MLPA Public Comment!

[zenspearo]

Originally Posted by PAL

The list is looking better.

We still have a long way to go.

If they aren't on this list, reach out to your other friends and ask them nicely to attend. If they don't get it, twist their arms and break out the peer pressure.

A hard core of kayak anglers and divers battled hard to hang onto ANY piece of La Jolla. The fight's not over. Rally up!

For those just coming into this thing, we need you! If you love kayak fishing, it's time to do your part.

Paul is exactly right. This 11th hour firing of neutral Commissioner Sutsos a week ago (Sept. 28) and the substitute appointment of a Heal-the-Bay (affectionately known to many fishermen as "Steal the Bay") board member (Bayliss) as a Commissioner mirrors a move made earlier in the North Central Coast process when Benninghoven was appointed at the 11th hour to deliver the vote that devastated that region for fishermen.

The same treachery is about to happen again in SoCal.

We can expect the Fish and Game Commission meeting on Oct. 20-21st to be decidedly tilted in favor of the closure crowd with this newly created 3-2 pro-closure majority. They will decide on YOUR map, your area where you kayakfish.

As before with the SAT and BRTF, corruption can only be checked to some degree by public participation, outcry, and scrutiny.

Expect the pro-closure crowd to push for more closures and to shut you out of more of your kayakfishing areas. It's not a done deal and they are seeing an opening to take away more at this latest turn with a pro-closure FG Commission.

http://bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/showthread.php?t=8447

If the pro-closure side gets their way, most of the kayakfishing areas in La Jolla, PV, Malibu, Catalina will also be gone. We will also not have a chance to address the egregious closure shape (which makes zero logical sense except to lock out shore fishing access and launching) at Laguna.

We need you there Oct. 20/21 at the San Diego FG&C meeting. We didn't think we would as badly this late in the process but the latest political maneuver at the 11th hour to stack the voting against us has made this meeting more critical than ever.

Without you, the closure crowd will have unchecked opportunities to push for closing all of the kayakfishing areas (kayakfishermen and divers are the most vulnerable in this process since our paddling/diving areas are a tiny sliver of the CA coast, and nearly all of them are targeted).

This is why you see guys frantically calling for your help. Without you on Oct. 20/21, all the earlier hard work will be for naught.

Dig deep kayakfishermen. This is the last meeting that the maps will be created/dissected/discussed for the SoCal MLPA process. Be there.

Note: Our joint communities have speaking points. We have speakers. But we need people to show up to cede time too. You being there ceding time so our side can have a chance to make their point for kayakfishing access will mean all the difference.