[Paddlewise] Marine Mammal Protection

First of all, my most sincere apologies to Craig Olsen.  I mistakenly
thought he published his private response to my trip report out to the
list.  As a private response it was completely appropriate.  However, I
thought he had made it public (still relatively new to the internet),
and as such I got overly defensive.  My main concern is public
intimidation of contributors to this list.  We have a great list and a
lot of contributors.  But the list is even bigger than the people we
hear from on a regular basis.  These silent list members (lurkers)
probably have a lot to add to the discussions.  We can all learn from
each other.  My theory is that the lurkers stay lurkers because they are
not willing to get pounced on if ever they should post something they're
interested in.  This mailing list is so annonymous in a way that it's
way too easy to be rude without thinking twice about it.  Try some
visualization here.  Imagine we're all sitting around a campfire after a
day's paddling *together*.  We all love to paddle, and are all capable
of paddling (at least in theory) together.  We are bonded by a common
passion.  Let's focus on the passion, not the other stuff.  So, once
again Craig, I'm sorry.  As a private response to my trip report your
post was good advice.

Well maybe one good thing came of all this.  I found the Marine Mammal
Protection Act out on the net.  It is located at

http://kingfish.ssp.nmfs.gov/tmcintyr/mmpatext/mmpacont.html

Happy Paddling,

Keith Kaste

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