PEW pushes for USA longline ban

[Gad]

04 Nov 2010

By Mick Fletoridis

Fisho was this week alerted to an interesting snippet of news relating to a campaign running in the US by the Pew Environment Group.

As regular readers will know, Fisho has taken Pew to task over its push to have Australia's Coral Sea turned into the world's largest no-take marine park.

So it came as a surprise to learn that PEW's head office is running a campaign to ban longline fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The campaign features in an advertisement running in the American Sport Fishing and Marlin magazines.

Fisho contacted Sport Fishing's editor-in-chief, Doug Olander, who in a recent editorial had also called for a ban on longlining in the Gulf, for some background on the Pew campaign. Olander told Fisho that Pew in the US has a number of "good" people within its organisation who are active anglers not interested in closing down responsible recreational fishing.

In his editorial Olander says: "It is true that some of Pew's actions and positions have been antithetical to recreational fishing; however, rather than shoot ourselves in the feet, we should encourage campaigns like this from environmental ngos when they're clearly in our best interest."

This initiative by PEW in the US is in stark contrast to the Australian arm of the environment group that seems to have little interest, or knowledge, of recreational fishing issues. This was highlighted by Fisho editor Jim Harnwell's interview with Pew's Australian boss Imogen Zethoven last year when she revealed that Pew's agenda in Australia is to shut down all fishing in places like the Coral Sea, regardless of whether it is proven to be environmentally destructive (like longlining) or fundamentally benign (like well managed recreational fishing).

Fisho has contacted Pew's Australian office to enquire if the group is interested in working with anglers to run a similar campaign to the US anti-longlining crusade locally, or if it is solely committed to the "no fishing" viewpoint.

We have also asked that if Pew's head office in the US is demonstrably supportive of angling, why doesn't Pew Australia have a mandate to follow the same sort of line?

[Fishguts]

i watched a documentary once on these guys who went to a part of the ocean that no one had ever been b4 and were discovering new creatures,they got to the bottom and found long line cables haha people had fished it for years

[Gad]

Quote:..[Olander told Fisho that Pew in the US has a number of "good" people within its organisation who are active anglers not interested in closing down responsible recreational fishing. In his editorial Olander says: "It is true that some of Pew's actions and positions have been antithetical to recreational fishing; however, rather than shoot ourselves in the feet, we should encourage campaigns like this from environmental ngos when they're clearly in our best interest."]...

Sounds like a Trojan horse story to me

Quote…[Fisho has contacted Pew's Australian office to enquire if the group is interested in working with anglers to run a similar campaign to the US anti-longlining crusade locally, or if it is solely committed to the "no fishing" viewpoint.].....

To me,wanting to join forces with these anti-fishing groups for “love insâ€, makes as much sense as legallising terrorism, on the condition they give 2 hours notice before they blow up passenger planes,train stations etc

[nadders]

wow i'd be stayin well away from trying to cooperate with PEW lol, as you said the trojans learned the hard way

[tangles]

Recreational fishing associations forming alliances with PEW is only giving them credibility. That credibility can come back to bite you later on.

Green extremists groups have already demonstrated that they are prepared to sacrifice ethics to achieve an outcome.

[Funfisher]

smells like "pew" to me :whistle: