Last
Friday, President Obama ordered that well over half a million — 582,578
— square miles off the coast of Hawaii be seized as property for the
federal government. Now a “national marine monument,” large swaths of
the Hawaiian coast are off limits to commercial fishing.
This is a huge blow to commercial fishermen in Hawaii, who are not
happy that they will be barred from fishing in over 60 percent of the
water off of the islands. The Associated Press talked to Edwin Ebiusi
Jr. of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, who
said “Today is a sad day in the history of Hawaii’s fisheries and a
negative blow to our local food security.”
“Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, said his
organization was disappointed Obama closed an area nearly the size of
Alaska without a public process,” the AP reports.
Martin’s point is on the money: When the president seizes huge tracts
of land or water in the name of “public good,” the American people get
no say and merely limited access to that land.
[FULL]
*Note: It's speculated that Obama's motivation here
is to keep hidden his buried immigration records. Just sayin'.
