Mike Nussman
ASA President and CEO
Happy New Year everyone! Like most of you, I took some time off during the holidays which I spent with family and friends. Now that January is here, we’re all back in our respective offices looking out to 2010 and what the new decade will bring. I’m sure 2010 will bring its share of new challenges even as we to continue to wrestle with the issues that presented themselves during the past decade.
Back in December, I attended a meeting in Washington, D.C. where the keynote speaker was Peter Hart, an international public opinion pollster who counts as his clients some of the most influential individuals and organizations in the United States. He shared with us a number of interesting survey results, but the one that really stuck with me were the results of a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey in which only 23 percent of Americans said they trust that our government is doing what’s right. Only 23 percent! This does not bode well as we look to our government—state and federal—to step up and do what’s right for its citizens.
This is certainly the case in California where policy makers have mislead the sportfishing and boating industries throughout the state’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) planning and implementation process. California is doing its very best to restrict the state’s millions of saltwater anglers from enjoying their sport in its shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible quest to establish far reaching, marine protected areas—essentially no-take zones—in the state’s coastal waters.
This wasn’t the picture painted for us in 2006, when the Director of California’s Department of Fish and Game met with the American Sportfishing Association’s Board of Directors and asked us to become involved in the MLPA implementation process. He told us that we needed to have individuals on the Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Science Advisory Team to ensure that recreational fishing’s interests were well represented. Despite our good faith efforts, this never happened. In hindsight, it’s clear that MLPA resource policy makers have never viewed us as full partners in the MLPA process relegating us to minority representation on the task forces and misleading us every step of the way. We’ve even been criticized for being involved in the MLPA process even though California officials asked us to participate!
Frankly, we deserve more from California’s resource policy makers who don’t seem to mind taking industry and anglers’ money. Nearly 60 years ago the sportfishing industry recognized the need to fund fisheries management efforts in this county by agreeing to a federal excise tax on fishing tackle. Since then, billions of dollars have been apportioned to state fish and wildlife agencies for fisheries conservation with California being one of the biggest benefactors. Between the excise tax and state fishing license fees, $80 million per year is dropped into California’s budget, a fact that seems lost on California’s MLPA implementation officials.
In fact, in his remarks made before industry leaders during our October Sportfishing Summit in San Diego, California’s Natural Resources Secretary couldn’t even name the program which provides his state tens of millions of dollars in conservation funds each year. It was as insulting as it was telling.
If Peter Hart is to be believed, as a country we are at an all-time low in trusting our government and its processes to do the right thing for its citizens. I’ve been advocating on behalf of our industry for close to 20 years and working on fisheries and conservation issues for more years than that. I have to say that having watched the MLPA process in California, it’s very easy for me to understand why we have lost our faith in our government.
Mike Nussman
President & CEO