FISHING IS MOST CERTAINLY AN INALIENABLE RIGHT

“Fishing is a privilege, not a right.”

Wrong. Fishing is a right, protected under thousand-year old law, upheld by the Constitution of the United States.

While it’s true that there is no constitutionally protected Freedom To Fish Amendment in either the US Supreme Court or in my own home ‘states’ of New York or New Jersey, there have been attempts to create such legislation on both the federal and state sides. Here in New York, Freedom to Fish legislation passed the Senate in 2003 in the form of Senate Bill 5381, but it stalled in the Environmental Conservation committee in the form of Assembly Bill 7299, which is where it’s stayed ever since.

Many environmental groups openly oppose Freedom To Fish legislation, particularly the State Environmental Resource Center or SERC, a project of the Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). At SERC’s website you’ll learn that these leading preservationist groups argue against the basic language of Freedom to Fish acts because it prohibits states from closing waters to fishing unless “there is a clear indication that recreational fishing is the cause of a specific conservation problem.”

The Defenders of Wildlife and NRDC maintain that if passed, Freedom to Fish legislation “would effectively end the ability of states to create marine reserves, which are an important conservation tool for the restoration and protection of ocean ecosystems.” The group makes the argument that “for many species, recreational fishing is the primary source of fishing mortality, and catch-and-release practices are often not effective” management compromises.

In other words, granting fishermen exclusive rights to catch fish would make it impossible for these groups to create legislation banning public access to public waters. Other national organizations coming out in vocal and adamant opposition to Freedom To Fish legislation include Environmental Defense and the Ocean Conservancy, organizations which not only support no-access marine parks but also publicly support a management scheme known as ‘catch shares’ which further privatize our nation’s fisheries by granting exclusive access to the resource to certain groups and/or individuals.

While fishermen don’t have their own amendment to hang their waders on, what we do have is a public trust doctrine, a Roman era principle that says that certain natural resources are to be preserved for public use and that the government is required to maintain it for the public’s reasonable use. When the Emperor Justinian first held around 500 AD that the seashore not be appropriated for private use but was open for all, he was setting a precedent to be memorialized by the King of England some 700 years letter when the Magna Carta ruled that fishing traps must be removed from public waters in order to allow the public access to the fish.

English law being the foundation of our nation, in 1842, the Supreme Court ruled that the Magna Carta was the ultimate rule determining who owned the country’s fish and wildlife, saying that King Charles II did not have authority to give away the “dominion and property” of lands in colonial America, and stated that the American Revolution rewarded the American people with public trust responsibilities for fish and wildlife except for rights specified in the U.S. Constitution.

Just 50 years after that, the Supreme Court would again make an important ruling in Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois, upholding the public trust doctrine again by ruling that the state of Illinois was in violation of the Constitution when it attempted to divest the State of the control and management of state waters, writing “It is a title held in trust for the people of the state, that they may enjoy the navigation of the waters, carry on commerce over them, and have liberty of fishing therein, freed from the obstruction or interference of private parties.”

Fishing is not a privilege, nor is access to our public waterways and the resources themselves privileges – these are instead inalienable rights granted to man more than 1,500 years ago, and upheld for over a century by the U.S. Supreme Court. Any individual who claims that fishing is not a right would be contradicting recognized legal opinion, and any organization which would support the denial of access to public resources is in turn in violation of America’s constitutionally guaranteed, Supreme Court upheld right to fish.

State and federally recognized Freedom to Fish legislation would be nice, but thankfully the saltwater anglers of America have the Magna Carta, the public trust doctrine, the U.S. Constitution, more than 300 years of precedence in this country, and the Recreational Fishing Alliance standing firmly on a nation’s right to fish!

Hello DC, Is There Anyone Home?

It's sad to watch the liberal elite come completely unglued under pressure. Most talk a good game about peace & love & impartiality, but when confronted with actual challenge, the far left is wrapped far too tightly in their own blanket of self-righteousness to mete out any true change, reverting instead to temper tantrums and petty theatrics. Pecksniffian weasels, the whole lot of ‘em!

