Response to the Uproar of the recreational striped Bass community to the increased usage of Illegal gill netting of stripers
My name
is Mark John Howard. I am a commercial fisherman.
REAL
commercial fishermen are not poachers. We are
1000% against it. In my area if we find an Illegal fishing
activity- we do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to shut it
down. As a small commercial family operation, we must work
very hard to ensure that there is always a sustainable
amount of fish out there for everyone, sportfishers
and commercial operators, other fish, birds, etc. "Because
one thing is for sure. If there is no Fish - There
will be no Fisherman." I would really like to point
out a few things though that I think anyone that
has common sense,, while that seems to be lacking
here in these days, people should hear what I have
to say. Here in the U.S. only 2% of the TOTAL POPULATION
are directly involved in agriculture and commercial
fishing. This includes all of the farmers from veggies
to milk, pork, cotton for your "Fruit of the
Looms", lobster, shrimp, fish, Fruit,,,. This is
from the Department of Agriculture info site. This
2% feeds 98% of the rest of you. How many of you
raise ALL of the food that you eat,, year around????
Probably none. There is a problem here in America.
WE are not responsible or accountable for feeding
our families. We rely on someone else to do the
work for us because we do not have the skill,,
or desire,, or mainly we are just to lazy to feed
ourselves. Its easier to PAY someone else to do
it. This has led to the society that we have today.
while most Everyone is interested in what's on
TV this evening, or going to the local pub,, video
games for the kids,, shopping till you drop, buying
the next SUV, building a new house, getting the
next new CD music disc or computer,, or even calling
Chemlawn to come out and poison our lawns because
we are too lazy to bend over and pull a few weeds,
or are so controlling and sensitive about having
a weed in the lawn that HOW WE GET OUR FOOD seems
to slip our minds,, or we are just too lazy or
ignorant to care. We guzzle way to much fuel here
in America because we are to lazy to walk a little
or bike. This is why we are so overweight here
in the U.S. to the point that the Government has
listed it as a serious national security issue,,,
Americans are to fat to fight?? we are too out
of shape. There is this small number of people
who work very hard daily putting food on everyone
else's table all the while,, having to burden the
ignorance of others that are so far removed from
the process that puts food on their table by dealing
with legislation that takes fresh food away from
our local market so a handful of very dim or just
plain ignorant people want to play patty fingers
and play with fish on THIER weekend. Now,, I have
a family,,- my boys love to recreational fish,,
as do I. "But not at
the cost of taking a food source off the market.
Look people- we are already over seas fighting
for oil because we are running out and using too
much here as it is. Our imports are raising alarmingly
every year- our food is coming somewhere else.
The further it comes from,, the more it is going
to cost all of you. You don't think that at the
current cost of fuel- that your local "Piggly Wiggly
supermarket is going to eat the price of shipping
just because little johnny wants a bowl of "Lucky
Charms??? There are so many issues here that have
been left unchecked for years that it is going
to take a little bit to solve it. The local small
family commercial operation is not for the LArge
Industrial Operation fisheries that only see fish
as $$$$$$$ dollar signs. We are sustainable operations.
Fighting WITH YOU to keep the fisheries healthy,
safe from Pollution and over-exploitation by ALL
USERS. For the record. And I hope that everyone
checks this out for themselves. That 99% of all
poaching is done by NON-Commercial people. They
are CROOKS. They should go to JAIL. They give recreational
and commercial fishermen a bad name. These people
are greedy, and are do so much damage to a fisheries.
It is our policy that if a commercial operator
is caught, we as commercial operators will fight
as hard as possible to strip this person the the
right to commercial fish. PERMANANTLY. We as commercial
harvesters have the moral responsibility to the
consumer of making sure that the fisheries are
always protected and sustainable. People came here
to America because the countries they lived in
were over-fished,=- over lumbered, polluted, or
from political or religious strife. There was a
shortage of food, clean water, and land to even
survive on. This is why America was founded,,,
at least in my upbringing I was taught. If we continue
to let the whoremongers of our Natural Resources
continue
to gobble up or hog it for a select few who have more
money then the rest of us,,, we are in a world of trouble.
