Disaster struck the fleet on a sunny day this season. It was announced Sept. 30 that the recreational sea bass fishery in federal waters would be closed for six months beginning Oct. 5. The decision came after data from the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistical Survey – a rudimentary data collections process that consists of phone surveys and dockside interviews – indicated recreational anglers may have exceeded their quota by 84 to 225 percent. The survey – which has been deemed “fatally flawed by the National Research Council – noted big overages in March and June 2009, months when weather prevented the vast majority of anglers from fishing. But while the survey and long-standing faulty legislation are largely to blame for the closure, anglers should also question the Obama administration’s handling of recreational fishing policies since his inauguration last January.

The administration, less than a year in office, has already enacted sweeping changes within the agencies that regulate recreational fisheries. In February, Jersey Shore Fishing was one of the first publications to report on the appointment of Jane Lubchenko, an environmentalist college professor, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency which has oversight over the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Strongly backed both financially and on the grass-roots level by environmental groups – including the Pew Environmental Trust, which has fought to shut down recreational fisheries across the nation – the Obama administration has ushered in an era of increased anti-fishing sentiment at the NOAA. Lubchenko, who in the past has personally served with the Pew group, has previously argued in favor of catch-shares, schemes which force commercial and recreational anglers to bid on small chunks of quota. The Pew group, which has systematically burrowed its way into the NOAA’s sphere of influence under the friendlier Lubchenko administration, has been pushing its own plan to ban fishing, namely Marine Protected Areas, or massive swaths of ocean that are off limits for fishing – period.

Directly affecting New Jersey anglers, Lubchenko’s administration decided to replace Ed Goldman – a recreational angler and member of the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council – with a well-known environmentalist on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Like Goldman, several other recreational fishing advocates were replaced on the commission with environmentalists. The recent decision to close the offshore sea bass fishery based solely on phone survey data the National Records Council has deemed “fatally flawed” was the straw that broke the camel’s back for many in the recreational sector.

“Our new NOAA administrator has not only circumvented the management process and ignored the input from our industry, but it’s as if the administrator has turned her back entirely on the Bill of Rights and the 10th Amendment,” said Jim Donofrio, director of the New Gretna-based Recreational Fishing Alliance.

While the lines in the fight to save recreational fishing as we know it are undeniably partisan – Democrats have been supported by the environmental lobby to a much larger extent than Republicans – that is not always the case on a local level. Congressmen Frank Pallone [D-6] and John Adler [D-3] both penned a scathing letter to James Balsinger, Acting Assistant Administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, in the wake of the recent sea bass closure.

“We can all agree that sustainable fisheries are the most important goal,” wrote the pair. “However, to continue this assault on recreational fisheries with minimal results is not acceptable.”

But while individual elected officials may stray from overall party sentiment, the charge from the Obama administration has been starkly anti-fishing.

‘All The President’s Czars’

The Obama administration has taken its share of heat over the President’s use of so-called “czars” to oversee legislative and cultural initiatives over the past year. Controversies, such as racially-charged statements by ‘Green Jobs’ czar Van Jones (who was eventually forced to resign) and a scenario where ‘Safe Schools’ czar Kevin Jennings allegedly condoned statutory rape while employed as a teacher, have swirled since the appointments of many of these figures who have the President’s ear. That’s why it’s disturbing to discover that fishing and ocean policy may soon have its own council of “czars” promoting environmental policies.

The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force was quietly formed in June by the President and will be packed with “policy-level officials” from a number of federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior and even Homeland Security. One of the agency’s areas of oversight will be “effective marine and coastal spatial planning,” a discrete title for a task force that could involve limiting areas where fishing is allowed.

“President Obama’s vision for a sustainable and comprehensive strategy for our oceans is vital to the wise management of these critical resources,” said Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior Laura Davis in a statement. “With 1.7 billion acres in the Outer Continental Shelf -- including management responsibilities for offshore renewable and conventional energy resources, 35,000 miles of coastline, and millions of acres of marine-based parks, refuges and national monuments – the Department of Interior and its agencies are front and center in the effort to build the coordinated national ocean policy that our country needs.”

Some anglers fear the “strategy” referenced by Davis is one which will shut them out of accessing their sport.

On the heels of the task force formation came the nomination confirmation of Cass Sunstein as czar of Information and Regulatory affairs. Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, will head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is tasked with the issuance of Presidential regulatory principles and the review of draft Presidential regulations, such as executive orders. Sunstein, widely criticized as a radical animal rights activist who has argued that eating meat should be outlawed, hunting should be outlawed and animals should have the right to sue in court with human representation, has been panned as a clear anti-fishing choice for the office.

For now, anglers should batten down the hatches and ready themselves for a fight. Support for Pallone’s Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act is needed, as well as increased RFA membership, according to Donofrio of the RFA. Anglers, when all is said and done, need to speak with one voice – and maintain their right to fish. •