Pecksmith is a character from a Dickens story, an architect who never designed or built anything, going on to become one of the biggest hypocrites in fiction history. Dickens himself compared Pecksniff to a signpost which is always telling the way to a place, but never goes there itself. Same ol’ sanctimonious “DO as I say, NOT as I do” hogwash we’ve been seeing from legislators from both sides of the aisle, but it seems to permeate most through the liberal left of the private sector today.

I’m no fan of the past president mind you, in fact I only voted for him the first time around (I believe Pecksmith is Gore’s middle name). But our latest commander in chief is certainly not making any friends in my industry right now, as his administration has run roughshod over the rights of both fishermen and their accompanying industry since taking control of the White House. If not by his own hand, those he has selected to do his bidding have arrived in our nation's capitol carrying a helluva lot of ideological baggage.

NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, longtime environmental champion is the recipient of a hundred-thousand dollar plus fellowship from the Sun Oil Company founded Pew Charitable Trusts, and through her work at the Pew-funded Environmental Defense Fund helped author a study praising ‘catch shares’ as the panacea for the ills plaguing our global fisheries. On April 19, 2010, the day before the BP’s Deepwater Horizon blew up, killing 11 people and dumping millions of gallons of crude oil (and counting) into our marine ecosystem, the Huffington Post ran an interview with Dr. Lubchenco which covered a series of topics, including the NOAA chief's fondness for no-take marine reserves, privatization schemes, climate change and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. When asked by the interviewer her biggest concern for our oceans, Dr. Lubchenco responded "At the global scale, probably the one thing currently having the most impact is overfishing and destructive fishing gear."

Just 44 days later, the Huffington Post ran another story about ‘Blowout Jane’ in which the President’s appointment to lead scientist at NOAA refused to contradict BP CEO Tony Hayward's statement that "the oil is on the surface" and "there aren't any plumes." The liberal news website and aggregated blog founded by Arianna Huffington reported that Scientists aboard NOAA and academic research vessels have been reporting for weeks on the presence of oil suspended in the water column, claiming that lab results from a previously secret NOAA research mission have been analyzed and results not publicized.

Click here to read the article in its entirety, but members of the scientific community invited on NOAA vessels are apparently under gag order at the time, as Blowout Jane uses terms like “circumstantial" and “anomalies” to explain away reports of subsurface oil plumes in the Gulf. You have to wonder if the good doctor still thinks that fishermen are the biggest plague to our ocean environment. Her enviro friends at the big Pew-funded groups like Nature Conservancy have suddenly found themselves under a great deal of fire for being business partners with oil companies like BP. The Washington Post recently reported that Nature Conservancy specifically had given BP a “seat on its International Leadership Council and has accepted nearly $10 million in cash and land contributions from BP and affiliated corporations over the years.”

The Nature Conservancy recently contributed $350,000 to the Ocean Conservancy towards developing a partnership with various environmental groups and “specific stakeholder networks, both within the Administration and with a variety of stakeholders on the ground,” while promoting the “need for a federal marine spatial planning framework and supportive funding mechanisms.” This is another fancy way of saying they’re lobbying for legislation and pushing the Administration to divvy up ownership of the oceans, creating a series of ‘no take’ marine reserves, privatizing fisheries through Blowout Jane’s concept of ‘catch shares’ while working to a lot certain coastal zones for mineral extraction.

Catch shares are essentially rights & privileges to fish. Only those who actually own shares of a particular stock are allowed to harvest fish, and the owners of these individual ‘catch shares’ can trade or sell these rights as they see fit. There’s very little evidence to prove that this privatization scheme works, except that by its very nature it will reduce participation to only the very few, or those privileged to be granted ownership. Blowout Jane says “moving forward to implement more catch share programs is a high priority for me.” Of course, she wrote one of the definitive scientific papers while working with the Pew-funded Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Nearly every recreational fisherman I've ever met has been vehemently opposed to catch shares, except for a few well-connected allies of the Ocean Conservancy and one Houston-based conservation organization I can think of.

