More workshops, more pork barrels, more bull.
In case you haven’t yet had the pleasure of learning how to remove a large circle hook from a cardboard box at a seminar funded by the government and tought by some people who may have never SEEN a sea turtle in the wild, let alone inadvertantly hooked one…
We give you this years required learning courses.
“WHO MUST ATTEND
•All new applicants for shark limited access and/or a swordfish limited access permits
•Pelagic longline, bottom longline, and gillnet vessel owners
•Pelagic longline, bottom longline, and gillnet vessel operators
Vessel operators are required to possess on board the vessel valid workshop certificates for both the vessel owner and operator at all times.”
OK, sure, why not? I can see why it is important for the owner of a vessel, who may never set foot on board that vessel when it is not tied to the dock, to have to go to these classes.
The truth is, the fishcrats (apologies to Cap’ Perc Sane) simply write these rules to cover all possible eventualities without giving any consideration to the inconvenience and expense they are imposing on fishermen and boat owners…and for something as silly as these “workshops” that is just ridiculous.
I attended one of these and, with all due respect to the sea turtles, it was a total waste. It was a waste of the gas we burned to travel 200 miles to get there. It was a waste of the money we spent in a hotel for the night so we could be there in time for the start of the seminar the next morning. It was a waste of the time of every single person who sat through the thing. It was a HUGE waste of government funds (read: “public money”) to rent and set up the conference room at a very fancy hotel (hell, we had ice water and a bowl of mints on each table-clothed table set for two and the room was set up for about 50 people when more like 12 attended.) for this ridiculous program to be presented. Wonder what the budget is for the 4 or 5 people it apparently takes to put on these seminars to travel around the state and rent these conference rooms at very nice venues to present this nonsense? I bet each one of those people made more money off the turtle seminars than my boat made shark fishing last year.
I’m just a wee bit of a cynic, but why are these seminars being put on at public expense by the same company who makes the equipment that we are being forced to carry? (That would be ARC) Sure, you can build you own and there may be some other sources for this approved equipment (not in all cases, though) but the whole seminar seemed like a four hour infomercial for the equipment sold (at pretty stout prices) by the company being paid good money by the government to put it on.
Something funny here:
NOAA Fisheries Disclaimer:The NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) does not approve, recommend or endorse any proprietary product or material mentioned in ARC’s website (i.e. pictures, logos, references, ect.).No reference shall be made to NOAA Fisheries, or to the NOAA Fisheries Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-524 publication furnished by NOAA Fisheries, in any advertising or sales promotion which would indicate or imply that NOAA Fisheries approves, recommends or endorses any proprietary product or material herein or which has as its purpose any intent to cause or indirectly cause the advertised product to be used or purchased because of NOAA Fisheries publication.
I copied that from the ARC website. It seems like merely printing that disclaimer constitutes a reference to the documents that disclaimer claims are not to be referenced. The whole site is chock full of NOAA emblems, logos, and references. Sure, there is a little “disclaimer” link below the logo that is so prominently displayed all over the place, but so what? The disclaimer itself mentions exactly what the disclaimer tells them not to mention and the whole thing is nothing more than bureaucratic legalese CYA. Hell, one of the products ARC sells is called the “NOAA LaForce Line Cutter”. In three lines of the catalogue selling replacement blades they mention NOAA twice and NMFS once. (“No reference shall be made…in any advertising or sales promotion” the disclaimer says)
2 NOAA Laforce replacement blades; serrated / scalloped 420C surgical stainless steel blades; Inter-changable with NOAA LaForce Line Cutter; Easy to replace; NMFS design specification approved.
Nothing deceptive about all that. Yeah, okay, we’re all a bunch of idiots.
I’d also be curious to take a poll at one of these meetings and learn exactly how many interactions the people in the room had had with a sea turtle or a smalltooth sawfish in the preceeding year. Exactly how much money per threatened turtle or threatened sawfish is being spent?
I think I’m going to go home and have a nice bowl of turtle soup.
