On January 1, 2007, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources in the Department of Marine Resources of the Bahamas promulgated significant revisions to their sports-fishing regulations. While the new laws were designed to benefit the Bahamian fisheries, they caused a vociferous uproar among non-resident anglers who frequent the islands of the Bahamas to sports-fish. Of particular concern are the new regulations that limit the maximum weight and number of fish which non-resident anglers may keep on their boat. My research examines the claims-making activities made by American anglers on four different sports-fishermen/cruising forums. The analysis focuses on the motifs, rhetorical idioms, counterrhetorical strategies, and styles among sports-fishermen who fish the Bahamas.

This study was made in conjunction with a recital of contemporary American song literature. It it designed to show how the modern composer has taken the tools of words and music and utilized them in creating a valid art-form. I believe it is the first study of its kind that has been made. The song literature which formed the basis of the study has been attested to as valid data by Otto Luening, prominent modern composer and pedagogue and twice winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship in composition, and John Kirk, distinguished pianist and lecturer on modern music.