Billfish Foundation Fails to Stop Australia From Making Worlds Largest Marine Protected Area

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Billfish in Australia
*Important note: this is an opinion article written in the Blog section*

The voice of the vast majority of ocean users is heard and they are not catch and release billfishers.

Fishers should always have access to most of the worlds oceans, not just for sport but to eat! But the world does need some places in the ocean to be free of nets and lines. Catching and releasing endangered billfish is not sport fishing and not as many people do it as some would have you think.

The crazy well funded, massivly sponsered, internationally super influencial Billfish Foundation took a big wave over the bow when the Prime Minister of Australia, backed by the people of one of the most ocean savy nations on earth, said our oceans are for a lot more than just catch and release billfishing. The Billfish Foundation has waged a campaign against marine protected areas, encouraging members to come out and help stop creation of marine protected areas where they will not have access to catching endangered billfish. Many more nations, like Costa Rica, should follow the blue example of Australia and tell billfishers that they can not have all the ocean, and that many large areas need to be protected from extraction activities.

Even in the most pro hunting nations, hunters do not have access to all protected areas. Why the Billfish Foundation thinks they need to put lines into so much ocean is a mystery. They can not seem to agree to any area of the planets ocean that they cannot take from. Could they not let other ocean users, like dolphins and whales, turtles and sharks, divers and kayakers, beachgoers and snorklers, sailers, boaters and cruisers, swimmers and windsurfers, kitesurfers and seabirds, seabird watchers and pelagic ecotourists, researchers and natralists, have maybe one or two percent of the oceans with no lines and hooks. At least the Austrailans get it.

Even with catch and release, (think about it, it is really weird to catch, fight and release endangered animals, or any animal for that matter). Billfishers sometimes hook or entangle dolphins and seabirds and much more. Lines break and are left as marine life killing trash in the ocean and on reefs. Thats why some places need to be free of lines and nets. The billfishers have by far most of the planet to play. If they are really concerned about marine conservation they should help keep a teeny tiny bit ocean free of lines and nets.

One tactic the Billfish Foundation seemed to use was to pretend other ocean users are billfishing. Their numbers seemed really strange and it could be that when they said billfishing makes so much money and there are so many billfishers that what they where really counting was ocean users, most of who are not even slightly interested in catch and release billfishing. Kind of like if bear hunters tried to include duck hunters, canoers, kayakers, deer hunters, hikers, trout fishers and such in their numbers. Perhaps the Billfish Foundation could be more clear with their numbers.

The literature of the Florida based Billfish Foundation calls the majority of ocean users “enviros,” a derogatory term for people who are concerned about our planets environment. Here are the words of their current president Ellen Peel about the wishes of great people of Australia and their Prime Minister.

“But if the enviros get their way, these waters will be closed to sportfishing, even though many jobs are dependent upon the sportfishing and boating eco-tourism industry in the region. Yes, this could really happen and the enviros are determined it will happen.”

Notice how she tries to pretend that boating and ecotourism are the same thing as catch and release billfishing. She even lumps sportfishing in with billfishing, two very different things. The people were not fooled. This week Australia proudly announced to the world the creation of the worlds largest marine protected areas to cheers from sea to shining sea.

One thing the President of the Billfish Foundation got right in her words against the writing on the water was when she wrote,

“If the enviros can accomplish this in the famously historic waters off Australia’s east coast they will push such measures anywhere”

The “enviros,” the people of one of the greatest seafaring nations on earth and their Prime Minister, luckily ignored the foolish words of Ellen Peel and The Billfish Foundation in Florida. Costa Rica should do the same.

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