Make it a Game Fish!

An important update from Stripers Forever on the upcoming hearing on H.206.

Keep America Fishing has built out a webpage that makes it very easy to send a letter on your behalf to the most important Massachusetts legislators on the committee who will be hearing H.206, the bill to make striped bass strictly a game fish in the waters off Massachusetts. Please hit the link and take a few minutes to help the cause.

LINK

If your zip code is outside the zip codes of the target legislators you will need to enter your street address after entering your zip code. A letter will then come up that you can send as is or modify if you wish.

Legislators friendly to the effort efforts have told Stripers Forever that the communications to MA legislators are making a big difference. They do care what you say and they are counting heads!

Please, send that e-mail today and help provide great striped bass fishing for the future.

Mokelumne River – Filming and Fighting for Wild and Scenic Designation

Patagonia Fly Fishing Ambassador Mikey Weir gives an update, and issues a call to action on getting wild and scenic designation for his beloved Mokelumne River.

From its headwaters in the high Sierra to the San Joaquin Delta, The Mokelumne River is a shining gem of nature. A National Wild and Scenic River Designation will ensure this precious resource is protected for future generations of fish, wildlife and people by preventing new dams and diversions on more than 37 miles of free-flowing river.

LINK (Via: The Cleanest Line)

Take Action for Striped Bass in Massachusetts!

From Stripers Forever -

Hearings are scheduled for the three bills backed by Stripers Forever in the MA Legislature in Room B-1 in the Statehouse Bldg on Beacon Hill in Boston on Feb 28th at 11:00 AM. We must have as many people attend and speak in favor of these bills as possible. If you have wanted to do something to help turn around the decline in striped bass fishing, now is the time, and this is your opportunity!

The bill to conserve striped bass by ending the commercial fishery would go a long way to solving our problems. Recent correspondence with the ASMFC has confirmed that if MA ended its commercial fishery for striped bass that other states would not get the MA quota for their own commercial fisheries. Ending the allowed huge 1,200,000 pound quota, combined with the enormous illegal take of striped bass taken under the cover of the legal fishery, would put a lot more big female stripers on the spawning grounds each season. Our bill also would remove the second striper from the recreational bag limit, and that too would help save a lot of big spawners.~
 
Those who are currently killing and selling these fish, along with some charter boat captains who believe that bagging a second fish per customer is necessary to attract customers, will be there in force to testify against conservation. If we don’t care enough to show up in force we will certainly be defeated. No lobbying effort can make up for angler apathy. We need you on February 28th. If you are not from MA but fish here, own property here, or are from nearby game fish states that are being affected by the commercial fishery in MA, please show up and have your say.
 
After the hearing we’ll be working with our lobbyist and members to get these bills out of Committee and onto the floor for a vote. The commercial lobby will have far less influence on the general assembly, but we must get the bills out of committee to have that debate. In the 1980s the striped bass situation began to turn around almost as soon as the commercial fishery was ended. There are still a lot of large female stripers in the ocean.~ If we can stop the MA commercial fishery it will be a huge step in the right direction and impetus for other states to act.

Be part of the solution!

If you can't attend the hearings you can still help by e-mailing the members of the Mass Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture and urging them to move the three bills out of committee and on to a full floor vote. Links are provided below to the bills and to each committee member, you can e-mail them directly off their individual pages.

The bills

To end the commercial fishery in MA  H.260  

To require the state to protect the health of citizens by testing and labeling wild striped bass sold and consumed. H.259 

To require the state to consider the economic value and importance of the recreational catch when regulating the fishery for striped bass. H.258

Senate Committee Members

Marc R. Pacheco

Senate Chair

James B. Eldridge

Senate Vice Chair

Members

• Daniel A. Wolf
• Benjamin B. Downing
• William N. Brownsberger
• Robert L. Hedlund

House Committee Members

Anne M. Gobi

House Chair

Ann-Margaret Ferrante

House Vice Chair

Members

• Robert M. Koczera
• Carolyn C. Dykema
• Timothy R. Madden
• Gailanne M. Cariddi
• Paul W. Mark
• Christopher M. Markey
• Paul A. Schmid
• Susan Williams Gifford
• Matthew A. Beaton

TAKE ACTION - BP's fines should be used to restore the Gulf Coast

Without congressional action, between $5.4 billion and $21.1 billion in expected Clean Water Act fines would be on track to go to a fund to pay for the cleanup of future oil spills, as well as to the federal treasury, instead of the Gulf Coast. Take action now and urge your senate delegation to pass the Restore Act.

From Vanishing Paradise -

The Mississippi River Delta supports some of the best hunting and fishing anywhere in the world.

The delta hosts as many as 10 million ducks and geese during the winter—that’s roughly 70 percent of the waterfowl that use the Central and Mississippi flyways. And the Mississippi River Delta is one of the only places where you can catch bass, redfish, and tuna all within a few miles.

Unfortunately the BP oil spill had a devastating impact on the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River Delta. Hundreds of miles of shoreline were oiled; tens of thousands of square miles of Gulf waters were closed to fishing. The spill could not have come at worse time for spawning fish and nesting birds—and the oil is compounding Louisiana’s longstanding erosion problems that cause an average of a football field of marsh to vanish into the Gulf every hour.

Despite the continued threats to fish and wildlife in the Gulf, the Senate is stalling on a bipartisan piece of legislation called the RESTORE Act that will help the Gulf recover from the 2010 oil spill.

Without your voice, this common-sense piece of legislation may not make it across the finish line.

Please call your senator today by dialing the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

• Tell your Senator why restoring the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River Delta is important to you, your business or your organization.


• Ask the Senators to make passage of the RESTORE Act a priority—before the two-year anniversary of the spill this April.


• The RESTORE Act will dedicate 80% of the Clean Water Act fines from the BP oil spill to restoring the Gulf of Mexico.

Calling is much more effective but if you prefer to send your comments via e-mail you can do so HERE.

Don't Censor the Web

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel.

May we suggest a Pinot with that Redwood Forest?

From the Friends of the Gualala River.

In northern California, near the town of Annapolis in Sonoma County, there is a redwood forest that has been trying to replenish itself after taking a huge hit from logging in the past century. If, starting now, we prevent further environmental damage and allow the forest the time it needs to repair itself, it will recover.  Through these redwoods runs the Gualala River; it contains endangered salmon, a vital part of the area’s ecosystem. 

Two wineries, Artesa Napa Winery and Premier Pacific Vineyards, are proposing to clear-cut over 1,900 acres of these redwoods to be replaced by their vineyards.

In addition to its environmental significance, this area also holds great spiritual and cultural significance to a tribe of Native Americans, the Kashia Pomo, who still live there and regard it as a blessed place where their ancestors lived.  

This area under threat is home to more than 50 rare and sensitive plant and animal species, and salmon are struggling to survive.  If the proposals of these vineyards succeed, pressure for further development will increase, the salmon face extinction and the entire ecosystem will suffer a blow too catastrophic to recover from.

Add your name to the petition opposing the destruction of Redwood Forests.

Clear Cutting for vineyards is nothing new.