| Massachusetts Striped Bass Association Since 1950 |
| UNITED MOBILE SPORTFISHERMEN (UMS) WINTER MEETING Report by Wendy Bowles (MSBA UMS Delegate) |
On November 13, I traveled to North Carolina's Outer Banks for the winter meeting of the United Mobile
Sportfishermen hosted by the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association. The morning started out with a
very large beach cleanup throughout the 177 miles of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, followed by a
volunteer’s picnic and BBQ hosted by NCBBA. After lunch all of the delegates headed to the town of Salvo,
located on Hatteras Island for the meeting.
Because we meet only three times per year, there is always a full agenda with a lot of information sharing and
reports on many different issues. One of the most important items on the agenda is the ongoing legal battles
regarding beach access and certain endangered or threatened species. There are currently three legal actions
that threaten beach access being fought by local UMS clubs on the east coast. UMS voted to take legal action
and join a strategy to sue in as interveners in a law suit against beach driving in the Cape Hatteras National
Seashore, which could have implications here at the Cape Cod National Seashore. The good news is that in
the particular case, local government is paying most of the legal fees.
The main subject of the meeting was a presentation by Larry Liebesman from the Washington DC Law firm of
Holland & Knight. Mr. Liebesman was invited to the meeting in order to both pitch the UMS clubs on a national
strategy that could effect change in laws that are always being manipulated and turned against shore based
fishermen. After the main meeting I attended a smaller meeting of one delegate per club where we discussed
financial costs of a potential national legal strategy and how we can pay for such actions.
UMS has struggled with their web site and we made the decision to not renew our contract with our current web
site manager and in news I received this week a proposal by MSBA member Jim Dow has been accepted and
he will be designing and maintaining a new UMS web site.
The next meeting is in the spring at Salisbury, Maryland and might be the same day as our show, I will know
more after the holidays. I was approached by UMS Officers and will be talking to MBBA about possibly hosting
the summer meeting once again here on Cape Cod.
If you have any further questions about UMS or UMS activities you can contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Wendy Bowles
MSBA UMS Delegate
Sportfishermen hosted by the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association. The morning started out with a
very large beach cleanup throughout the 177 miles of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, followed by a
volunteer’s picnic and BBQ hosted by NCBBA. After lunch all of the delegates headed to the town of Salvo,
located on Hatteras Island for the meeting.
Because we meet only three times per year, there is always a full agenda with a lot of information sharing and
reports on many different issues. One of the most important items on the agenda is the ongoing legal battles
regarding beach access and certain endangered or threatened species. There are currently three legal actions
that threaten beach access being fought by local UMS clubs on the east coast. UMS voted to take legal action
and join a strategy to sue in as interveners in a law suit against beach driving in the Cape Hatteras National
Seashore, which could have implications here at the Cape Cod National Seashore. The good news is that in
the particular case, local government is paying most of the legal fees.
The main subject of the meeting was a presentation by Larry Liebesman from the Washington DC Law firm of
Holland & Knight. Mr. Liebesman was invited to the meeting in order to both pitch the UMS clubs on a national
strategy that could effect change in laws that are always being manipulated and turned against shore based
fishermen. After the main meeting I attended a smaller meeting of one delegate per club where we discussed
financial costs of a potential national legal strategy and how we can pay for such actions.
UMS has struggled with their web site and we made the decision to not renew our contract with our current web
site manager and in news I received this week a proposal by MSBA member Jim Dow has been accepted and
he will be designing and maintaining a new UMS web site.
The next meeting is in the spring at Salisbury, Maryland and might be the same day as our show, I will know
more after the holidays. I was approached by UMS Officers and will be talking to MBBA about possibly hosting
the summer meeting once again here on Cape Cod.
If you have any further questions about UMS or UMS activities you can contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Wendy Bowles
MSBA UMS Delegate