Dr. Lubchenco's buddy David Festa, vice-president of EDF said the right approach to getting tie-in from the fishing industry is to offer incentives, or what some might call bribes. "Make it easy, grease the skids with some money, and celebrate the successes," he was quoted as saying in the Science Insider. According to journalist Richard Gaines, Festa has been urging institutional investors to buy shares of New England groundfish, touting a projected 400 percent return on investment based on experiences with catch shares in other fisheries.

Another environmental ally in this privatization movement is fisheries scientist Andy Rosenberg of the University of New Hampshire, who helped write the catch share manifesto with Lubchenco. It should be noted that Rosenberg is also Senior Vice President of MRAG Americas, a consulting firm that’s in the business of managing fishery observer programs and stands to profit greatly on monitored catch share plans.

Last week, the President acknowledged that his administration was not aggressive enough making reforms in the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the arm of the Department of Interior which oversees oil drilling operations. In a press conference, the President noted the agency "had been plagued by corruption for years," while simultaneously carrying on a "scandalously close relationship" with the oil companies. It certainly appears these cozy relationships between members of the Administration and big oil companies has had a much more devastating impact on our oceans than that family who enjoys taking a home a few red snapper, porgies or fluke ever could.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has promised an aggressive criminal investigation of BP and its contractors for their actions leading up to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, already the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. He had damn well better look inside the Administration as Mr. Obama clearly stated, to see what links the oil industry had on the MMS, the Department of Interior, and by god the Department of Commerce as well which oversees NOAA.

It seems pretty apparent to me that the environmental groups are not asleep at the wheel on this one. Instead, they’ve purposely focused all attention on fishermen and the “overfishing boogey man” because that’s been the butter of the bread. The Sun Oil Company family fortunes at Pew Charitable Trusts have filtered along through the entire environmental community, poisoning the environmental movement. Instead of pressuring this and every other administration on the lax standards and improprieties stemming from undue petroleum influence, the non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) have taken the easy route and put the preservationist crosshairs on the backs of fishermen.

Yes, there most certainly is an environmental business community, and the do-gooders and preservationists who’ve been blindly leading a battle for the past decade to save the last fish may have inadvertently destroyed the entire coastal ecosystem at the very same time.

Who the hell is in charge down there anyway?

RFA ASKS TACKLE INDUSTRY TO HELP - East Coast Anglers Raise $30K Alone

Several months ago, I sent a letter to many of the friends I made in the tackle industry during my time as Executive Editor of The Fisherman Magazine. The letter outlined efforts here at the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) to infuse a bit of sensibility into our federal fisheries law in the form of the aptly named Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act. Since that letter was sent, a lot has happened to our industry, most of it not so good – though I’m happy to report there are some glimmers of hope.

On October 5, 2009, NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) fired a shot directly at every recreational fisherman and business dependent on recreational fishing when they used their “emergency” rulemaking authority to abruptly close the recreational black sea bass fishery for more than six months! RFA answered the call and immediately began working on a legal challenge in opposition to this hostile abuse of discretion perpetrated by the federal fisheries service.

Just one month after the closure, RFA and a coalition of allies in the for-hire sector filed suit in federal court arguing that the sea bass closure should be declared unlawful and set aside for being arbitrary, capricious, and otherwise not in accordance with law pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act. The legal argument challenges NMFS with violating numerous provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act for closing a recreational fishery in reliance upon the fatally flawed Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) and for failing to adequately assess the impacts the Emergency Rule would have on business entities like tackle manufacturers, the for-hire industry and our local bait and tackle shops.

The obvious question for the hundreds of thousands of East Coast anglers who target black sea bass each season is where was the emergency? NMFS scientists have said all along that black sea bass is a healthy stock – it’s not overfished, no overfishing is occurring, and the most recent stock assessment places the spawning stock biomass at 103% of their rebuilding target. Yet, they shut down a recreational fishery with little or no warning during the most important part of the season for many of our fishermen!

The RFA legal team – which consists of two small-firm lawyers very familiar with the law and issues at hand – have presented a strong case against the U.S. Department of Justice lawyers defending NMFS as to why the closure should be overturned. Captains’ groups, tackle shops, fishing clubs, locally owned manufacturers, boat owners and individual saltwater anglers have provided the financial support which carried this legal case for the last seven months.

