Thank you spearos. My hat off to each and every one of you.

[zenspearo]

After dropping Larry (Nekton) off last night at 12:30AM, I had about 20 minutes to myself for the first time since waking up nearly 18 hours earlier.

What I felt on that 20-minute drive from Encinitas to my house was one of immense gratitude. To all of you. To every spearo, kayakfisherman, fisherman, commercial, business, and public member who ever emailed, faxed, called, and showed up at meetings.

But most of all, to the spearos.

Spearos were, true to form, the fearless frontline in this fight. We were the first volunteer group to consistently show up and went toe-to-toe with paid full-time staffers and lobbyists for countless foundation-supported enviro/corporate entities.

We were a small group of neophytes when we first started, but we learned and adapted quickly. We never lost heart, and we tirelessly heckled and pushed and pleaded to get other communities into the fight with us. And in the end, our rag-tag bunch of spearo volunteers, operating on a budget of about $ZERO, managed to galvanize the rest of SoCal fishing communities to get into the fight.

Once that happened, we true ocean lovers and conservationists simply out-worked, out-organized, and out-numbered the financially-interested blue shirts. When I saw yesterday that they had to pay to bus in children, who obviously were manipulated to read scripts, I saw desperation. It was a defining moment, one that signaled the triumph of our organizational prowess over private interests intent on booting fishermen off California ocean waters. It is a testament to our love for our California ocean and to our refusal to be manipulated and steam-rolled over.

Whatever happens today with the BRTF, the true heroes in this fight are the rank-and-file spearos. Each and every one of you. Not to underestimate the contribution of other communities, but it is the spearos who showed up first, fought tooth-and-nail every step of the way, and stayed until the bitter end. You know it, and others know it. Without us, every single one of us, the maps would have been blood red all over.

Thank you spearos.

[YakAtak]

You're kidding right Joe??? It is super humble of you to write this!!!

We may have numbers and fight, but we owe you for harnessing it and creating handshakes with all our allies in the process.

NO....Thank YOU Joe!!!

[Chris Lupin]

You rock Joe, you get the credit for actually getting us there. You organized us from the beginning and rallied the troops before each meeting.

[MiguelT]

I agree with Al, it's truly humbling and a privilege to have you, Paul, Jeff and Joe paving the way for us in this process, and I doubt that we'll ever be able to thank you guys enough.

[mikeme]

Thanks so much for all your hard work Joe.

[MOTO 619]

[rojodiablo]

Originally Posted by zenspearo

We were the first volunteer group to consistently show up and went toe-to-toe with paid full-time staffers and lobbyists for countless foundation-supported enviro/corporate entities.

When I saw yesterday that they had to pay to bus in children, who obviously were manipulated to read scripts, I saw desperation. It was a defining moment, one that signaled the triumph of our organizational prowess over private interests intent on booting fishermen off California ocean waters. It is a testament to our love for our California ocean and to our refusal to be manipulated and steam-rolled over.

Thank you spearos.

For what it's worth, I was there afterwards until very late; closing time actually... and I saw something that absolutely reeked of 'What do we do now to force OT??!!' It was 1am, and there was yes, several paid staffers and Mike Sheehey doing what??? Pouring over maps. A little late for that.
And our reps? They built the WG2 proposal to stand on it's own, they followed all the guidelines as best they possibly could, and they were just relaxing, because they knew deep down inside that we built a solid proposal, and we backed it up solid with facts, not hype and emotion.
Really, good job everyone.

[So Cal Shaggy]

Joe, you and Paul are the ones that we all owe a very big thank you to. You and Paul have played such a large roll in this process from the beginning. Compared to you two most of us myself included played a somewhat small roll. you and Paul were the generals and we were but the foot soldiers that carried out your orders and carried out secret covert missions.

[mikelb]

Long Day. Thanks to everyone and especially you "core guys" who organized so much!

[sciencemike]

Thanks Joe, Paul, Jeff, Erika, Joe F and everyone else. Nice meeting you all.

[Polystigma]

Good job, Joe.

[Holy Mackerel]

Thanks Joe, for your leadership! And to all the countless volunteers, organizers, motivators behind the scenes!

[Don Paul]

Thanks again Joe and Paul.
Don