Bob Rinear discusses the economy and Obama's proposed Executive Order to ban fishing in U.S.

ESPN reports that the Obama administration is on the verge of issuing an Executive Order to ban all fishing in the United States. Bob Rinear argues against this.

Public comment is no longer being accepted for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and inland waters.

This announcement comes at the time when the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn’t issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters. That’s a disappointment but not really a surprise for fishing industry insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the process was a mere charade from the beginning.

Bob Rinear, editor of Main Street Market Watch and Financial Intelligence Report, expresses his outrage by stating, “While America is fixated on National Healthcare, The Obama administration is quietly plotting to end all father-son fishing outings and in the process destroy businesses and further ruin our economy.”

Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano, provided his observations: “The World Wildlife Fund and International Fund for Animal Welfare completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear). Now we see the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard-working American families and small businesses are being ignored.”

Unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for “marine spatial planning” by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations — whatever they may be.