Over the last seven months, over $27,000 has been raised for the RFA Legal Defense Fund for our efforts to overturn this closure and set a precedent to ensure that NMFS can’t make similar midseason closures in other recreational fisheries.

Your tackle shops have gone to bat for you in this effort – your customers who buy your products have footed most of the bill. The grassroots community is leading the charge.

The key source of revenue in this fight to reopen the black sea bass fishery and to ensure that NMFS never again shuts down a healthy fishery in any region has been the local angler.

We need YOU to step up and support this effort!

After careful review of the Administrative Record filed by the government in this case (i.e., all the documents the Court will consider in making its decision) our legal team discovered that NMFS failed to submit the minutes of the December 2008 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council which are adverse to their defense of this case. The government would not consent to adding these materials to the Administrative Record so we filed a motion to supplement the record on April 23rd which we expect will be decided sometime after May 17th. Thirty days after we have a decision on this motion to supplement, we plan to file a motion for summary judgment and expect NMFS to file a cross motion for summary judgment after that. We expect this case will ultimately be decided on these cross motions for summary judgment which will require significant legal time and effort.

NMFS is a federal agency out of control. Letter writing campaigns, Congressional hearings and fishing summits won’t stop this agency – this lawsuit can!

Individual anglers and local business owners from New England down through the Outer Banks have already committed to this action, and we’ve taken up the task on our own of raising the first $30,000 towards fighting this federal indifference which now threatens our very livelihoods. Today it's a complete shutdown of a healthy black sea bass fishery, but what’s next? A closure of the fluke season in the middle of the summer? How about striped bass or king mackerel? Amberjack and red snapper again? Where will it end?

This case isn’t just about sea bass; it’s about putting an end to NMFS wanton disregard for our recreational fishermen and the industry they support.

The members of our local fishing communities have dug into their pockets to start this legal fight – but now we need your support to see this through to the end. The RFA has worked tirelessly over the last seven months fighting for a reasonable 2010 black sea bass season and thanks in part to our heavy lobbying and the wide shadow of our lawsuit, we’re happy to report that anglers will have a fairly robust 200-day season in 2010 instead of the scant two-month season that NMFS first recommended. This of course is tremendous news, but unless we can win this case, there’s nothing stopping NMFS from shutting us down again in this or other fisheries using highly suspect MRFSS data.

Since leading the fishermen’s rally on our nation’s Capitol on February 24th (with 5,000 strong), our grassroots coalition of recreational fishermen has been getting stronger, each and every day. I hope you will do your part and write a check to the RFA Legal Defense Fund today and mail it to us at PO Box 3080, New Gretna, NJ 08224. Nothing is certain of course, but I truly believe that we can win this battle on behalf of the recreational fishing community. Our individual anglers can’t do it alone.

Click here to contribute to the RFA Legal Defense Fund using your credit card.

Who Supports the Free Saltwater Registry in Cape May County?

Open Letter From RFA’s Managing Director to Cape May County Herald

The Cape May County Herald seems to be missing the boat a bit on reporting back to readers about the federal requirements for a saltwater registry (click here to read Herald columnist Caroline Miller’s April 1 opinion.)

Here are the facts. Federal law signed by President Bush in 2007 requires that the Secretary of Commerce establish and implement a regionally based registry program for recreational fishermen in each of the eight fishery management regions. The program, which shall not require a fee before January 1, 2011, shall provide for the registration - including identification and contact information - of individuals who engage in recreational fishing in state coastal waters when fishing for anadromous species such as striped bass, shad and river herring, or when fishing out beyond the three-mile limit in federal waters.

New Jersey residents and non-residents alike who will be fishing in coastal waters this season and will “fish for or are likely to catch anadromous species in tidal and salt waters,” will need to first visit http://www.countmyfish.noaa.gov/ or call 888-674-7411 to register with the federal government, free of charge. This information is available at most every tackle shop in Cape May County, including those I recently visited including Jim’s Bait and Tackle, Hand’s Too Bait and Tackle, Utsch’s Bait and Tackle and No Bones Bait and Tackle.

