sports

outdoors with Lou Rodia

Salt Water License Another Useless Tax

Last week, we touched on some of the arguments for and against the salt water license. The more we dig, the more convinced we are that the license is one more form of tax and the long range and short range benefits dangled before the salt water anglers who have to pay for it are- virtually non-existent As a lung time hunter and fisherman 1 53 years fishing

i in fresh water and 49 years as a hunter) 1 have bought hundreds of dollars worth of licenses in this and other states as well as in Canada . IT IS NOT inconsistent to support licensing in these two areas — fresh water fishing and hunting — because the license purchaser is the major user of the resource and the sole or major beneficiary of the

ing up the pollution when they caused little, if any of it. There are all kinds of figures out there to point out that the boater and fisherman contributes but a small percentage of the pollution. Yet they are being taxed to clean up the water. If bathers (and they, too contribute to the pollution in more ways than one) were to be taxed to clean up the water as they are already taxed in some places just to use the beach, they, too would scream. BUT MOST of our pollution comes from industrial waste and this is what destroys the breedings grounds for the fish as is the case in the Chesapeake Bay. A one billion-dollar cleanup is a conservative estimate as to what is needed. and yet, anglers were sold on the premises that a salt water license would clean up the water and make their fishing better. If the pollution had been nipped in the bud and the industries punished early on for their pollution propensity, the salt water anglers would not have had to pay a tax to fish and have their money go to S> lean up the bay. THERE IS nothing fair in the attitude which says that one group should pay to clean up another person's mess for the benefit of the entire population. Salt water anglers are being told that by buying a license they will get more access to th£ fishing. Cape May County is a classic case in point. Bridges are perfect fishing piers and save for some efforts by the County Board of Freeholders, which was able to save the west end of the Avalon Bridge, the old railroad bridge at Scotch Bonnet and the fishing platform on Ocean Drive to name a few, it is illegal to fish from any bridge. STATE LAW prohibits it in many cases. Other states recognize the need for recreational fishing spots and provide walkways for the fishingfes well as slowing down traffic to prevent Occidents If access is needed, a few simple changes in the law would suffice to pake more fishing spots available .Jetties are paid for out of tax dollars and most along the Jersey Coast are posted against fishing. The best jetties to fish on in Cape May County are all but off Iimits^t6\the biggest majority of ' the fishermen. Cold Spring Jetty on the Cape May side is available only to Coast Guard base personnel and to those who have access to the base with ID cards. . THE JETTY ON the Wildwood Crest side is available only to those hardy enough to hike the mile or mdre from the toll bridge on Ocean Drive or along the beach from the ' Diamond Beach Lodge area. Beach buggies are prohibited from using the beach from Wildwood Crest to the Jetty. No one yet has been able to cut through the maze of i regulations which would open up the road inside the electronics station of the

Coast Guard Base to allow John Q. Citizen the right to drive up to or close to the jetty to fish. THAT'S ACCESS which would cost no one anything and we would not need a salt water license to go out and buy more places to get to the water. The Garden State Parkway is another case in point. That road is an economic benefit to the county in moving cars north and south. It is the corridor for millions of tourists, but it is also a man-made barrier which keeps thousands of hunters and fishermen from reaching the hundreds of thousands of acres between it and the Inland Waterway. There are lots of great • places to hunt and fish if we could get to them from the parkway. Yet regulations prohibit this. Opening up this vast area would cancel a lot of the need for using salt water license fund to provide access. WHO WILL LOSE the most if a salt water license is passed into law? First loser will be the fisherman whose pocket will be picked by the cost of the license. The $10 bill he forks over for the privilege to fish will be taken from his allotted money to fish. The industry will be the next loser, for the $10 will go to government instead of into the cash registers of the recreation fishing industry. Then there is the loss of business from those who quit fishing or do not start because of the license. THE BIGGEST im mediate impact will be the loss of fishing trips and fishing days for those who are annoyed by the license or cannot afford it. That's as much as 17 per cent of the people now fishing in New Jersey. And more when you factor in the tourists. The government wants the tax revenue from the fishing license, and in making the effort to seek new revenue sources, the license looks good to the bureaucrats who want the license money for their departments to not consider this loss because it is in someone else's department Last week we mentioned the 18 members of my club who at one time hunted in Pennsylvania. We estimated that they spent an average of $100 per day to hunt there, plus the license fee* If the license cost $50, the State of Pennsylvania got $900. THE SPORTING goods stores, the restaurants, the motels where we stayed, the gas stations, the guides and the other businesses we touched got another $3,600 in two days. Last year, two of us went. We paid $160 for the licenses and spent about $400 between us in the two days we were in Pennsylvania. That totals $560 by our simple arithmetic. The net spending with 18 of us going was $4,500 or more, but with two of us going. the figure drops to $560. Who was the loser? The Pennsylvania Game Commission got more license money, but the people did not get the nearly $4,000 which was not spent.

