Friday, June 25, 2010

DEPRESSED
by Robin

Last week, the vote went through to close fishing in a specially boxed off area (98 ft - 240 ft water depth, from Port Canaveral to Savannah). No boat is allowed to verticle fish (bottom fishing) in thousands of square feet of ocean. Trolling is allowed. You can't even travel through the "boxed" area unless your bottom fishing poles are stowed away. Supposedly, the coast guard is watching you on radar and your boat will then be inspected upon entering the port to make sure you didn't catch any fish off the bottom. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!! The Carolinas were included in this box as well, but their representatives fought the SAFMC recommendations with a promise to not enforce any of their regulations and so their area was removed. Florida representatives sold us out.... for what??

This is not a hoax y'all. This is the passage of Amendments 17A & 17B from the South Atlantic Fisheries Mgmt Council.

People from my coast are now heading over to the Gulf of Mexico to catch what they can before the oil hits over there. Scallop season was opened 2 wks early so people could harvest before the oil hits beds. Eventually, there will be little to no fishing on the West Coast. Friends going to the Keys for Mini-Lobster season in early August have said the rooms are not booked and they're offering 50% discounts for divers that will book & come down.

Florida's fishing & diving economy is officially sunk.

What is the fate of this blog?? Our family's favorite hobby?? Florida lifestyle on a boat??

I'm not trying to be mean but since nobody has read my blog in weeks, I can let my hair down and speak my mind. If liberals take over this world, we'd be sitting in the middle of knee-high grass (no gas for your car or lawnmowers), with tons of mosquitos surrounding us, stinky because we shouldn't use bug sprays nor certain bars of soap, unable to afford power & AC for our homes because the prices would necessarily skyrocket, unable to fish because the ocean is closed off to us, unable to hunt because they're taken away our guns and unable to go to our beaches since they're covered in oil. I'll be sickly because my doctors will have quit their practices, meds will be unaffordable because I'm taxed up to my eyeballs & my insurance company will have dissolved and Jack may not have a job because all of those evil-capitalists will be run out of their businesses.

Where in the world have all our freedoms gone? Where in the world is the America I grew up with??? Sheesh people, I just want to be able to fish. Don't mess with my fishing. It does weird things to me.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I feel your pain Robin. Let's hope the next couple of elections restore some level of sanity to the USA.

BTW, I found your blog because I just bought a 1987 Mako 248 and I've been searching hungrily for refit photos & reports. Do you have more insights and/or photos than are listed on the front page of your blog? I'm hungry.

Don in Annapolis MD (with a house for rent in Indian Harbour Beach FL)