Dear Fellow Fisherman:

It's time to mobilize! due to a recent Biological Opinion from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the waters off the Northern and Central Coast of California will be closed to pelagic drift nets starting August 15, 2001, due to high interaction with endangered sea turtles. While this sounds positive at first blush, this will result in a 100% shift in drift net effort to Southern California waters.

This means a literal wall of drift nets set right in the heart of Southern California's sport fishing grounds! Each net covers 2,000,000 square feet of water and will surely entangle every marlin, shark, swordfish, tuna, marine mammal, and any other animal that swims in its path.

Redirecting the entire California pelagic drift net fleet to southern California waters would be a disaster! Fish stocks, marine mammal populations, and the entire recreational fishing community would definately take a major hit. Individual anglers, coastal communites, boat builders, sport boat operations, fishing tackle stores, and other marine businesses would all be hurt. As will commercial fishermen employing sustainable gear such as harpooners and tuna trollers.

The NMFS Biological Opinion finally says what we have all always known: the gear is bad! NOW is the time to ORGANIZE and ACT. Mr. Robert Hight, Director of California Fish and Game, has the authority from the California legistature to shut the entire drift net fishery down and we need the support of Governor Gray Davis. We must tell Mr. Hight and Governor Davis that it is unacceptable to allow 100 or so pelagic drift netters to destroy resources that belong to us all. And, it's certainly unacceptable to direct this destructive fishery solely to Southern California waters.

So, please take a minute, fill out and sign the enclosed post cards and drop them in the mail. Pelagic drift nets are bad gear! Let your voice be heard!

Sincererly,

Herbert P. Moore Jr.
Legislative Research Coordinator

Obviously, I can't include the cards, but here is what they say:

Dear (fill in name):

The Recreational Fishing Alliance is a national 501 (c)(4) political action organization representing individual saltwater anglers and the recreational fishing industry.

As a member of the RFA, I am very concerned about the destruction of Pacific fish stocks caused by the California pelagic drift net fleet. I understand that due to a recent Biological Opinion from the NMFS the waters off the Northern and Central coast of California will be closed to pelagic drift nets starting August 15, 2001 due to high interaction with endangered sea turtles. While this sounds positive at first blush, this will result in a 100% shift in pelagic drift net effort to Southern California waters. This would be a disaster! The marine environment, individual anglers, coastal communities, boat builders, sport boat operations, tackle stores, and other marine businesses would all be hurt, as will commercial fishermen employing sustainalbe gear such as harpooners and tuna trollers. It's unacceptable to allow 100 or so pelagic drift netters to destroy resources that belong to us all. I urge you to support a ban on pelagic drift nets off California. The gear is bad!

Sincerely,

Your Name
Your Address
Your Signature

Please, please, please take the time to write a letter to one or both of the above named gentlemen. You can use the example above or, even better, your own words.

Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

Mr. Robert Hight, Director
California Department of Fish and Game
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 94244-2090

Mr. Robert R. Treanor, Executive Director
California Department of Fish and Game
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 94244-2090

To make it even easier, here are the email addresses for each of the men. Click on each link to open a new email message, and copy the text from above into your message.

Governor Davis: mailto:governor@governor.ca.gov

Mr: Hight: mailto:rhight@dfg.ca.gov

Mr Treanor: mailto:rtreanor@dfg.ca.gov

See Stan, SOMEBODY occasionally participates in "The Corner".

Dave

Thanks for posting this!!

Bluerunner(Dave)