December 7, 2014 — It’s a matter of scale. Many Americans likely would agree that the owners of large ocean-going fishing trawlers should get a government permit before discharging waste in U.S. waters. Demanding that recreational anglers get the same permit each time they clean their small boats or dispose of bait seems, well, crazy — the kind of bureaucratic overkill that even purveyors of bureaucratic overkill could agree to oppose.
And that’s exactly what happened.
A badly written federal law requires that boats shorter than 79 feet in length comply with the burdensome regulation intended for larger commercial fishing vessels.
Congress plugged that leak with the 2008 Clean Boating Act, which stipulated that no small recreational or commercial fishing vessel would be required to obtain a permit for any discharge incidental to its normal operation. That fix, however, is scheduled to expire at the end of this month.
U.S. Senate Bill 2963 would protect anglers with small boats from the commercial fishing law. A month ago, nearly a dozen recreational fishing organizations co-signed a letter to bill sponsor Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, and others supporting the legislation on behalf of American anglers.
Last week the bill advanced through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, moving one step closer to passage and proving that Democrats and Republican can see eye to eye, especially when it’s a real no-brainer.
Read the full story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette