Gathering on the Water

This is an important weekend for all those connected to the water.

From the hotel clerk who keeps a job from the anglers coming to the area, to commercial interests, to recreational fishermen. This weekend, from 10 a.m. to noon, you are asked to get on the water.

This is part of a national movement to basically get the attention of Washington.

And it seems none too soon these days.

The net ban, yes, a state act, but nonetheless worth mentioning, has already done enough damage to an industry that has thrived in this area for centuries.

The Food and Drug Administration seems heck bent on completely wiping out an already critical patient – the oyster industry.

If oystermen do not already have it tough given bag sales and regulations, they now face the prospect of being shut down for the majority of the year.

This movement started in Destin.

The Destin fishing fleet invited all recreational fishermen in assembly of boats in the Destin channel.

The assembly aims to protest the disregard for improved data collecting for managing fisheries and total disregard for the input of fishermen on stocks and stock assessment.

This is specifically aimed at federal regulators, but let’s face facts, as any fishermen of this coast knows, the fishermen’s voice, or at least the voice of the fishermen who make their living on the water, has long been one to which a deaf ear has been turned.

The trials of just creating a legal net for fishing by commercial fishermen wishing to make their livelihoods in state waters is testament to government’s mind-boggling attempts to silence the voiceless.

But the call, from a charter boat captain, has been heard far beyond Destin.

As a local captain stated, “I suggest that this go several steps further. I suggest that not only all fishermen, recreational, commercial, everyone who fishes or consumes fish, all boaters (power, sail, canoes), plus anyone who uses our oceans and water ways for pleasure or commerce also get on the water.

“I suggest we take this even further to all areas of the country, including great lakes and rivers and lakes. Fishing is not on the issue as the ocean policy task force is speeding to develop new restrictions on all ocean users.”

So bait shops, tackle shops, hotels, fuel dealers, anyone connected to fishing is encouraged to join the protest.

The emphasis is on a peaceful protest.

There is not intent to disrupt other boaters, to block channels, to otherwise constrain other boat traffic.

It is an attempt to send a message to Washington lawmakers, who everybody can just about attest are not the most attentive lot.

The town hall meetings concerning health care were as much an indictment of Washington as a whole as it was any single bill.

And it was laced with a frustration that for too long voices have not been heard. In trying times, the frustration metastasizes.

“Since we have been unable to get the masses to send information to their representatives, maybe by seeing the masses in a coordinated peaceful protest of the rampant mismanagement of our fisheries, the possible massive restrictions that may be placed on all ocean users due to the current high speed movement of the ocean policy task force, just maybe we can gain the national attention” needed to address such issues, the local charter captain continued.

This can hardly be called a movement of anti-conservation since the fishermen who have made the sea their life may be those best equipped to care for the resource.

Problems certainly seemed to surface only when the government got involved.

And as the net ban amendment clearly showed, those who make their living on the sea do not have fancy lobbyists or legislators gunning for higher office to carry their water in the halls of government.

Fishermen are not too equated with the fine marble hallways of government, just as government is not all that familiar with life on an oyster boat, on shrimper or a bait vessel.

So the best way for fishermen to show their strength is to turn out in number on the water they hold so dear.

The day is to put aside recent or historical atrocities to the industry, but to simply for one day, for two hours, to ring out the voice that is so ignored in those marbled and oaked room where decisions on livelihoods, on futures, on meals for the family, are made.

The fishermen strongly support responsible management of the resource. They just want government to invite them to the table, to hear and consider their input, to be a responsible partner to insuring the resource as well as the jobs that are linked to that resource.

This, for the fishermen, is about survival.

 This weekend they hope that all those who care about the oceans and seas that make the Gulf Coast one of the jewels of the country, who care about the industries that once thrived, who stand with those who have sustained the sea because it was their livelihood, are invited to join the process.

If you wish to join e-mail Capt. Bob Zales at bobzales@worldnet.att.net or Capt. Scott of Charter Boat Phoenix at www.fishingdestin.net.

This is one chance for one voice to be heard from the ocean to Washington. Let it be a strong one. It’s needed.