For the record, each one of these Cape May County bait and tackle shops is opposed to a saltwater fishing license, and has officially signed on to support efforts to ensure that a saltwater registry is established by the state of New Jersey as of 2011, and that it’s kept free for all users.

Since 1996, the Recreational Fishing Alliance has represented saltwater anglers and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues across the country. Based in southern New Jersey for over 14 years, the RFA boasts a strong 10,000-member chapter in the Garden State, with our RFA-NJ Board of Directors comprised of more than a dozen individual saltwater anglers and New Jersey marine business owners, including top local captains. The RFA and its members in New Jersey support a free saltwater registry.

The Marine Trades Association of New Jersey (MTA/NJ) is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the recreational marine industry and waterways in the State of New Jersey. MTA/NJ is the watchdog for the state’s vast marine industry and is comprised of over 330 marine related businesses. The MTA/NJ serves as the voice of the recreational boater throughout New Jersey. MTA/NJ supports a free saltwater registry.

The United Boatmen is an organization in New Jersey which has represented the interests and rights of party and charter boat operators for over 30 years. United Boatmen supports a free saltwater registry.

Surfcasters, boaters, tackle shops, party and charter boat captains, marina owners, fishing magazine publishers, and livery operators up and down the coast of New Jersey are supporting free registry legislation in New Jersey and have pledged their support of a saltwater registry, either through MTA/NJ, United Boatmen, RFA-NJ, or by signing on to a pledge form now being circulated throughout the New Jersey fishing community. Take marine business professionals like Rick Traber for example, owner of Pier 47 Marine in Wildwood and Board President of the MTA/NJ. Mr. Traber believes strongly that his summertime boat rental business would take a serious hit if customers learned that in addition to the boat cost and fuel, they’d also have to ask everyone in the family to pay a fee in order to fish.

You can also ask Ernie Utsch, III about what would happen when the casual fisherman and his family down for the weekend learn that in addition to bait, tackle and a couple of new rod & reel outfits, dad would have to plunk down cash for a saltwater user fee at Utsch’s Marina. Same can be said if you talk to Jim Wallace at Jim’s, Nick at Hand’s Too, or Capt. Fred up at No Bones in Wildwood.

Recognizing that the vast majority of business owners in New Jersey do not want their loyal customers charged by bureaucrats in Trenton for the right to access a public coastal resource, Cape May County legislators Sen. Jeff Van Drew, Assemblyman Nelson Albano and Assemblyman Matt Milam have spent the past two years spearheading legislation in New Jersey to both satisfy the registry requirements mandated by the federal fisheries service, along with the needs and interests of their local constituents. Assembly Bill #823 requiring the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) passed unanimously out of Committee and was approved overwhelming (54-16) on the floor of the Assembly last month.

The fishing & boating community in New Jersey offers sincere thanks to Assemblyman Albano and Assemblyman Milam (in addition fellow Primary Assembly Sponsors John Amodeo, Celeste Riley and Paul Moriarty).

The RFA would also like to thank Sen. Van Drew for working hard to pass his Senate version of the free registry legislation (S1122) recognizing that New Jersey’s coastal fishing community needs this registry legislation passed in order to avoid the potential of paying a federal fee in 2011.

The fishing, boating and conservation community also wishes to thank Sen. Van Drew and Assemblyman Albano for proposing forward-thinking new legislation to amend the New Jersey State lottery to authorize creation of a new lottery to fund conservation programs in the state. SCR93 and ACR119 would let the New Jersey voters decide upon an amendment to the Constitution of the State of New Jersey towards dedicating funding to programs for the conservation of fish and wildlife, marine fisheries, agriculture and endangered or nongame species in the state.

There are presently a handful of individuals on a campaign to disparage the excellent work of our Cape May legislators from District 1, claiming erroneously to represent the local business concerns of Cape May County. Their tactics, which include anonymous comments in local newspapers and derogatory online message board postings, coupled with venomous email exchanges between coastal advocates and local legislators, has been disheartening to say the least.

