"Politics"

[PURPLE FEVER]

Did anyone see the 60 minutes piece on the new drug plan last night? At least 10 key government voices that pushed thru this program now work for the Drug Companies that benefited by this legislation. It will cost the American Taxpayers BILLIONS. They were congressmen and key staffers that were supposed to be looking out for the publics best interests.Now they are paid lobbyists!

So whats the point? Money talks BS walks.The rec community has lobbyists thru some of the fishing organizations but their focus is not just swordfish. We need to hire a "big gun" to push thru our agenda. We need to hire someone of Rich Ruais callaber to represent us.We need to hire someone from NMFS to take our side.

The other threads spelling out the threats to this fishery makes me sick. I know one thing the "circle hook experiment" in the closed zone can only spell disaster. That will open a door that will never close.

So how do we pay for this? I think there are about 10 swordfish tournaments in the balance of the year. I am asking the directors to consider a "save our fishery" fund to start this.I'm just throwing this out there for ideas.

We need to do something. Its great to have Ron Coddington on the advisory committee but we need to do more before its too late.

[Another Grand]

Chris and I are actively searching for the "correct" place to donate money raised from our tournament. We would like to donate a portion of the general entry fee, and a portion of the raffle. Whether it goes to expenses needed for the rec's to get a lawyer working on our side, a foundation, etc.....we dont care......but we want to donate. We wanted to work with Arthur's tag program, but after talking with Arthur and seeing the rumors and bad talk that people were so quick to spew on the internet, we opted to search for other venues.

Let me know your input.....we are ready and willing. We are still hoping to donate any fish that people are willing to donate to help feed those in need, but we would like to give as much back as possible.

Johnny

[Ron.38 Special]

An interesting idea I heard from some emails was to have a recreational swordfish stamp or something like that where 100% of the money raise for the stamp would go to an IGFA managed PAC account for just these fights like the one we are in now.

The "Stamp" would simply be a decal or something you could put on your car or boast to show other anglers that you support the swordfish PAC. By having someone like IGFA or SSC or someone manage it, we could track to make sure the money goes only to the PAC for swordfish or rec fishing issues.

Its very timely right now.

We have a meeting scheduled this week with Bill Hogarth at the end of the ICCAT advisory meeting to let the "stakeholders" discuss the EFP's. Of course again, the cards are stacked against us since it is tied in with the ICCAT meeting where it is predominatly commercial interests. Although, TBF, RFA, and a few others should be present.

I am scheduled right now to fly up for the day, but I'm footing this one out of my pocket since no other avenue exists to fund this kind of travel etc.

The recreational fisherman have to organize in a way that matters with these issues. Right now I feel like I'm going to be severely out numbered but I still hope to let Hogarth know we are no backing down to this ill conceived plan.

We have much more power than we are using right now, so we need to grow into our shoes on this one and build a war chest for future fights.

I guess I have pissed off everyone in the PLL industry so another meeting should be more of the same.

Unfortunately I actually think this meeting is just another one to try to convince the recs to back down, and I am tired of listnening to the same line of BS.

Again, its not that EFP's are the majic bullet to reach the quota, the PLL industry could make a much greater impact on the quota if they did some work to get the idle PLL vessels fishing for swordfish instead of trying to relocate the existing fleet to better waters. (they think the area is better waters but the fact is its just more small fish that should not be at the market anyway)

[PURPLE FEVER]

Ron good luck in your meeting! Thank you for your time and efforts!

[Nightfighter]

I've said this before, a Florida Swordfish License Plate would do well I think.

Why not, swordfish are worthy, and they have them for everything else?

[PURPLE FEVER]

Good point, but how would the money get to the right place? I think we all agree that it costs at least $200. for a swordfish trip. Why dont we all donate the cost of 1 trip for the cause? I'd be happy to do it right now. We just need a place to give it to!

[Another Grand]

PF..........you set it up we will gladly host the party/donation at our Captain's Party.....which will be at IGFA museum if everything goes correctly. We are having a North and South weigh in so there will be alot of people from all over that support the cause. We will work it into our general entry fee, keep it completely seperate, etc......there is no reason Ron should be paying out of pocket for his expenses.

Let us know, we want to help. The goal of our tournament is to get women and jr. anglers involved but we want to help as much as possible. We would sell the stamp there, etc.

Thanks

Johnny

[quack quack]

Johnny I still have the contact info for the guy to pick donated swordfish.Let me know if you need it.

[Another Grand]

Thanks QQ, I will need it. We actually had to clear it with NMFS before we were to do that for the chance that the guy was pulled over with all that fish and didnt have a license.

[Broadbill-Pro]

give me the fish, I will make sure it gets to the right people