Topfish
12-31-2006, 12:26 PM
Sports/Outdoor Links
Outdoors:
Major issues need to stay on front burner
By BILL BURTON, For The Capital
In fishing and hunting as with most sports, it isn't easy to figure what the next season will be like. Not infrequently, it stretches the imagination just to figure why things happened.
Hunting and fishing is like the weather; the only sure thing about it is it will change. The new season will be different, always has been, presumably always will be.
And it takes more than a ball of crystal to get a hint of what's coming up for nimrods and anglers.
The slate for '06 has been wiped clean, the "wait 'til next season" season is coming. The only obvious certainty is that the financially stressed Department of Natural Rescouces has a lot of work cut out for it in 2007. And, complicating the spectrum is the upcoming change in governorship.
Thus far, incoming chief executive Martin O'Malley remains somewhat of a shadow; we have few clues as to what his priorities are. More than a few activists claim they have been contacted by one of the teams handling the transition, but have gained no insight into his priorities and commitments.
For the most part the activists are unwilling to say anything; they're in a tough spot seeing that many of them openly backed Bob Ehrlich's bid for reelection - and now they fear they're on the receiving end of payback time. They want to stay in the loop; certainly avoid the political loop ending up around their necks.
So in transition they're walking a tightrope, one misstep could endanger their pet projects or those of their constituents. The door was open to them in much of the four years Ehrlich ran the shop. Meanwhile, now the clock is ticking - and some things can't wait, not if they're to be corrected with the least possible damage in the long run.
The honey-do list is a long one for O'Malley, whose tenure as mayor of Baltimore exposed him to about all the ills and remedies of society. The exposure didn't offer much experience in our arena of outdoor life and environmental issues, which can and do impact our pursuit of fish and wildlife.
In short what we have coming is a new governor with questionable insight into the science of managing the Chesapeake complex and the remainder of the state - and possibly/probably a new team of managers who could conceivably be for all practical purposes on-the-job trainees.
We could lose a year or several as things go on the drawing board, programs are debated within the department and old ones reviewed. All of it then must pass muster before implementation.
Not in the half century I've covered the outdoors beat in Maryland have I noted conservation issues in a quagmire such as we see around us today. And, they generally are not the fault of the department, but instead meddling governors and tight-fisted legislators are to blame.
Take a department which manages on a basis of science, use it as a dumping grounds for political allies, impose on it such a tight budget that programs don't get full funding and capable scientists flee to other states, or retire as early as possible, and you have what is housed in the Tawes State Office Building at Annapolis.
Worse still, the jobs the departed leave behind remain vacant due to insufficient funding.
Certainly, a new governor is entitled to put his team in place, but a smart governor won't throw the baby out with the wash water. One hopes O'Malley appreciates nothing can replace experience and continuity in a department whose management and goals must be based on science. It took Bob Ehrlich a couple of years to come to that realization.
Let's hope the O'Malley team doesn't slip into the role of so many judges, who after listening to cases of drugs and violence all day goes lightly on the case of a guy catching too many fish or bagging a wild turkey out of season.
We see it all the time; after listening to all the horrid testimony they've listened to all day, a fish and wildlile violation pales by comparison - and the offender gets off with an inadequate penalty. What's a few fish when citizens are assaulting each other?
Such thinking goes beyond the courtroom; it plays out everywhere in politics. A governor has to deal with assaults in schools, the homeless, inadequacies in health care and the list goes on and on. With so much on his plate, so many lives vulnerable he can be prone to considering environmental issues of lesser importance at the time - and the latter go on the back burner.
Simply put, O'Malley can't let that happen. The back burner is already chock full - and we're running out of time. He has to act now, and decisively. Here's the hand he has been dealt:
Diseased Rockfish: This calamity might be more serious than we realize. At times at the Bay Bridge last summer more rockfish with outside and inside ugly red lesions were caught than healthy fish. Think of the bay without stripers.
Menhaden Overcatch: Only at the top, governor to governor, can enough pressure be brought on Virginia to sufficiently reduce factory fish pressure on the baitfish that are the mainstay on diets of rockfish and so many other important species.
Excessive Rockfish Hauls: DNR needs help from above to curtail the catching of tons upon tons of big stripers in late season by fishermen of the lower bay and off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. Each one caught and kept is one less to return here to spawn.
Dead Zones: The weather was more hospitable this year, thus fewer incidences of dead zones in which fish are stressed by insufficient oxygen, but the core problem of pollution remains. Another torrid summer could be devastating.
Sea Trout: Once an exceptionally popular sportsfish and now at low ebb in the bay, there is growing evidence that rockfish populations (and appetites) could be doing them in, the same with hardheads, another favorite on the menu for rockfish. We can't allow the food chain to get out of whack.
Bear Hunting: A new governor must show early support to DNR in its management of a wildlife species based on science and not allow do-gooders to interfere in such matters. Science must rule.
Others: Yellow Perch, a science-base program is badly needed. Bay Access: While we can still afford some properties for boat launching facilities, we shrink from striking while the iron is hot because shoreside homeowners don't want launching ramps in their back yards (how can we preach save the bay, when we deny reasonable access to it?). Fishing Efficiency: Sports and commercial fishing efficiency has never been so thorough, electronics can even locate single fish, artificial baits have never been so effective, planing board allow a boat to fish nearly 20 rods, charterboats can make two or three trips a day, and all the while we're trying to keep catching in line.
What's needed is a governor who can and will turn the management of our waters to the Department of Natural Resources - and give them the funding to do the job. We have the necessary ingredients in our capable scientists; what's lacking is support of their research and management. Where do you stand Martin O'Malley?
