Darrell Ticehurst/Fisheries Issues
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Disastrous Bill Passes for Governor’s Signature
Sep. 1 2010, 10:45 PM
Sep. 1 2010, 10:45 PM
Disastrous Bill Passes for Governor’s Signature
AB2376 passes in the dead of the night last night, August 31, and with its passing it dashes the hopes of all anglers that we will ever get a fair shake from California Department of Fish and Game. Indeed, it is beyond belief that recreational anglers, the largest single stakeholder group that would be impacted, were never consulted about AB2376 and are not even acknowledged within the proposed language. The bill requires that a committee be formed to develop a "strategic vision" for F&G. And in language clearly borrowed from the Marine Life Protection Act sets up a "blue ribbon committee" and an "advisory committee" and a "task force" to develop the state strategy. Wording sadly familiar and depressing to the entire recreational fishing industry. Clearly this is a power grab by the runaway enviro groups to get control over F&G policy. And this bill gives them the tools to do so.
AB2376 passes in the dead of the night last night, August 31, and with its passing it dashes the hopes of all anglers that we will ever get a fair shake from California Department of Fish and Game. Indeed, it is beyond belief that recreational anglers, the largest single stakeholder group that would be impacted, were never consulted about AB2376 and are not even acknowledged within the proposed language. The bill requires that a committee be formed to develop a "strategic vision" for F&G. And in language clearly borrowed from the Marine Life Protection Act sets up a "blue ribbon committee" and an "advisory committee" and a "task force" to develop the state strategy. Wording sadly familiar and depressing to the entire recreational fishing industry. Clearly this is a power grab by the runaway enviro groups to get control over F&G policy. And this bill gives them the tools to do so.
As with the MLPA, the bill authorizes the use of funds from non-state sources to fund the study, a concept that was first used in the MLPA fiasco, and that allows a private group with a clearly defined agenda to fund a state study that will become state policy. The Resources Legacy Fund Foundation (RLFF) funded the ongoing MLPA effort, and the RLFF fingerprints with its anti fishing agenda are obvious here.
The RLFF and the other runaway enviros follow a familiar path: identify a problem, exaggerate its importance beyond all recognition, use that “cause” to raise funds, use the funds to get sympathetic scientists to support their idea, then cloak themselves in a “save the ecosystem” mantle to then get legislation that gives them a “victory” so they can raise more funds. Never mind that what they are doing is actually harmful and less than useful, the save the ecosystem spin becomes the end game. Big enviro movements have gotten out of control and become as dangerous to the public good as the problems they purport to fix. This bill is an example of a power grab that will cut out the public who actually interact in the real world of nature and put the use of the ecosystem in the hands of those who care not one whit for any economic or social impacts.
I hope Governor Schwarzenegger doesn’t sign this bill, but given his support for the MLPA effort I am afraid we are doomed.
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November 20, 2010, 10:33 am
1) This legislation has been out in the public and available for comment the entire legislative session. Your lobbyist only jumped on it 2 day before the session end and had a complete misread of it. His actions so pissed off the Legislators, they pushed it though.
2) Obviously you did not read the final version of the bill where the language authorizing private funding of this was ELIMINATED. But this is not a surprise.
3) This bill was based on a white paper written by my wife, April Wakeman, and ex-Deputy DFG Director, Robert Treanor. One of the motivations for this bill was the apparent lack of representation for the interests of recreational fishing community by the DFG. The best example of this occurred during my wife's efforts to get the DFG to properly implement the Halibut Trawl Legislation while at UASC (remember, Coastside refused to support that). During that implementation process, it was revealed by Deputy DFG Director that during 2006 total revenues from commercial fishing licenses and permits was $5 million and the DFG's cost to administer those programs was $22 million. Furthermore, he indicated that ratio of revenues to costs has been historically consistent and he did not expect to see material changes in the future. The DFG Code requires that the cost to administer commercial fishing be self sustained by the respective license and permit revenues. Obviously it's not. This discussion came about when my wife was pushing for the maximum allowed permit fee under the Trawl bill of $1000 per year. The commercials whined and complained and the DFG settled on $50 per year for those trawl permits. That's right, they pay less for their trawl permits than recreational anglers pay for their licenses AND they are allowed one incidental giant sea bass per day, whereas there has been a moratorium on the recreational take of giant seabass since the early '80s. So I ask you, who's interests are really being represented by the DFG? Certainly not the recreational fisherman who contribute more than $50 million per year in license revenue.
There's much more to this bill than just the above as over time the DFG has taken on way too many responsibilities such as environmental impact reports for new real estate development, without the commensurate funding to pay for it (so called unfunded mandates). It's stuff like this that the bill is focused on, but all Coastside sees is Blue Ribbon Task force and they go crazy and chase their tales in circles.
BTW Coastside really needs to get a better lobbyist. I mean discovering this just two days before the end of the legislative session and then creating a ruckus about it? Reality was Sportfishing Conservancy considered this bill dead in the water, but thanks to your lobbyist's negative last minute campaign at the very end, it got pushed through at the 11th hour. Guess we owe him a bit of thanks. Duh!