Open Letter: HB201 Pre-judged? by Ted Arisaka
Pre-judged?
I so enjoyed Jack White’s powerful letter “Betrayal Of The Public Trust”. He opened it with an analogy we can all relate to:
“Remember when you were in school and a few kids did something wrong and the whole class got punished? If so, then welcome to legislation—Georgia style!”
Well remember when two kids would get into a fight and the teacher broke it up? Then what? What I remember happening is that the teacher would investigate what caused the conflict and direct any admonishments appropriately. I never witnessed an automatic rebuke on one party based on a kid’s outward appearance, ethnicity, religion, socio economic status, parents’ political allegiance, etc.
So when GA DNR states:
“The intent of the change and enforcement will be to prohibit overnight anchoring in locations that could degrade shellfish production, cause navigation hazards, or create conflicts between waterfront homeowners and the boating public.”
I ask myself, what new education campaigns have been implemented to inform waterfront homeowners of their riparian rights, as well as those of the boaters? What new legislation was introduced to protect boaters from conflicts with waterfront landowners? It seems there is an assumption that the boat owner is always to blame.
Conflicts sometimes arise due to a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of one party or the other, often with an unfortunate injection of poor manners. Here is an example of a 2019 incident between a recreational fisherman and a homeowner which occurred in Florida. WPEC covered this news story:
(Ref:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIn8oln3PeQ )
(Here is the entire footage taken by the fisherman above. Warning: some of the language is R rated)
Ironically, the GA DNR AO specifically excludes recreational fisherman in this ban. I say this because if GA DNR believes “distance” is the solution to “conflicts”, why exclude those who are typically going to be close to these “structures”?
“This law change, and the associated administrative order, is not intended to restrict or impact boaters engaged in fishing and other recreational activities in Coastal Georgia.”
Some of you reading this may think I am unfairly taking one kid’s side as a cruising boat owner.
I am also a fisherman and enjoy coastal fishing in the lowcountry and do so respectfully of homeowners.
I am also a waterfront property owner. I enjoy seeing the boats passing or anchoring where we can admire them from our home. I expect that they do so respectfully and if there were to be a problem boater I think it would be sensible to deal with that on a case by case basis with laws that already exist.
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