Outdoors:
Major issues need to stay on front burner
By BILL BURTON, For The Capital
In fishing and hunting as with most sports, it isn't easy to figure what the next season will be like. Not infrequently, it stretches the imagination just to figure why things happened.
Hunting and fishing is like the weather; the only sure thing about it is it will change. The new season will be different, always has been, presumably always will be.
And it takes more than a ball of crystal to get a hint of what's coming up for nimrods and anglers.
The slate for '06 has been wiped clean, the "wait 'til next season" season is coming. The only obvious certainty is that the financially stressed Department of Natural Rescouces has a lot of work cut out for it in 2007. And, complicating the spectrum is the upcoming change in governorship.
Thus far, incoming chief executive Martin O'Malley remains somewhat of a shadow; we have few clues as to what his priorities are. More than a few activists claim they have been contacted by one of the teams handling the transition, but have gained no insight into his priorities and commitments.
For the most part the activists are unwilling to say anything; they're in a tough spot seeing that many of them openly backed Bob Ehrlich's bid for reelection - and now they fear they're on the receiving end of payback time. They want to stay in the loop; certainly avoid the political loop ending up around their necks.
So in transition they're walking a tightrope, one misstep could endanger their pet projects or those of their constituents. The door was open to them in much of the four years Ehrlich ran the shop. Meanwhile, now the clock is ticking - and some things can't wait, not if they're to be corrected with the least possible damage in the long run.
The honey-do list is a long one for O'Malley, whose tenure as mayor of Baltimore exposed him to about all the ills and remedies of society. The exposure didn't offer much experience in our arena of outdoor life and environmental issues, which can and do impact our pursuit of fish and wildlife.
In short what we have coming is a new governor with questionable insight into the science of managing the Chesapeake complex and the remainder of the state - and possibly/probably a new team of managers who could conceivably be for all practical purposes on-the-job trainees.
We could lose a year or several as things go on the drawing board, programs are debated within the department and old ones reviewed. All of it then must pass muster before implementation.
Not in the half century I've covered the outdoors beat in Maryland have I noted conservation issues in a quagmire such as we see around us today. And, they generally are not the fault of the department, but instead meddling governors and tight-fisted legislators are to blame.
Take a department which manages on a basis of science, use it as a dumping grounds for political allies, impose on it such a tight budget that programs don't get full funding and capable scientists flee to other states, or retire as early as possible, and you have what is housed in the Tawes State Office Building at Annapolis.
Worse still, the jobs the departed leave behind remain vacant due to insufficient funding.
Certainly, a new governor is entitled to put his team in place, but a smart governor won't throw the baby out with the wash water. One hopes O'Malley appreciates nothing can replace experience and continuity in a department whose management and goals must be based on science. It took Bob Ehrlich a couple of years to come to that realization.
Let's hope the O'Malley team doesn't slip into the role of so many judges, who after listening to cases of drugs and violence all day goes lightly on the case of a guy catching too many fish or bagging a wild turkey out of season.
We see it all the time; after listening to all the horrid testimony they've listened to all day, a fish and wildlile violation pales by comparison - and the offender gets off with an inadequate penalty. What's a few fish when citizens are assaulting each other?
Such thinking goes beyond the courtroom; it plays out everywhere in politics. A governor has to deal with assaults in schools, the homeless, inadequacies in health care and the list goes on and on. With so much on his plate, so many lives vulnerable he can be prone to considering environmental issues of lesser importance at the time - and the latter go on the back burner.
Simply put, O'Malley can't let that happen. The back burner is already chock full - and we're running out of time. He has to act now, and decisively. Here's the hand he has been dealt:
Diseased Rockfish: This calamity might be more serious than we realize. At times at the Bay Bridge last summer more rockfish with outside and inside ugly red lesions were caught than healthy fish. Think of the bay without stripers.
Menhaden Overcatch: Only at the top, governor to governor, can enough pressure be brought on Virginia to sufficiently reduce factory fish pressure on the baitfish that are the mainstay on diets of rockfish and so many other important species.
Excessive Rockfish Hauls: DNR needs help from above to curtail the catching of tons upon tons of big stripers in late season by fishermen of the lower bay and off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. Each one caught and kept is one less to return here to spawn.
Dead Zones: The weather was more hospitable this year, thus fewer incidences of dead zones in which fish are stressed by insufficient oxygen, but the core problem of pollution remains. Another torrid summer could be devastating.
Sea Trout: Once an exceptionally popular sportsfish and now at low ebb in the bay, there is growing evidence that rockfish populations (and appetites) could be doing them in, the same with hardheads, another favorite on the menu for rockfish. We can't allow the food chain to get out of whack.
Bear Hunting: A new governor must show early support to DNR in its management of a wildlife species based on science and not allow do-gooders to interfere in such matters. Science must rule.
Others: Yellow Perch, a science-base program is badly needed. Bay Access: While we can still afford some properties for boat launching facilities, we shrink from striking while the iron is hot because shoreside homeowners don't want launching ramps in their back yards (how can we preach save the bay, when we deny reasonable access to it?). Fishing Efficiency: Sports and commercial fishing efficiency has never been so thorough, electronics can even locate single fish, artificial baits have never been so effective, planing board allow a boat to fish nearly 20 rods, charterboats can make two or three trips a day, and all the while we're trying to keep catching in line.
What's needed is a governor who can and will turn the management of our waters to the Department of Natural Resources - and give them the funding to do the job. We have the necessary ingredients in our capable scientists; what's lacking is support of their research and management. Where do you stand Martin O'Malley?