Bureaucracy at work
UPDATE: Today, June 11th, NOAA issued a new updated press release, which you can read here:
NOAA Proposes Rule to Require Saltwater Angler Registration
They say the program will not charge you for the first two years, but after that $15-25, and that a state saltwalter license will exempt you from the fee, but that you still have to register. It would have been nice if they included these details in the Media Advisory sent out initially.
Still, a science organization issuing a personal federal fishing license? Bad idea. This is just a way to fund a program without congressional approval of a tax.
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This is a bit off topic for this blog, but I’m posting it because it shows the thoughtless heavy handedness that is permeating government organizations like NOAA. Last week is was bonfires on the beach in Seattle being considered for a ban due to “CO2 concerns”, this week it’s fishing on the open ocean. For me, this is a tipping point.
One by one our freedoms are being taken away by environmental concerns. Where’s the ACLU on this one?
Point to NOAA: There is no way I’m going to register for one of your fishing licenses. I already buy one from the state of California for salt water fishing. We have commercial offshore fishing that takes TONS of fish, crab, lobster, whatever, and you, as a science organization, want me to register (and likely pay fees in the process to support the program) for recreational catch and release fishing now?
My advice to NOAA: Go fish!
Write your congressman, senator, and anyone who will listen. Press release below explains all. An idea: Mail them every fish you catch. An office full of stink might make them think twice about this.
You can also participate in the call in (see details below) and give them an earful.
Here’s the address:
National Marine Fisheries Service, Fisheries Statistics Division,
1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910
NATIONAL OCEANIC & ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
WASHINGTON, DC
Contact: Monica Allen 301-713-2370
NOAA to Propose Requiring Saltwater Angler Registration
NOAA’s Fisheries Service will discuss a new proposed requirement that recreational anglers who fish in federal ocean waters be registered in a national saltwater angler registry before fishing in 2009 in a phone press availability on Wed., June 11. The rule also requires registration by those who may catch
certain species anywhere, including striped bass, salmon, and shad.
WHAT: Phone press availability
WHO: Jim Balsiger, NOAA acting assistant
administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries
Service Gordon Colvin, NOAA fisheries biologist
301-713-2367 x 175
WHEN: Wed., June 11, 1:30 – 2:00 p.m. ET
WHERE: Please contact Monica Allen at 301-713-2370 for call-in information.
BACKGROUND: The national saltwater angler registry is part of a larger state and federal initiative to improve the quality and accuracy of data on marine recreational fishing catches. This improved data will help scientists and policymakers make the best conservation decisions to ensure the sustainable management of valuable fish stocks for those who enjoy fishing today and for future generations. It will also help measure
the positive economic effects of recreational fishing on the national economy.
– 30 –
CO2 has caused fish to start eating fish.
My God let’s “Tax those who demons who create CO2”.
Having such an excellent insight into climate matters from broader perspective than others you’ve lost one factor – a time. NOAA and others KNOW the change at Washington’s helms is coming and WHO will be giving out scientific GRANTS. 🙂 They are not so stupid at the second look at. 😉
Regards
No, BUCKO36, it has simply changed their manner of giving birth. A belch is very “in” right now… so do not forget:
Carbon Belch Day June 12–Do Your Part to Save The Planet
http://www.grassfire.org/
If even the fish are supporting this…
Every single fish those commercial fishermen you pointed to are counted and the numbers are used to manage the fishery.There is no accounting for the 100’s of millions of fish that the recreational fishing industry catches each year so at least this is a start
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Sport fishing is under attack by the left on every possible front. Down here in Alabama the Feds are trying to withdraw funds because the state is using them to rebuild the pier destroyed by Ivan several years ago instead of some greenie folderol.
They can have my fishing rod when they pry it from my cold dead hands.
CO2 may have caused NOAA to smell like a fish. Long expired fish.
It’s not a law, because it was not passed by Congress. It is an edict created by unelected bureaucrats. In a democracy, there is no moral or legal reason to obey it. Except, like all other such edicts by our government agencies, it seems to have the effect of law — i.e. you go to prison if you disobey.
The ACLU is devoted almost entirely to bill of rights issues and has not traditionally had anything to say one way or the other on cases involving the commerce clause or other economic regulations.
