As we launch our boats or wade out into our streams and rivers we don’t typically think how politics and legislation can effect the type of fish we catch that day. Heated discussions on political events, issues, protests, demonstrations and policy flood our media networks daily. Typically these issues sometimes seem distant or “not effecting me” at the moment but what if what you love to do in your free time is directly effected on a much smaller scale and behind the scenes.
Currently there are proposed bills making their way through the state house in Michigan to change the way we regulate and allow commercial fishing businesses to harvest some of our most beloved game species of fish including lake trout, walleye and yellow perch.
I am not going to get into the specifics in this paragraph, however I IMPLORE you to listen to the podcast listed above, on iTunes or Spotify as I lay out what is happening. Basically there are two sides: One is in for favor of commercial fishing for games species that have been illegal in parts of The Great Lakes. The second is to protect our game species from being targeted and used for profit from commercial fishing businesses. In a nut shell commercial vs sport fishing. Please listen, get informed and call your local state representative to protect our Great Lakes fishery so that sport anglers like us have healthy populations to pursue for many generations to come.
Cheers,
Lee
Where to find your local state senator. https://www.senate.michigan.gov/fysbyaddress.html
Where to find your local state representative: https://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/frmFindaRep.aspx