t And, over the 10 years or > more that this has been goi ing on, the business loss g/BtSTnore substantial. i HERE ON the Jersey i Shore we'll lose motel room t rentals, meals in t restaurants, sales in gas I stations, dollars spent in the bait and tackle stores. » money spent on tolls on the I Parkway and the county i bridges, money spent in li- > quor stores and a lot of ; other places where the > fisherman's dollar winds r up. i The figures are plain to j see: if the thousands of j fishermen stop taking trips i on our boats, stop fishing f from the rowboat liveries ) and from the surf, we will 1 be killing the goose that lays the golden egg for us [ — tourism. » WHO WILL BE the loser » if a salt water license is j passed? We all will, of > course. I We are in a sensitive > tourist-related economy. It > is one which can be assessed only by counting the > pluses. If we keep a » substantial number of peot pie away with the salt i water license we won't 1 ever know it because you cannot count negatives. That's the insidious part of ! a salt water license. I As for the benefits, the biggest beneficiaries are those who stand to gain the most . That is the ; bureaucracy which will ; have more money to operate with. More people [ will be added to the i payrolls. More wasted t research projects will be earmarked for funds. More rules and regulations will ; be promulgated. I .MORE MONEY will be ) needed to support the t structure the license will ; create. More money can r come only from the license i buyers. License costs will go up as it true of every • other license. Name one which is cheaper today ; than it was when it was ; conceived. As the license fee goes up. salt water fishing will i become more selective in • that only the "right" people will be able to afford to fish. More people will quit and more will never start We have given you the i address for Congressman Hughes. Your letter of proI test will help in the fight i against the salt water i license. If you have not yet written, here it is again: Congressman William J Hughes, 341 Cannon House Office Bldg., Washington, DC.. 20515. Write him before it is too late. Hunt Prizes On Display WILDWOOD - Bicycles and special prizes to be | awarded winners in the Wildwoods' Easter Egg 1 Hunt Saturday are on display at the Wildwood 1 Recreation Center, 243 E. Rio Grande Ave. The hunt will be staged on ' the beach at Schellenger Avenue at 10 a.m. To ? register for the event, call » Wildwood Rec, 522-5837; North Wildwood Rec, r 522-2955; or Wildwood Crest, 522-0084.

projects funded with the license money. In both activities, there is little, if any commercial pressure. The game and the fish are managed for the consumptive users. The non-consumptive users get some benefit, but theirs is a periferal use and it does not compete with the license holders who harvest the "crops'' their license ■^provides. MILLIONS OF dollars in hunter and fisherman money goes into habitat improvement, land acquisition and access. Fish are reared and stocked for the license holders to harvest. We encounter lots Of visitors to state fish and game lands. They are not hunters and fishermen and they are not licensed to come to look at the deer j and the other game which ' is there. They swim in and boat on waters paid for ' with license money, as we do on lands purchased bystate funds in the park and forest preserves all ever the country. BUT IN fresh water fishing and hunting, we do not face serious depreda'-' tion of the resource at the hands of the foreign fleets, the domestic commercial fishing fleets and a heavypressure to harvest even more to feed the consumer who purchases in stores and markets National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration figures show that recreational anglers catch 40 per cent of the available fish that are harvested. Yet they are being asked to finance nearly 100 percent of the research programs, the enforcement costs, the administrative costs of the National Marine Fisheries councils and then put additional funds into reducing the federal budget deficit. WE ARE TOLD that the funcjf from the license will go. to improve the habitat and to clean up pollution First and foremost, whyshould one group of users — the salt water fishermen — be responsible for clean-