Dear Citizen:
According to the remote reporting of the Bureau’s skin-bonded personal respiration data collection system that was mandated in 2011, we at the Bureau of Carbon Recovery And Sequestration Surveillance are please to inform you that as of 06/30 your reporting station sensor has indicated that you have respired your quota of allowed Carbon Dioxide for this year. We hope you have enjoyed respiration for this year.
Please note that the companion RRS (Respiration Restraint Sequestration) device installed at the time of your installed data collection device will commence constriction and cease respiration as of 06/30, until your quota renews at the next regular reporting period. According to our records your respiration quota will renew in January.
It is pleasure serving you and we regret any inconvenience this may cause. By law, we inform you that you have the right to appeal this decision. Appeal may be made in writing to any C.R.A.S.S bureau office at any time after the effective date of 6/30 or within ten days thereafter.
Sincererly,
M. Gore Poffle,
GS4 Repiratory Restraint Tech.
C.R.A.S.S.
Ronnie Day,
You are missing the boat on several points. Number one, simply registering and taxing the fisherman does nothing to count the number of fish caught by anglers. Number two, we already have a licensing system for fishing in salt water. Do you think the feds can’t get this info from the states? Number three, this is supposed to help our understanding of how sport fishing affects the economy? That’s a big BS-red flag. They already have those numbers. It’s easy enough to tally how much is spent on licenses, tourism, gear. In fact, in my neck of the woods, those numbers are brought up for every election. Number four, our various agencies will continue to do actual fish counts by creel surveys and the other methods that they have used in the past. The registration will not replace these methods. Number five, our oversight of commercial fishing isn’t nearly as omniscient as you think and has no control over foreign fishing boats that like to encroach on our coastal waters every chance they get. Number six, registration is always the first step to removal of a freedom. Its a great way of getting a head count to determine the strength of the population that you are about to impose restrictions on. Ask the Jews. Or the Aussie (former) gun owners.
“We hope you have enjoyed respiration for this year.”
…Er…Thanks… (?)
But wrt CO2, haven’t we reached a turning point? When I look back on this moment years from now, I’ll know who cast his oil upon the waters, and know whom to thank.
“…if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when … the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…”
Obama Victory Nomination Speech in St. Paul:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/03/obamas-nomination-victory_n_105028.html
I didn’t think NOAA could legally propose new rules for anything. Congress grants other agencies powers to regulate fish and wildlife. NOAA should concern itself strictly with those activities it is mandated by Congress to persue.
“One by one our freedoms are being taken away by environmental concerns.”
You aint seen nothing yet! Juzst wait until Obama and Gore land in Washington.
Gore views the climate situation as a state of emergency. That means rights enjoyed by citizens would be suspended until the “emergency” subsides.
Anthony,
So you think that the guys who fish off the piers here in Cali are going to sign up? They don’t even need a license from the state. Just big brother trying to find a reason to watch you more.
The fish picture reminds me of when I took my youngest son fishing while at camp. The other parents had no luck with their kids that day, so imagine their surprise when we went out for 20 minutes in a canoe and came back with a large walleye.
It was only when we got close that they could see the other tail. The fish had been floating by and I scooped it up with the paddle into the canoe.
End the nanny-state. Time to vote Libertarian. Or for Ron Paul.
I’m not sure if Anthony wants candidate discussions here. The above post was approved with caution. Let’s not have a bunch of counter posts about the leanings of various candidates.
Congress is the legislation making body of the federal government. NOAA is nobody. They have no constitutional authority to levy taxes or fees. The bureaucrats who attempt to do this should get fired.
jeeztheadmin
The best way to vote for the president is to take a sticky toy and throw it at the touch screen.
Reply: You can just call me jeez. I needed a different username for this gig as my normal nom de plume was not available.
What will the penalty be for non-registration and who is the enforcing body?
From the State of Falling Bridges we have one hope: That enforcement is becoming too expensive to execute.
I’m looking to Britain for experiential input. The police no longer attempt to protect, but rather merely enforce greenery among the law-abiding.
Yet, we note the fuel riots have started. There are grievances aplenty as the economics has begun turning grim.
my gosh that fish has a big mouth!
BAD: The ACLU is concerned only with left-of-PC articles in the Bill of Rights. They have never, for example, taken on any abuse of Second Amendment rights, despite a plethora of egregious examples, many resulting in the death of law-abiding citizens.
“A little rebellion now and then…is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government. ” Thomas Jefferson
Perhaps the time grows ever closer.