While there are those who continue to spread false information about the registry legislation in hopes of forcing a full-blown saltwater license upon the boating and fishing public in New Jersey, it’s time for the majority to be heard – the ‘free fishing’ sign is hung along the Jersey Shore, and that is where our resident anglers and non-resident coastal visitors demand it stay!

Cape May voters spoke in November – they put the current slate of District 1 legislators in place. The team of Van Drew, Albano and Milam has proven up to their task to represent the coastal community, and on behalf of the estimated 340,000 resident saltwater anglers in New Jersey and 155,000 non-resident visiting fishermen, who together spend an estimate $643 million on saltwater tackle sales alone in the state (source - US Fish & Wildlife Service 2006 survey), I would personally like to thank you gentlemen for going to Trenton and standing up for your constituents back at home in Cape May County!

Jim Hutchinson, Jr.
Managing Director, Recreational Fishing Alliance
New Gretna, NJ

(Our thanks to those business owners who responded to RFA-NJ member pledge form which was first circulated at the RFA-NJ booth at the Salt Water Expo in Somerset, NJ. New Jersey area business owners who have signed the pledge so far include Bob’s Bait Board, the Gambler, the Jamaica, Bimini Bay Outfitters, New Jersey Angler Magazine, Coast Boating School, Shore Catch Charters, Reel Seat Bait & tackle, Full Ahead Sportfishing, E-Z Outrodder LLC, AquaSkinz, Coastal Fish Replicas, OB Fish Company, Avet Reels, Reel Fun Sportfishing, Industrial Welding Supply, Ole Barney Charters, Karen Ann Charters, Chum Bucket Bait & Tackle, Fish the Drop Off, Legal Limit Charters, Oceanside Bait & Tackle, Brielle Bait & Tackle, Jim’s Bait & Tackle, Chazin’ Tale Charters, Hand’s Too Bait & Tackle, Utsch’s Marina, Pier 47 Marina, and No Bones Bait & Tackle. To sign on to support the free saltwater registry legislation and to ask the Senate to support S1122, email me at jhutchinson@joinrfa.org).

THOUSANDS RALLY IN DC FOR THEIR "RIGHT TO FISH"
Leading House Members Join Fishermen At US Capitol

February 25, 2010 - Over 20 federal lawmakers joined several thousand fishermen from around the country next to the US Capitol yesterday in a three-hour rally supporting national fisheries reform. The first reports from journalists on the scene tabbed attendance at between 3,000 and 5,000 with fishermen standing elbow-to-elbow in Washington DC. The rally was historic in that it was the first time that members of both the recreational and commercial sector found common ground in a cause for reform. "An incredible success," said Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) and one of the key organizers of the historic rally.

The rally drew a fairly equal mix of recreational and commercial fishermen from as far as away as Alaska and California in united opposition to the strict federal fishing requirements contained in the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). The nation's primary fishing law helped fishermen when it was enacted in 1976 by eliminating foreign fishing, but during reauthorizations in 1996 and 2006 new language has mandated rebuilding fish populations under arbitrary timetables resulting in the closure of many healthy and rebuilt fisheries.

Carrying signs and banners with the message I Fish, I Vote and Reform Magnuson Now, most participants came by chartered bus from points up and down the down coast which let off at nearby Union Station. The RFA estimates that were about 40 chartered buses, some arriving as early as Tuesday afternoon, and a few were hounded by weather-related traffic problems in New York and New Jersey depositing attendees on the scene nearly an hour into the rally. "We have close to 4,000 fishermen. This was better and bigger than we ever thought," Donofrio said.

Those who arrived after the noon start missed an impassioned opening speech by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), lead sponsor of Senate Bill 1255, the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act. "Shame on the Magnuson-Stevens Act," Schumer said MSA as currently written denies fishermen access to healthy and rebuilding stocks due to arbitrary, 'time-specific' deadlines. "We need flexibility to be able to thrive," Schumer promised the crowd, while charging federal bureaucrats with failure to recognize the impact of their decisions on working families. "We need to start caring about our fishermen as much as our fish.

