Navy Decides to Fish and Cut Bait

BACKGROUND

This phrase Fish or cut bait is an American colloquialism.

To cut bait means to stop fishing. It appears to have been introduced to the public consciousness, and may well have been coined by, US Judge Levi Hubbell. It came up in 1853, in a legal dispute over land ownership between US Attorney General Caleb Cushing and a William Hungerford.

FISHING

The Hood Canal is spanned by the Hood Canal Bridge (above), one of the world's longest at 6,521 feet, and the only permanent floating bridge constructed over saltwater.

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More significantly, the Hood Canal separates the Kitsap Peninsula and the Olympic Peninsula. The U.S. Navy's Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor Annex, is located on the eastern shore of Hood Canal. The canal contains several bays, the largest of which is Dabob. Most of Dabob Bay is a Naval Restricted Area, used by the submarines stationed at Bangor. Older sub sailors should note that Naval Station Bremerton was combined in 2004 with the submarine base at nearby Bangor and called Naval Station Kitsap. .......................................................................................................................

The Navy planning to test unmanned undersea vehicles in the Hood Canal. "Our purpose is to test the vehicles. We are testing the Navy's technology," said Diane Jennings, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport public affairs officer. ...........................................................................

CUTTING BAIT

Navy shows off unmanned submarine-detecting craft. The Navy demonstrated a new remote controlled boat (surface craft) that can hunt enemy submarines with no risk.

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The stated purpose is to detect hostile submarines by sending the unmanned boats, equipped with sonar, to probe the nooks and crannies where subs might be hiding to ambush a Navy ship or a merchant vessel.

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The first of the two boats, developed and stuffed with sonar-detection gear, cost $197 million.

...Each aluminum-hulled boat is 39 feet long, weighs 17,000 pounds and can carry up to 5,000 pounds of intelligence-gathering technology while traveling up to 35
knots in rough waters. ...If all goes as planned, the first will be deployed in 2011, possibly to the Persian Gulf, where the Iranian navy says its submarines, lurking undetected, could close the Strait of Hormuz, through which tankers carrying much of the world's oil supply travel.

Got that? - Detection gear valued at $197 Million. That's more than the reward currently offered for Bin Laden, by the way. Does the navy hope someone comes after the technology so they can blow them out of the water? Very tempting to terror types, and M.E. hopes just as deceptive with patrolling helicopters, etc.