Enjoy fishing while you can still understand the rules

OFAH File: 842/420
June 23, 2006

For Immediate Release

Enjoy fishing while you can still understand the rules
New fishing regulations are “fundamentally flawed,” says M.N.R.’s former Fish and Wildlife Director

Fish on! That’s what tens of thousands of anglers want to hear this coming week as bass season kicks off throughout much of central and southern Ontario.

While there is plenty of fishing opportunities for everyone, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters is encouraging people to enjoy while they can understand the regulations. The Ministry of Natural Resources is about to drastically change the fishing rules as we now know them.

“Despite our best attempts to warn anglers, the Ministry of Natural Resources is pushing forward with new regulations that do nothing to enhance conservation, will do nothing to simplify fishing rules – and ultimately, will do nothing but frustrate conservation-minded anglers who won’t be able to figure out the new rules and fishing zones,” said O.F.A.H. Executive Director, Mike Reader.

At this time, the M.N.R. is still not listening to its own field staff, the O.F.A.H, or thousands of anglers who are demanding that the proposed fishing regulations, to be implemented in 2007, be sent back to the drawing board.

In the July issue of the Angler & Hunter Hotline, the official O.F.A.H. members’ publication, M.N.R.’s former Fish and Wildlife Director, Andy Houser, explains how the government has failed anglers with its proposed fishing regulations.

“After weeks of painstaking review, and meeting after meeting with O.F.A.H. staff and my former employer, the MNR, I can tell you that, I believe, the proposed new fisheries regulations are fundamentally flawed. The proposal falls short in providing a more effective, understandable and scientifically-based regulatory regime. It simply does not assist in the achievement of conservation objectives,” said Houser.

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