The bipartisan unity that could be seen in the crowd between commercial and recreational fishermen was well-reflected on stage, as one by one democrats and republicans took to the microphone in support of their coastal constituents. Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) encouraged fishermen to visit their legislators, telling them "we've got to change this law." LeMieux said the federal fisheries law was "keeping you out of work, it's keeping the tackle shop out of work, it's keeping the hotel out of work, it's keeping the restaurants out of work."

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), a longtime champion of coastal issues with a proven track record in protecting the ocean environment has been a champion of the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act legislation in the House (HR 1584), and praised the fishermen for coming to DC with their concerns. "There is nothing more important than grass roots," Pallone told demonstrators. "The science is broken and what they are doing is wrong," Pallone said of how catch limits are determined. "We need flexibility ... that's the only way we're going to make some changes around here."

"You can't brush aside basic science," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), co-sponsor of the Schumer Bill. "When did flexibility become an ugly word," said Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), adding "we're not going to stand for it. We'll be there and we'll get it done." "This is about our right to fish. The bureaucrats have to get their heads out of wherever it is they are," said Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) to cheers from the crowd.

On a day when legislators were busy with hearings on the banking industry and the Toyota recall, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) found time to address his fishing constituents and said he wished the banking regulators treated the financial industry "as harshly" as fishery regulators have treated the fishing industry.

Many legislators spoke about U.S. regulations resulting in more than 80 percent of the fish Americans eat being imported from countries like China and Russia, which Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina said "If you're gone, the Chinese own the fish market in North America. We can't let that happen."

"We're going to work it hard. That's 10,000 miles of fish beds closed; it will put hundreds of commercial fishermen out of a job. I'm hoping these guys (the anglers) can at least get members of Congress to take a look at another option," said Rep. Henry Brown (R-SC).

"Our fishing communities have taken a hit, which is why it is so heartening that so many have still taken the time and resources to come march on Washington in support of their industry," said Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), sentiments shared by fellow coastal congressmen like Rep. John Adler (D-NJ), Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC), Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY), Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) and Rep. John Mica (R-FL), all members of Congress who spoke on stage yesterday.

In a passionate speech directed at Gloucester fishermen, state Senator Bruce Tarr (R-MA) said he supported changes he called the salvation of fishermen in New England, flexibility modification which would allow more reasonable rebuilding timelines while still achieving conservation goals and sustained fishing communities." "We don't have a minute to spare we're losing commercial fishing boats, we're losing the ability to fish recreational, this makes all the sense in the world, it's not an unreasonable measure," Tarr said.

Together with fellow state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D-MA), the Massachusetts delegation stole the show by returning to the park at 2:30 Wednesday with Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) the newest member of the Senate. Brown, Tarr and Ferrante led Massachusetts fishermen off to a meeting in the Senate, while North Carolina Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Kay Hagan (D-NC) took their constituents off to gain more support for Flexibility.

HR 1584 picked up three additional co-sponsors this week due in large part to the February 24th rally (29 total co-sponsors), while S 1255 gained another three supporters (for a total of 5). The lobbying effort in DC by RFA staffers in support of these vitally important coastal bills will continue.

If you have photos to share from the fishermen's rally in Washington DC on February 24th, be sure to visit the RFA Facebook page and connect with RFA members nationwide.

Golden Jubilee Celebration

On June 17, 18 & 19, 1906, Philadelphia played host to a celebration of the first 50 years of the Republican Party. Being that the first convention of the Republican Party was held in Pittsburgh, PA on February 22, 1856, the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Republican Party in Philadelphia spotlighted the Grand Old Party’s first half-century and “the reminiscences of men who were present at the birth of the party in 1856.” Included in the three-day event was a general meeting at which historical addresses were made, along with “the annual convention of the National League of Republican Clubs; the Annual Convention of the Pennsylvania State League; a public meeting at the Academy of Music; a great street parade of Republican clubs and various excursions and entertainments for the visiting delegates.”

