complain by anyone but those who participate
Phil ...and I see it coming again - now starting with closed areas etc. Nobody believes it can happen but just look at Calif. Thousands of square miles of ocean CLOSED to ALL fishing. On the east coast we already have several areas in the GOM and George's closed to various types of fishing. Only one small step to take it to the next level. Damn fish huggers...
Paul - Only one way to address it - become VERY active in ALL fisheries meetings - I mean if they want to do something with a purple grackle in AK, ALL the east coast fishermen gotta scream like hell and visa versa. (one very big - loud voice) and we need to become a "special interest group interested in being part of the "solution" and not part of the "problem."
The environmentalists get a lot of their funding from big oil. Big oil is using them to take out the fishermen because when big oil has a problem (like the Valdez) they get sued by the fishermen. Big oil wants to drill, fishermen scream. Environmentalists work "with" them.
You think that maybe big oil wants to drill in Georges? I know they do and it will happen. They look at things in a 20 -40 year plan - not next season. I better stop ... I can go on for days.
FYI: don't believe me on the environmentalist and big oil, Google it for yourself
Phil - You are right, Paul. The Pew Environmental Trust was started with $$$ from Sun Oil Co. soon after the Exxon-Valdez. They have a bottomless war chest and they use gullible enviro fish-huggers to fight their battles for them. They have their fingers in most national "fisherman advocacy groups" like ASA and CCA and have been quietly influencing fisheries policy for two decades now. It will take an unprecedented effort by fisherman to regain all the ground we've lost to date.
I could go on for days too - I've been living this nightmare myself for years now as I watch friends in the business needlessly go down year after year - it's really heartbreaking....
Paul - Nothing is impossible ...2 young people took down ACORN.
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