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PSO Plays Politics with Our Oceans |
The Partnership is funded by the American Sportfishing Association, a Beltway trade association that has constantly battled attempts to protect ocean life. It contributes heavily to candidates that have been among the League of Conservation Voters and the California League of Conservation Voters “Dirty Dozen” (www.fec.gov). Among them: former California Congressman Richard Pombo and Alaska Congressman Don Young.
The National Marine Manufacturers Association, another PSO backer, has given more than one-half million dollars to extremist anti-environment candidates since 1998, including Pombo.
A major funder of these political efforts is AFTCO Bluewater, a division of the American Fishing Tackle Company based in Irvine, Calif. and its executives. They have contributed to imprisoned Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham as well as ultra-right, anti-environment Congressman Tom McClintock.
The company's executives were early opponents of the Marine Life Protection Act. In 2006, when the Fish & Game Commission began its multi-year effort to build consensus with stakeholders, company officials pledged to fight the newly-passed law. |
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Meanwhile, company officials donated more than $50,000 towards the anti-MLPA campaign (United Anglers of Southern California press release, 1/07), “with instructions that the funds only be used as a match against other monies raised for the organization’s MLPA efforts."
Another prominent PSO backer, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, hosted cruises to “educate” Republican Congressmen. The Chicago Tribune (September 4, 2006) reported that “By all appearances, the National Marine Manufacturers Association’s program of taking members of Congress and their staffs on cruises—and hosting fundraisers for lawmakers aboard the same boat—succeeded quite nicely…(One lawmaker then) introduced legislation to give boat manufacturers a tax break for the cost of personal flotation devices and emergency beacons sold together with boats.”
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