Counting Our Blessings

November is the Thanksgiving month and, believe me, we have a whole lot to be thankful for. It all begins with more rights and more freedoms in more ways than I can even begin to describe in this short space. So, I encourage that when you gather around your Thanksgiving table, you need to thank the Almighty for all that he provides and especially for allowing us to live in this great state of Texas.

Speaking of being blessed to live in Texas, I want to dwell for a moment on the wonderful job our TPWD-Coastal Fisheries Division have been doing, and also the contributions of the Coastal Conservation Association that was founded and is still headquartered in Houston. The backstory on my praise for these two fine organizations goes like this.

I recently learned of what’s been going on in North Carolina’s coastal fisheries for quite a few years. Specifically, and straight to the point, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries has been cheating the recreational angling community out of the fish and fishing opportunity that is rightfully theirs by law. It’s called Public Trust Doctrine. Condensed to just a few words, under the tenets of Public Trust Doctrine, coastal resources belong to the citizens of North Carolina and are to be managed by the government for the benefit of all the citizens. Not just the commercial fishing industry.

Here's some facts: In 2010, North Carolina issued 2522 commercial fishing permits that actually went fishing, and 800,000 recreational fishing licenses. Commercial netters harvested an average of 28,559 pounds of marine fish; recreational anglers averaged 18 pounds. CCA North Carolina and other groups have been campaigning and lobbying since 2020 to achieve game fish status for red drum, spotted seatrout, and striped bass – the most popular species among North Carolina’s recreational anglers. Unfortunately, these efforts have been thwarted by a well-organized and well-funded commercial fishing lobby.

So, here’s the upshot of this whole fisheries management debacle. The right of the people to enjoy the resources they own has long been denied while the commercial fishing industry benefits mightily, to the extent that North Carolina’s marine fisheries are on the verge of collapse. More to the point, not a single marine fish species under their supposed management programs exhibits long term viability.

Two takeaways: CCA North Carolina have just recently sued NCDMF for mismanagement of public resources. Thank the Good Lord we live in Texas!