I no longer enjoy fishing. I don’t fish at all. When young, we lived on fish every Friday. The local priest even sent us his “beyond the limit” catch. Sorry, but regulations much further back than this one took all the joy out for me. I caught fish to eat them. Free fish was better than a store bought steak any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Especially on Sundays. I’m not about to get my cheater glasses on to check for fins or no fins. If it bites my hook and I land it, it will be eaten.
I hear ya Pam. In Wahsington State you have to use barb-less hooks, which usually means getting the pliers out and pinching the barbs so the hook is smooth. Makes it a lot more difficult to bring the fish in. One twist in the wrong direction and they’re loose.
RonnieDay:
“..100’s of millions of fish that the recreational fishing industry..”
Serious? American recreational deep-water anglers DO NOT catch 100’s of millions of game fish every year.
Bill P:
“…But wrt CO2, haven’t we reached a turning point?”
Simply: No.
Hansen’s smoking gun of a large “heat bucket” that lay in a temporal pipeline as a latent reservoir of buffered heat in the seas has not only not been found, but the principal researcher Kevin Trenberth at NCAR thinks that the missing heat radiated back out into space.
Yes the seas have warmed, but not as much as was feared. If the heat has radiated back into space then the oft-cited heat budget imbalance must not be an accurate measure. The fact of the matter is that there could well be heat escaping back into space without our knowing it, perhaps via the ENSO phenomenon.
Likewise studies are showing a generally drier mid- and upper-atmosphere as well as a drier Antarctic, all demonstrating that without the humidity we will not experience a dangerous warming.
Some warming? Yes. Dangerous warming? There will be no “tipping point.”
The current temperature trend reveals this in the ongoing temperature plateau continues: That despite the increasing levels of CO2, temperatures have stayed about even since 1997 (excluding the ’98 el Nino outlier).
Meanwhile the warming-only scientists are predicting a near-exponential catch-up rise in temperatures by 2015. This is patently absurd … where’s the latent heat hiding if not in the seas? If it’s supposed to rise almost exponentially to catch up to the head-start from accelerated CO2 concentrations why aren’t we then warming now?
Sea temperatures, however, DO lag behind one large natural driver of temperatures on the Earth: The Sun. The seas heat content lags by about 6 years ( 2- 10 ), warming takes about 2 – 4 years and offloading the heat another 4 – 6.
Until the early 1990’s the sun had been at its most brilliant in nearly 10,000 years, and the hottest year we had was the 1998 el Nino!
Since then the sun has dimmed sufficiently to lend to a -0.1 degrC reduction in average solar irradiance, and we’re due for another -0.1 to -0.2 degrC decrease in solar influence. That’s a lot, a potential -0.3 degrC (nearly an entire watt per sq. meter) which was modeled as the requisite low-end temperature decrease that drove the onset of the Little Ice Age.
Considering we’re nearly 0.8 degrC above the temperatures of the early 1800’s, a modest -0.3 degrC net decrease by 2020 mightn’t bother people too much.
If natural variations are sufficient to mask the CO2 signal then the CO2 signal isn’t that strong, is it?
Yes, I have done my part to reduce the excess piscine population.
I got my own regulations: You gotta release anything you don’t eat unharmed (minus what you seine for bait) and you gotta clean what you keep. (I never went for anything that was limited.)
But it looks as if the times they are a-changing and my fond memories have (yet again) been adjudicated as thought-crimes . . . (your taxpayer dollars at work).
my gosh that fish has a big mouth!
That there is one regulation striped type bass. Looks to be a good ten-pounder.
Pamela, I hear you. I never hunted, but I fished quite a lot back in the day.
I wanted to “hunt”. My cousin from Texas asked me out to shoot some deer. I decided that I had a considerable desire to bruise and terrify, but not to kill. So I asked if I could haul along a paint gun and “mark” a deer or two. He said he’d check. He got back to me and said it was legal to shoot deer with a rifle or a crossbow. But to nail it with a paint gun was “inhumane”.
The end result was that I didn’t go–so I went back to hunting . . . people!
Serious? American recreational deep-water anglers DO NOT catch 100’s of millions of game fish every year.
Of course they do,10 years ago it was esimated that their were 14 million recreational fishing trips made in Fla alone each year,the population has increased by 60 percent in the last ten years.
Tamara,there are still states that don’t have a license requirement for salt water. The CCA’s director in Fla favorite saying is “economic rent” when a user group takes from a public resource.