Allow me to share with you a few headlines I’ve come across recently:

1. The Miami Herald, 

March 26, 2012: 

“Park’s fishing-limit plan decried”

This was an article about a proposal to make the vast majority of Biscayne Bay (16 square miles, in fact)—located in the middle of a major metropolitan area and used by tens of thousands of cruisers and anglers—off limits as “the best way to ensure visitors actually get to see big fish and healthy corals in the future.”

2. Also from the Miami 

Herald, March 28: 

“Preserving our fisheries – Our Opinion: Compromise can be found on rules for Biscayne National Bay”

This was the Herald’s Op-ed reply to the proposed closure, which concluded, “Without the wise decision over the years to preserve our reefs and the coastal ecology through parks and preserves and good regulations, South Florida would not have its fine fishery. Protection today means fishing tomorrow.”

3. From the website 

Cruisersnet.net:

“Potential USCOE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) Partial Filling of North Lake Worth From 15′ to 6′ At Palm County Request To Provide Grass Habitat”

This made known a plan put forth by Palm Beach County to actually fill in about half of North Lake Worth and plant sea grass there, an area that is an extremely popular anchoring spot and mooring field. And most interestingly, the county didn’t even consult with the municipality of North Palm Beach, which borders the lake and enjoys great economic benefits from the boating activity that occurs on the lake.

4. From the Recreational 

Fishing Alliance 

(RFA) website: 

“Administration Says No Public Input Needed- Denies Congress’ Request To Allow More Comment On Oceans Takeover”

This details a press release issued by House Natural Resource Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA), reading in part, “Hastings received official notice from the Administration denying the Chairman’s request for a 90-day extension of the public comment period on the draft National Ocean Policy Implementation plan.”

This plan has potentially massive and far-reaching implications for anyone and everyone—commercial and recreational alike—who use our waterways, inshore and offshore.

5. Last, the headline 

on a March 2012 email 

circulated by the NOAA 

(National Oceanographic and 

Atmospheric Administration) 

Office of Coast Survey:

“NOAA Prepares to phase out Navigational Response Team”

This laid out that, due to a $2.3 million budget cut, the department would eliminate the six Navigational Response Teams (NRT’s) who work the nation’s ports, surveying for dangers to navigation and updating NOAA’s nautical chart products. These are the same response teams who race to areas hard hit by hurricanes and the like, to quickly restore navigational aids so that a port can begin operating again. The closure of even a minor port has far reaching negative economic implications, affecting entire regions if ships don’t resume coming and going in very short order.

Is it just me, or are things getting a little more (or less, perhaps, if some of these things come to pass) fishy around our coasts?