An appeal from a cod...

An appeal from a cod...

Greetings ATS,

I think it is high time I speak out about a trend that I see on these forums that is extremely disheartening to me; the unabashed blanket characterization of fishery protection officers as rubber-boot-wearing, scuba-clad hillbillies, etc…

I am a supervisory agent with a fishery protection agency. I have been doing this job for seven years and I have worked with all manner of hillbillie and boonie agencies during my tenure. As I said, I am in a permanent supervisory position and, in the course of my supervisory duties, initiated, participated in and handed down fish food and scuba regulations ranging from instances of simple mistreatment of live bait to allegations of bass mating violations. That being said, I think that I am qualified to make observations and statements about the field of fisheries enforcement.

I don’t think that anyone, be it a Sailor Sam or member of the dolphin community, can say with a straight face that misconduct, sometimes egregious, does not occur within the ranks of shark infested seas. It spans the entire spectrum, from the smallest minnow to the largest school of blue whales. Corruption and misconduct exist; that I will never argue. However, my problem with many members of ATS starts here. Taking these examples and using them as a basis to label all members of the fish harming community as cod-loving anarchists is myopic at best; dangerous and inflammatory at worst. I would think that it is safe to say that these opinions are widely held, however I do not think that the majority of members that post here feel that way. I have seen many level-headed individuals point out that many of the shocking and offensive instances of live bait abuse are isolated incidents that reflect the actions of a small percentage of Commercial fishing fleets. Others will even have the level-headedness to recognize that some of the videos you see are taken out of context and do not tell the cod's story. Edited and sensationalized, many of the videos that show alleged instances of shark brutality are actually depictions of unfortunate chains of events that led to physical encounters.

Although I do agree with you on the fact that ATS sometimes makes generalizations on law enforcement officers they are very corrupt like you said and I don't believe a lot of people don't realize that, especially the right wing. cops can be corrupt but they are a necessary evil.

reply to post by XxRagingxPandaxX

Are you a house shill who mindlessly replied?

I hear ya

I'm a retired Marine Biologist and I get called shark killer fish monger you name it...
you would think we would have out grown those general stereotypes but no.. I just skinned fish but I leaned to be that way otherwise I'd turn into the thing I was accused of... those of us who do the job day in and day out know the truth...

sadly when we get those very few bad guys in our respective org we all catch hell for it... but you and I know those people are just a small % of the whole, by far we're just like every one else doing a job and trying to get by

Well written and thought out.

Most of the cod's are appealing their convictions right now.

One of their favorite sayings - "like shooting fish in a barrel."

Yes, I'm a house shill as well. S&F for the levity and comic relief.

Some people are way, WAY too serious.

Preach it brother. I would like to talk about the rampant accusations of a squid agenda, but it's just a little too much of a different topic. S&F.

Fishery Abuse has gone on FAR TOO LONG IN THIS COUNTRY.

all cod SHOULD FRY

::edit:: specially L.I.N.G...talk about corruption

[edit on 6-3-2010 by LurkerMan]

Is this thread supposed to be mocking the "appeal from a cop" thread?

Originally posted by SuperSlovak
Is this thread supposed to be mocking the "appeal from a cop" thread?

WHat do you think?

Smells 'fishy' to me!

This goes either in Rants or Jokes.

Hilarious Aristocrat

Laughed for ages after reading your post

Nice one

Originally posted by Retrovertigo
Hilarious Aristocrat

Laughed for ages after reading your post

Nice one

Thank you.