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You gotta be kidding me. I just do not know what is wrong with America these days when the minority can take away the rights of the majority so freely without notice to those who would oppose their actions. I am completely disgusted. What is it this time? How about the extinction of an entire group of humans' (lively-hoods and pastimes) in order to allegedly help re-establish a species of bird (the Piping Plover). Those of you who have been to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore lately know of what I am speaking about. Many of you probably do not. What has happened over the last several years is the closure of beaches to vehicles AND to fishermen, (even without the vehicles). If the Park Service finds a nesting bird, they close an entire 1,000 meter radius around the bird's nest to anyone (other than Park Service personnel). If this bird happens to nest in any of the currently open beaches, tough luck, the beach gets closed. If the bird happens to nest near an access path to the beach, tough luck, you cannot take the path to the beach, even if that stretch of beach is otherwise open. From all accounts I have heard, the Park Service (or whoever is documenting the data) says that there are now around 20 birds nesting along the Hatteras Seashore, while in 1986 there were 10. In 1999 there were 10. In 2006 there were 10. So, to encourage 10 birds to nest along this stretch of beach (rather than Pea Island or one of the other LARGE bird sanctuaries on the Outer Banks), the Park service will close entire stretches of beach to surf fishermen, families who just want a secluded picnic, surfers, or anyone else who is not of Park Service distinction (or possibly belonging to the National Audobon Society). Now the residents of Hatteras, Avon, Frisco, Buxton, and the other villages along the Outer Banks are suffering greatly because of a few self-important individuals who believe that they know more than any other living being. These individuals believe it is their right to rob the local merchants, fishing guides, hotel operators, fishing tackle stores, ice cream shops, etc of their livelyhoods built over years and sometimes generations. These self-absorbed individuals believe it is their right (even their duty) to eliminate habitat of the surf fisherman in order to create habitat for 10 freakin birds. I fished out of Oden's Dock in Hatteras Village in 1979 and 1980. At that time I saw hundreds of vehicles equipped with rod racks in front of their grill, and most times those racks were full. I have just spent a full weekend here and I have seen fewer than a dozen rod rack equipped vehicles, and most that I have seen did not have any rods. I just spent a half hour along side the road in front of my hotel looking for such vehicles to photograph for this article. I was only able to find one with rods and saw maybe two or three that had racks with no rods. All of the local businesses are suffering greatly at the hands of the few "environmentalists" (who probably leave the water running while they brush their teeth). Now, Tormenter sells only a few items that surf fishermen might use in Hatteras, and if we never sold another of these baits to the Outer Banks, we would not even feel it, so I am not writing this out of any sort of commercial interest. I am writing it because you need to know about it, and you need to help these people out, if not for them, because you may be next. These few self-absorbed people who have nothing better to do than to ruin the lives of normal people do not even think about the consequences of their irresponsible actions. I cannot even begin to understand how our elected officials gave these Bozo's the credibility to listen to them for more than a minute after the first mention of closing beaches to an entire group of people who understand the preservation of our nation's wildlife, probably quite a bit more than the so-called experts who have forced these actions. It is now June 3, 2012, the first Sunday after Memorial Day and my hotel is 20% occupied, I have seen only one set of grandparents and their grandson playing at the mini golf next door, I have seen no one at all riding any go carts at the track. The parking lot at the grocery store is less than 40% filled. The gas station across the street has no one filling up. The tackle shops I went into (and spent a minimum of an hour in each one) had no surf fishermen whatsoever come in looking to buy tackle, with the exception of one local surfer whose wife bought him a dollar's worth of Thread Herring. To make matters even worse, these closures come at a time when the US Economy is already suffering with double digit unemployment (even though Obama says 8.25%) limiting the number of families who can afford a vacation, and it comes when fuel prices at marinas is around $4 per gallon limiting the number of sportfishing boats that might make the trip to Hatteras. So, let's re-cap. In order to make room for 10 new birds, we will eliminate a huge part of the economy for a group of people whose economy is otherwise already suffering. If we strangle them long enough, they will leave the Outer Banks forever and no one will ever go back there. Maybe after that there could be 100 birds nesting here.. Wow, that's a fair trade... |