• . Cape May County ^ ALMANAC MARCH, 19X6 MOON PHASES/POSITIONS CORRECTION TIMES rh* Moon's effect on Ihe Tide is Corn put* approximate tlm»s greatest when cloirs! to Earth of high It tote water for your I in perigee) and when in direct area by adding or subtracting alignment with Sun A Earth the following number of I full A nrw moon phases) On minutes for each tide phase In and about these dates, low the Tide Table. pressure systems and/or strong winds I depending upon direc lion I may rrsuit in flooding and/or extremely low tides Moon Phiisrs LOW HIGH >»■"" 1 Greji Egg Harbor Mr! Nrw Minn IU n, ,„ ... first Oturtrr IK t „ PluS,° h ull Moon a Ocean City .9th Bridge) plus 15 plus 22 \p<iKrr is Corson Inlet i bridge i Prrlgee 1.2* plus 21 plus7 Sea Isle City < Ludlam Thoro Bridge) TIDE TABLE Plus66 plus 43 Computed for Cape May City Sea Isle City Beach beachfront, for other areas, see minus 2 minus 21 Correction Times Townsend Inlet DATE HIGH LOW pius21 plus* a.m. p m a.m. p.m Seven Mile Beach plus IS 0 5 Wed I 02 3:41 9.27 - 9 39 Stooe Harbor 6 Thu 1 IS- 4 S3 10 26- 10 40 , . : En 5 17 5 49 11 22 11 37 'Great Channel Bndge > 8 Sal <-1)9- 6 38 12 12 P,usC plus 40 9 Sun 6 57 - 7 20 12 30 12 59 Hereford Inlet <Angleseai l» Mon 7 38 7 58 I 18- I 40 plus 19 0 11 Tue 8 16- 8 35 2 01- 2 19 Wildwood Beach 12 Wed 8 56- 9 12 2 41- 2 54 Minus 2 minus 17 13 Thu 9 32 9 48 3*19 — 3 19 Wrct Witrturaai 14 En 10 09- 10:25 3 55 - 4 00 , Grassv Channel^dor 15 Sat 10 46 11 03 4 33 - 4 30 Grassy Channel bndge > 16 Sun II 28- II 44 5:11- 5 04 plus46 plus43 17 Mon 12 15 6 00 5 48 Cape May Harbor 18 Tue 12 31 I 08 7:04 - 6 55 plus I minus 4 19 Wed 1 26 2 10 8:12- 8 11 Five Fathom Bank 20 Thu 2:31- 3 22 9:14- 9:14 p|M „ . 21 Frt 3 41 4 28 10 07 10 12 r .. „ p 22 Sal 4 44 5 21 10 SB- II U5 ^ * . ,, 23 Sun 5:37 6 06 11 42 11 54 plus * plus34 24 Mon 6 23- 6 49 12 27 McCne Shoal 25 Tue 7 05- 7 31 12 44 III) plus 28 plus 22 I. 26 Wed 7 47 8 13 Tai I 53 Delaware Boy 27 Thu 8 31 8 55 2 18 2 34 Bayshore Channel 28 Frt 9 16 9 44 1 03- I 16 i Bay -Canal Junction) 29 Sat 10 06 10 35 3:53- 3 58 ^47 ' n|us36 30 Sun II -02-11:31 4 43 4 49 plU,W u „ . plUS36 31 Mon 12 03 5 43- 5 49 . *um' Be*ch plus 75 plus 61 Dennis Creek Entrance plus 114 plus 97 Brandywtne Shoal Light plus 77 ^ plus 52 N- V

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