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With Barack Obama joining George W. Bush and John McCain to support offshore drilling, it may seem that the odds are stacked against those who want to keep our nation’s coastal waters clean. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations isn’t letting that stop them from speaking out, however. The West Coast fishing association has announced its opposition to the new plans for offshore oil drilling.

Zeke Grader, the Executive Director of PCFFA has released a statement saying,

“New offshore drilling, such as the President proposes, won’t make a dent in the price at the pump, but it sure as hell could damage our fisheries… Our members have experienced first hand drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel and this is not something we want expanded into pristine ocean waters and some of our nation’s best fishing grounds.”

“New drilling technologies won’t help when we’ve got the same old policies guiding offshore oil development; that is, ‘drill as much as you can as cheap as you can, the fisheries and the environment be damned’.”

“The simple fact is that it will take at least a decade before any oil comes to market from new offshore leasing and that oil will go into a world market… Offshore drilling isn’t about helping consumers at the pump, it’s about the President helping his oilmen cronies who have already been making obscene profits off the backs of average citizens; it’s psycho babble from politicians looking for campaign contributions from big oil.”

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations isn’t made up of a bunch of urban dwellers who just like to watch old episodes of The Undersea Adventures of Jacques Cousteau. Its members are people who make their living on the seas. They know the oceans firsthand, in a practical sense. When they say that putting a lot of new oil rigs along the coasts of the USA will have serious negative consequences, it’s worth considering.