Albemarle Tradewinds August 2016 Web Final

Cobia Fishing
Next Evolution Wrestling
by: Tracy Anderson
by Jake Worthington
Last month I explained how the 2016 Cobia Season was almost closed before the NC and VA season even began. The SAMFC had
determined that the Cobia Fishery was overfished in 2015, and this had generated the closure for June 20, 2016. The agency claimed they had
no choice to close the fishery because of Magnum-Stevenson Act passed by Congress. The lines were drawn in the sand, and this resulted in a
grassroots fight to not allow the states of NC and VA to follow along in this closure. The grassroots movement was started by Virginia resident
Jonathan French who not only loves to Cobia fish, but he also loves his job as a Washington, DC, policy specialist. French works the halls of
DC at the nation’s capital and understands the ins and outs of how the laws and regulations work. He was familiar with how government
regulatory agencies work, and what gave them their rulemaking authority. Mr. French was a godsend to the grassroots movement because he
could decipher the data and the rules and show how the agency was not even following their own policy and rules.
I first met Jon French when I began pier fishing when I was 9 years old. He and his family would come to the pier and stay for a week. French would live on the
end of the pier live baiting for Cobia and King Mackerel. We would spend hours talking while waiting for a fish to bite. Jon French, in a nutshell, is a man who
loves to fish and really loves to Cobia fish. Luckily for the grassroots movement, they now had an advocate that not only loved to fish but worked in Washington,
DC, and knew how the system worked.
The first thing French did was read the Magnum-Stevenson Act to determine why the SAMFC had acted like it did. First, French found that Virginia had no representation
on the SAMFC and was trying to close a season that would cause a negative economic impact. That brings us to the next violation that French uncovered,
and that was that the SAMFC had not done an economic impact study on how closing the season would affect the state and its economy. French pointed
out these violations to both NC and VA officials and tried to rally both boards to use this as a valid reason on how the SAMFC was violating its own policies,
regulations, and rules.
Then the water really got muddy when SAMFC was also challenged on why the boundaries existed between the Atlantic and Gulf Cobia species. SAMFC insists
they are different genetic fish, and they don’t go from one area to the other. French attacked this data that the SAMFC was using and showed it was flawed. As I
am wring this article, the SAMFC is still working to close the season in 2017 calling for a spawning closure. If you are a fisherman, you will need to be proactive
like Jonathan French has shown us. Without his inside knowledge, it would have been very possible that we would have lost the 2016 Cobia season.
Welcome to inside NEW. Today I would like to introduce a few of our wrestlers. Every wrestling fan
knows there are good guys and bad guys.
The wrestling term for these are baby faces (good) and heels (bad).
First our baby face.
The Beau Show- “Beau Crockett. In his own words; The Beau Show Beau Crockett is the hottest thing to
come out of Virginia since... ever! Any show I’m on, becomes The BEAU Show! Whether it’s melting hearts
or punching some jerk in the face, nobody does it like I do. Think I’m wrong? Step in the ring and find out
for yourself. At 6’0” 230 lbs, with 6 years experience working all over the Mid-Atlantic and the east coast,
Beau is a force to be reckoned with. His finishing move The spear, has secured him many victories.
Now the Heel, the guy you love to boo. Introducing The Pain Train, Preston Quinn. He has held championships
all over the Mid-Atlantic region. Numerous times he has held the heavyweight title in the companies
that he is employed with. Known for his no nonsense, old school approach to the wrestling ring, he
raises the ire of fans across the territory by simply doing what he does best, dismantling body parts.
Quinn uses focused attacks on a weakened limb of
an opponent, typically the arm to gain the majority
of his victories over the fan favorites in the area. At
6’2,274lbs and 22 yrs in wrestling, Quinn, much
like the family lineage that trained him, The Andersons,
is set to make another run at Heavyweight
gold in Next Evolution Wrestling.
Join us August 20th, 7pm at the Elizabeth City
National Guar Armory, to see both of these
wrestlers and more.
Don’t miss this action packed night!
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