What ocean are we going to cross this time because we
over fished, over hunted, polluted our water and especially
our lands, cleared our forest to stumps, and turned all
of the farms into subdivisions?? Our food I believe is
killing us. There was a time when you could go to the
local small family operated farmers market or fish market
to get fresh caught clean fish. for about 97% of the
country,- this no longer exists. There was no cancer,-
or acid reflex. Our food is full of oxidants that preserve
the food made by big business- it is full of acids,,
ascorbic, citric, polysorbate, and other preservatives
that harm us at a high level of intake. America is overweight.
Our food also comes from far away places. read the label.
Chemical preservatives are cheap for big business. Our
bodies are what around 95% WATER AND THE REST IS BONE
AND CALCIUM- this is why we are made to operate at a
certain PH level. when we eat things that are too Acidic-
We see the commercials for Tums with X-t ra calcium,,
Pepcid AC, the Purple Pill, and medications for Acid
reflex. These preservatives also deplete the oxygen out
of the food they are preserving, like when you wrap your
leftovers in aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or Tupperware
to seal out the oxygen. It also works on the cells in
your body- keeping out the oxygen and in return
your cells start to suffocate- they mutate to survive
( our cells have this unique ability) and then become
CANCEROUS-( look up the meaning of cancer,-) then to
repair itself,, it attacks out healthy cells trying to
get what the damaged cell needs to repair itself from
the good one, but the mechanism for repair has been damaged
in the mutation process so the cancerous cell just attacks
and spreads, but never has the ability to fix itself.
This is why Anti-Oxy dents are on the market. When My
mom cans and when we can food, all we use is good old,,
water and steam. A few mason jars. a pressure canner
or cold packer. I don't use Benzoic stearic
Poly carbonic No# 1032. I hope you get my meaning.
The picture is much bigger than just saying OK,, no
more strippers for commercial operators. If you want
fish on the table, catch it yourself,, buy a license
and a boat, and-motor, gps, radio, lures, rods, pop,
ice, beer, fishing hat, knife, safety gear, ice chest,
fuel, bait, radar,etc- that's sure a lot of stuff!?
That's because it is,- Its Big Business. Its called
the Sport Fishing Industry. Lets use this attitude say
on every other thing we eat or use. Lets say ask this
question: Do you eat beef,, or drink milk? This
would mean that if you do not buy the farm,, milking
equipment, license to process, tractors,,hayforks, build
the barns, and raise the crops for your steers or cows,
You my lucky friend- "do
not have the right eat: Steak, a Burger,, or have
milk with your Wheaties----, I hope you see what I'm
getting at. So many times I have seen recreational interests
say,- well there's"MO MONEY" in recreational fishing
than commercial harvests. Your right. And you better
be SOoo thankful that I do not charge you $936.00 for
your walleye dinner say for example- the same price that
the big businesses in recreational fishing say a walleye
is worth on the economic impact multiplier. What I'm
trying to say is that taking the stripper off the commercial
list is not the answer. Its nailing the poachers. Its
turning in the guys harvesting recreationally over the
limit. Its getting rid of the industrial commercial fishing
operations that are not sustainable, it doing more to
clean our soils,air and waters up. If your commercial
fisherman in your area are not of the same mind as mine,,
I think they need to be in a different business. No one
has the right to over fish any species for any reason.
If you are catching too many under-sized stripers
in a gill net,- either change the mesh size, or go to
a trap net of some kind where you can cull the under-sized
fish out without killing them, let go other non-targeted
species go, and keep the market size fish for the table.
I also believe that you should only catch fish that you
have orders for. SUSTAINABLE. But you do not have the
right to hog all of the fish just because you want more
fish to catch on your line on the weekend. I hope that
somehow you can solve this problem in a better way. In
some states,, buying a fishing or hunting license is
listed as a privilege?
When did having the right to put food on my table
for my family and myself become a privilege? America
Wake Up. Please. there's not much time left. Historically
we are at a point of decision for what resources we have
left. There is an old Irish saying: "I'm not inheriting
the earth from my forefathers-Im borrowing it from my
children".
Mark John Howard Commercial Fisherman
