When I saw the Associated Press article on 'catch shares' in the Mail Tribune, and especially after someone called me to get me to respond to it, I thought I'd shine some light on it. Some background; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under the leadership of Jane Lubchenko, is pushing the give-away of public fish resources. Ms. Lubchenko worked for an organization funded by Sun Oil Company wealth and specialized in media manipulation. And it is a given that corporate interests, especially large trawl companies, want to get the ocean's fish for free, forever, without competing for it.

This is how you get a AP reporter telling everyone that a proposal to take the fish on Oregon's continental shelf away from the public and give it to a few ecologically 'dirty' fishermen is a done deal. Far from the truth. That is if current owners of the fish defend their rights before about March. But the P.R. won't stop on stealing the fish any more than the health insurance industry will stop their P.R. campaign. Here's a quote by a former CIGNA official regarding the health care reform attempts that is analogous to NOAA's current campaign:

"During my 20 years in corporate communications and public affairs, I participated in the steady growth and influence of largely invisible persuasion -- and at a time when newsrooms are shrinking and investigative journalism seems to be vanishing. The number of P.R. people long ago surpassed the number of working journalists in this country. And that ratio of P.R. people to reporters will continue to grow. The clear winners as this shift occurs are big, rich corporations and other special interests. The losers are average (fishermen), most of whom are completely unaware how their thoughts and actions are being manipulated to achieve corporate goals on Capitol Hill."

Check out AnonymousBloggers.WordPress.com for some ticked off folks about trawl by-catch of king salmon. They now have United Nations recognition. They are not 'unaware' like I see in Oregon. Heck, around here, folks still think the foreign trawlers are out there. And as long as they think that, they will think the State Department should stop the king salmon by-catch off Oregon and not go to the regular PFMC public meetings along the West coast.

While I'm harping on inaction, and still in the fishing vein, a local manufacturer of a fishing aid keeps giving and gets nothing back. I'm referring to the owner of the BankEz Planer. There's a website for it. For example, Robyn gave a half dozen Planers to a guide in Alaska to try, and the results were amazing. The pink salmon were swarming the banks and the kings were out in the middle of the river. They used the Planers to get their bait out beyond the pinks and ended up getting over 140 kings that way.

Did the guide pay the Gold Hill manufacturer for the product, or even thank him? Surprisingly, no. Same thing happened when Robyn sent a bunch to a lake trolling competition on Lake Ontario. Fantastic results, but again no appreciation whatsoever. I just can't wrap my mind around that kind of conduct is all. But then I can't conceive of roadside bombing either.

Well, Robyn's Planers will be at the Coastal Conservation Association banquet Sept. 25 at the Red Lion in Medford. Come at six PM and give him a little appreciation, and the many dozens of other local CCA members who work to restore the fish stocks in Southern Oregon.

And I didn't know we had such a premier fishing rod manufacturing plant here in the Rogue Valley. Named, what else but, Rogue Rods. I took a tour through the plant and I'll say, if you are going after Moby Dick or Nemo or anything in-between, these are the guys that can whip out the perfectly suited rod for you. I've seem my share of rods, but these ones are the cat's meow. Now we just need to seriously jump-start the salmon runs around here. More on that later.

HR 2749 that passed in Congress on July 30 will create burdensome hurdles for small farmers and community gardens. A similar bill in Poland wiped out 60% of small farmers. And this kind of regulation is blamed for 60 suicides among small farmers in the U.K. Granted, not as many people want to be a small farmer in America anymore. But there soon may come a time when we might all want to grow something to sell, like in Cuba after the Russians pulled out.

It took a crisis in Cuba,(they were getting awful skinny) for the government to condone private initiatives in agriculture(truck gardens on rooftops etc. I guess you'd call that 'elevator gardens.') I don't understand why our Congressional delegations can't wake up and smell the coffee and realize the consolidation they are favoring in agriculture and fisheries is promoting economic stagnation and societal malaise. Which adds to the health care crisis as well, as people can't afford as much health insurance. But God forbid they would add up the true costs of their decisions.

Monsanto and the rest of big agri-business didn't have to break a sweat to get HR 2749 passed. They had been greasing the skids all along. This kind of stuff always reminds me of a one-man fishing, processing and marketing business in Alaska. He was very successful but needed 18 permits. He was the best small operator, but couldn't go long term. I'd sure like to hear what our Congressional delegation has to say about this bill.

And at the same time, maybe they could explain how giving the 80 + species complex of groundfish in Oregon away to a few rogue fishermen is going to help. They have been using completely unselective fishing gear for decades and fished the continental shelf to practically nothing.

I've heard lame attempts at apologizing for nefarious fisheries management by retired fish managers. Like you can somehow wipe the slate clean before you die. The stocks are hammered, period. You can't say anything to make it alright again.

There are similar practices going on at this time, such as the horrendous by-catch and dumping of king salmon by trawlers on the West Coast(not to mention Alaska). It brings to mind a story told of a State Trooper who caught a woman rolling through a red light. She said, "I was almost stopped." Whereas the Trooper responded, "Mame, if I was hitting you with a baseball bat, would you want me to slow down, or come to to a complete stop."

The point is, when you're talking about natural systems, the systems themselves are crying out for a complete halt, not a partial halt. Just thought I'd mention that for the benefit of those who think compromising is a one-size-fits-all approach to everything.

But all is not lost to corporate interests. The public can make decisions on a local level and shut out the influence peddlers. If local governments got a mandate from the people, maybe they could just say "no" to Washington and their bought and paid for mandates.

I had high hopes for the farmer with the little truck farm and road-side stand in Rusch. I don't know what all is in HR 2749, but over one million people from just one movement have written in asking "what on earth are you guys doing?" So, it can't be good. And it might put a kink in my plans to make a health product, to help keep me and my friends out of the clutches of our health care system.

All the best.