A full record of the proceedings and “stenographic report of the addresses” was compiled by author Addison Burk, with a 226-page volume published in 1906, accurately piecing together the many fragmentary contributions to the history of the Republican party which were detailed during the event. Burk’s complete Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Republican Party in turn presented a comprehensive picture of the GOP’s golden anniversary, which first officially nominated J. C. Fremont in 1856 but found its first presidential success story soon after with the election of Abraham Lincoln as commander-in-chief four short years later.

It is said the Republican Party was founded in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, while the first official party convention was said to take place on July 6, 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. Perhaps stoking the coals of debate, many of those Philadelphia attendees in 1906 actually recalled the earliest formation of the party as occurring in a small grocery store in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in the years leading up to the 1856 convention in the city of Pittsburgh. At the gala three-day Golden Jubilee 50 years later, the shop’s owner, David Calhoun Herbst, was invited to address the Republican revelers, where he was introduced as “a man who was present at the birth of the Republican Party in Lafayette Hall, Pittsburgh.”

Herbst gave what was later reported in local papers as an impassioned historical perspective of the Republican Party, leading off his speech by saying “On an occasion like this on the anniversary of the Grand Old Republican Party, it seems appropriate and pertinent to present a kind of family tree to show the inception and reasons for its birth.” Herbst then went into a historical synopsis of the first hundred years of American politics, beginning with the unanimous election of George Washington in the 1700s and leading up to the death in office of Whig candidate President William Henry Harrison in the mid 1800’s, which Herbst said “left the helm of state in the hands of untrusty John Tyler.”

“Americans feeling keenly the loss of their loyal president, deemed it essential to gather their hosts and give battle again against the Free Trade Slave-holding Democracy” Herbst added, which he then explained had laid out the grounds for a new American movement.
“On a cold winter’s night a coterie of deep thinking men of all shades of politics, met at Herbst’s grocery store at the corner of Third and Cherry Alley, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to formulate, if possible, a basis for a new political party upon which all political factions opposed to the free-trade pro-slavery Democracy, might unite for its overthrow.” According to Herbst, that winter was exceptionally cold, but he described “the cold blasts and heavy snow outside that little grocery did not chill the ardor of those inside. Besides, our debates got warm, especially when we sought a name for our new creation.”

In a 1921 article in the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, it was said that all shades of political opinion were represented at those early rallies at the Herbst Grocery Store, with active participation from Whigs, Democrats, Abolitionists, Free Soilers, and Washingtonians. “Among them were a number who were active in politics” the magazine reported, adding “their object was to formulate a basis for a new political party upon which all the factions opposed to the pro-slavery Democracy.”

“Our selection of a name was a thorn in the flesh and threatened several times to break up our gathering,” Herbst told those in attendance at the Golden Jubilee. “One night, it was necessary to lock all in, and that night Captain Charles Naylor stood up on the counter of the grocery, with a wave of the hand said ‘peace be still’.” Naylor was a lawyer elected to the 26th Congress as a Whig, but he declined candidacy for renomination in 1840. Naylor had raised a company of volunteers known as the Philadelphia Rangers and served as captain in the Mexican-American War, settling back into law in Pittsburgh soon after.

Herbst continued, “Struck by his attitude and remark we were amazed and hushed. He smilingly remarked: ‘that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’ and after a few words, he said, Spartan-like: ‘We have a great Republic as our nation, why not call our new party, Republican?” After Captain Naylor’s grand announcement, Herbst recalled the first moment of silence in the room as the name began to register in the minds of those in attendance. “And so it was, the word Republican went forth among all the people,” Herbst said at the Golden Jubilee, saying the first convention in Pittsburgh to follow in 1856 would be most logical, “Lafayette Hall was selected as an appropriate pace for the public christening of the new political child.”

The words of my great-great-great-grandfather David Calhoun Herbst can be found on page 148 of the Golden Jubilee of the Republican Party of 1906 by Addison Burk, contributed by the New York Public Library and preserved electronically at the Internet Archive, a non-profit group which offers permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.

Read more at http://openlibrary.org/b/OL13516124M/Golden_jubilee_of_the_Republican_Party