Anthony P. Mauro, Sr

There are many people working on gun control legislation in New Jersey. I like the idea of enhanced penalties for gun crimes. I also like the emerging emphasis on mental-health treatment. But I think there are two critical areas being overlooked.

New Jersey has the second most restrictive gun laws in the nation. Therefore, creating additional laws should not be the focus of the state; it should instead be ensuring any new laws squarely make us safer, and that we do so withou...

Posted on August 16, 2011

Those of you who have read my book “Color the Green Movement Blue: A Remedy for Environmental Health” will most likely have insight into the meaning of the title of this blog.

While much of the modern green movement views any disturbance of the natural world as a destructive force, including humanity’s utilization of nature, the fact is that “disturbance” is a key ingredient for ensuring the health ...

Posted on April 2, 2011 byAnthony P. Mauro Sr

It may seem like an unlikely title for a topic about ocean reefs, but please humor me a bit.

Frankly, I don’t fish New Jersey’s ocean reefs.

I go striper fishing and fluke fishing a few times a year, but not over ocean reefs.

Regardless, it is as plain as the nose on our face that an injustice is occurring on the ocean reefs and most of us realize as members of...

Posted on August 21, 2011 byAnthony P. Mauro Sr

The pilot lowered the single prop Cessna onto a small clearing of trampled elephant grass and jesse scrub that stubbornly gripped the dusty, sun-baked African earth.

Fortunately I was so mesmerized by the stunning beauty of Zimbabwe during the one-hour flight that I paid little attention to our need for a precision landing.

I opened the door of the cockpit with a second effort and paused t...

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Anthony P. Mauro Sr

In the story of David and Goliath the Philistine army gathered for war against Israel.

The two armies were positioned on opposite sides of a steep valley. The Philistine’s had a daunting weapon; a gigantic warrior measuring over nine feet tall and clad in full armor.

They would send the giant, named Goliath, out each day to mock the Israelites and challenge them to fight. This ac...

Posted on November 13, 2011

The title of this article is certain to be controversial. But, I think that consideration of controversial issues helps us to become more informed and makes us engaged and active citizens.

After all, it is the mission of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance to educate conservationists so that they can be a catalyst for advancing environmental health through policy and legislation.

Perhaps, this controversial topic...

Posted on December 30, 2011

Not too long ago the prevailing wisdom of American surgeons was to prescribe bed confinement for most surgery patients.

It was ultimately discovered that the prescription of bed confinement not only caused life threatening complications it also delayed the physical recovery of patients.

The medical community soon replaced a “passive management” approach with treatments of early ambulation. As a r...

Posted on February 18, 2012

Whitmore Publishing Company has agreed to publish “Color the Green Movement Blue: A Remedy for Environmental Health.”

The book tells of how a few anglers and hunters united fellow outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen to throw two animal rights politicians out of office for creating legislation that would have banned freshwater fishing and hunting in New Jersey.

It is a David and Goliath like chronicle, ...

Posted on June 1, 2012

The foundation of healthy forest ecosystems is regeneration: the act of renewing plants and trees.

Nature accomplishes regeneration through disturbance by using the forces of fire, wind, disease, insects and other energies.

To the lay person, disturbance may appear to be forest destruction, but deliberate doses of fire, disease, insects and other forces provide for varying forest age classes, on which the surviva...

Posted on November 4, 2011

Many outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen have spent more than 4 years trying to do the “right thing” and have commercial fixed gear removed from the artificial reefs.

Why do I call removing fixed gear the “right thing”? Because recreational anglers are being deterred from using the reefs they are paying to build and maintain by a commercial fishing industry that pays nothing. Because Florida, Georgia, South Ca...

Posted on December 16, 2011

After reading the New Jersey Sierra Club belief that a bear hunt is unwarranted and unfounded because it will not help to manage bears in the state of New Jersey, as well as similar comments from Sierra’s allies in the animal rights community, it occurred to me that one has to overlook some very compelling evidence to the contrary in order to cultivate such faith.

Firstly, to reach the conclusion of the animal activist o...

Posted on February 5, 2012

It’s been nearly a year since I last wrote about the precipitous decline in New Jersey’s fisheries management capabilities, and the trend continues unabated.

Last year it was a free registry that prompted many people to examine the ruinous underfunding of the Bureau of Marine Fisheries (BMF) and this year it is the closure of the river herring fishery.

According to “The Economic Contribution...

Posted on April 22, 2012

Bill S-1764 (Prohibits Possession and Sale of Shark Fins) while well-intentioned, is misguided, overreaching, and would be ineffective if signed into law.

Bill S-1764 is an initiative of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), an extremist animal rights organization known for masquerading as an offshoot of local humane societies.

HSUS is roundly criticized for soliciting money from uninformed animal lov...

Posted on August 2, 2012

Summary

This article is written to summarize the points made in “Turmoil for NJ saltwater anglers – the devil is in the details”. Though I have been candid, the topic covered has been discussed quietly by many saltwater anglers over the years. I have simply articulated their concerns. 

NJ saltwater anglers have felt between the devil and the deep blue sea; the dilemma of feeling tha...

Issue 3: Free Saltwater Registry – where’s the money?

We know that the RFA was well aware of the anemic condition of New Jersey’s marine fisheries when they advanced the idea of a free saltwater registry, a registry that takes money from the Marine Fisheries Bureau (MFB) to create and implement. We know this because it was prominently noted in a 2010 RFA press release, which showed an understanding of the weakened ability of the MFB to provide...

Issue 2

Fixed gear conflicts on New Jersey’s reefs

The representative from the RFA has praised himself and the organization on this site for what he perceives as all of the good that’s been done by the RFA over the years. While the condition of the state of affairs for recreational fishing is often argued, and vigorously too, if the RFA is to take credit for all that is good that has occurred on its watch it follows that it will also take blame for any ba...

As a recap, this article is meant to examine whether the RFA, an organization with the stated purpose of representing recreational angling interests, has developed relationships with the commercial fishing industry that ultimately compromises the interests of the very fishermen and women they claim to represent.

Readers will decide. The RFA has responded and there are now thousands of words to cull through on this and other sites (links have been provided). If the devil is present it wi...

 Recently I read an article in a local paper about the Christie administration’s attempt to return an extra seat at the influential Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to New Jersey. A quote made by the director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), Jim Donofrio, stood out. He said that the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance (NJOA) was “endorsing an environmental zealot who supports President Obama’s restrictive policies on fishermen…” It was Paul Eidman,...

RFA responds to "Turmoil article".

It seems as if I struck a raw nerve with my article "Turmoil for NJ Saltwater Anglers". http://www.ammoland.com/2012/08/02/turmoil-for-nj-saltwater-anglers/#axzz22P6GoqIB

It is an article that uses the saying that "the devil is found in the details" to examine whether there are relationships between recreational...

Black Bears aren’t Celebrities  (c) 2011

By Anthony P. Mauro Sr.

(Published as OpEd in Asbury Park Press. Full version below)

Between the frequent media coverage that black bears receive in New Jersey, and reports of melodramatic behavior by a few bear devotees spouting sensational claims, it seems as if black bears now rank with Real Housewives of New Jersey and Jersey Shore for a share of celebrity status.

But bears ...