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Ill cut and paste this article from the latest online Trade Only publication. I havent had a chance to digest it although I suspect is the usual local muscleww flexing and some heavy comercial fisheries pressure (read $$$) thrown in for good measure. Please enlighten me. Thanks.
Court ruling makes boating illegal in much of U.S.
The Marine Retailers Association of America is alerting its dealer members to a court ruling that some say could have serious consequences for boating.
Judge Robert G. James of the U.S. District Court, Western Division of Louisiana, has declared it is a criminal trespass for the public to boat, fish or hunt on the Mississippi River and other navigable waters of the country.
"Even though this action seems like a horrible pre-April Fools’ joke, it is very serious," said MRAA president Phil Keeter, in a statement. "Because essentially all the waters and waterways of our country are considered navigable in the U.S. law, this ruling declares recreational boating, water skiing, fishing, waterfowl hunting and fishing tournaments – except if conducted in a navigable shipping channel — to be illegal and the public subject to jail sentences for recreating with their families."
In addition, the judge held that federal law grants exclusive and private control over the waters of the river, outside the main shipping channel, to riparian landowners. The shallows of the navigable waters are no longer open to the public, the MRAA reports, adding, “Boating has now become illegal in most of our country.”
In the Aug. 29 decision, Judge James rejected the findings of the magistrate judge who found earlier that the public had the right under federal law and Louisiana law to navigate, boat, fish and hunt on the waters of the Mississippi River up the normal high-water line of the river.
In that ruling, MRAA says Magistrate Judge James Kirk relied on long-established federal principles of navigation entitling "the public to the reasonable use of navigable waters for all legitimate purposes of travel or transportation, for boating, sailing for pleasure, as well as for carrying persons or property for hire, and in any kind of watercraft, the use of which is consistent with others also enjoying the right possessed in common."
"MRAA is working with the Coast Guard, state boating law administrators, and NMMA ... to fight this onerous ruling," said MRAA chairman Glenn Mazzella, in a statement.
__________________ Baitkiller= Accredited Marine Surveyor
Bait fear me, fish just laugh.....
The little Dutch boy was just buying time...
I may be stupid but i don't get it. Are they saying it is illegeal to go to any of the marinas, persay in Venice because they are not on the main shipping channel?
Yeah I think you could interpret it this way. After thinking about I'm sure the trade rag is giving a slanted view point. Of course if the law were held to a literal sense it would be unenforceable. Can you see the poor water cops in the South telling all them good ole boys they cant go fishing? They would need the National Guard
__________________ Baitkiller= Accredited Marine Surveyor
Bait fear me, fish just laugh.....
The little Dutch boy was just buying time...
A quick yahoo search turned this up from Louisianaspotsman.com:
Judge rules much of Mississippi River off-limits to anglers
By Andy Crawford
August 31, 2006
The right of outdoorsmen to fish and hunt on navigable waters was issued a stunning defeat Aug. 29 when a federal judge ruled that the public has no “right to fish and hunt on the Mississippi River.”
U.S. District Court Judge Robert G. James ignored recommendations from his own magistrate in ruling in a case pitting a group of anglers against East Carroll Parish Sheriff Mark Shumate over the legality of trespassing arrests stemming from their fishing on Mississippi River flood waters in Northeast Louisiana.
“This is gigantic,” said Mark Hilzim, president of Restore Our Waterway Access, Inc. “He has opened up Pandora’s box. If I read that (ruling) right, does that mean nobody has the right to fish above the low-water mark?
“Every fisherman in the country needs to pay attention to this.”
U.S. Magistrate James Kirk had earlier this year recommended that the arrests of the anglers involved in the case be thrown out. James requested the recommendation.
“(T)he sheriff did not have probable cause to arrest the plaintiffs because the sheriff should have known that the plaintiffs were legally authorized to be upon the waters,” Kirk wrote in April. “The sheriff was required to know that the Mississippi River is a navigable river and that federal and state law … has long recognized that the public has a right to use those waters to their full extent.
“Because the arrests were without probable cause to believe an offense had been committed, the sheriff violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs and is answerable to them for any damages they have sustained.”
Kirk admitted in his ruling that federal law (U.S. Code 33, Chapter 1, Section 10) doesn’t explicitly provide for the right to recreationally hunt and fish, but cited Congressional acts in 1811 and 1812 to back up his final recommendation.
“A condition of its admission (to the Union) was that the Mississippi River and all navigable rivers and waters leading into it ‘shall be common highways and forever free,’” he wrote. “This court takes judicial notice that the Mississippi River was navigable in 1812 and remains so today.”
However, James came to the opposite conclusion, hanging his hat on Kirk’s admission that U.S. Code 33 doesn’t actually mention hunting or fishing.
“(T)he court adopts (Kirk’s) recommendation to the extent that 33 U.S.C. (Chapter) 10 and the federal navigational servitude do not provide the plaintiffs with the right to fish and hunt on the Mississippi River,” James wrote in his ruling. “However, … the court denies to adopt Magistrate Judge Kirk’s recommendation that the plaintiffs have a federal common-law right to fish and hunt on the Mississippi River, up to the high-water mark, when it floods privately owned land.”
In seeming contradiction, however, James also ruled that the “Walker Cottonwood Farms’ property (where the arrests were made) is a bank of the Mississippi River and subject to public use to the ordinary high-water mark, as defined by Louisiana law.”
But he then reversed course, ruling that the group of anglers did not “have a right to fish and hunt on the Mississippi River up to the ordinary high-water mark when it periodically floods Walker Cottonwood Farms’ property.”
Hilzim said it appears that James issued a very narrow interpretation of the law.
“I’m not a lawyer … but the judge seems to be saying that the public has the right to navigate up to the high-water mark but not to fish,” Hilzim said. “The judge has basically said you can take your fast boat to the high-water mark, but you can’t fish.
“You and I can take our speed boat or pontoon boat and drive around all we want, but we can’t fish.”
Hilzim said the case is so sweeping that it could prohibit hunting and fishing on navigable waters across the country.
“This ruling has the potential to end fishing,” he said. “It can apply to rivers, streams, bayous. Is that what this guy is saying?
“This has a potentially profound effect on fishing.”
Hilzim had yet to speak with ROWA’s board, but he expected the case to continue.
“My gauge of the organization is that we will do whatever it takes to see this litigation to its conclusion, and if that fails, work with any interested parties to get the law changed,” Hilzim said.
Sounds like this Judge needs to get an earfull from our outdoor enthusiast president. That land holding company must be fairly well connected, because that ruling makes no sense to me. From my learning, common law was the ground work for our current, albeit bassakwards and running amok, judiciary system.
I would hope the defendants (our side) get a stay on the ruling until appeal, which it surely will be.
This "navigable waters" issue is the same thing the Feds use to be over zealous in defining a wetland. What you and I may think is a navigable water can actually be a wet sponge in your backyard to the Feds.
This may seem unreal, but large sections of marsh near Golden Meadow in Louisiana have been closed off, even though it is clearly navigable. The water is not posted, yet arrests are made by the local police. It is unbelievable, and the reason I no longer head to Grand Isle. When the wind kept us onshore, those areas were a solid alternative, and this fishing can be great. If you have any doubt how crooked politics are in Louisiana, look no further than these interpretations of "the law". Water that is in direct tidal connect to the Gulf of Mexico, and salty, has been closed off, and other areas are considered to be "No Trespassing", with the responsibility to know where strictly on you. Gosh awful mess. The "owners" have enlisted local crabbers in the scheme, by allowing them access to the marsh if they will run others off. Arrests have been made, and it is only a matter of time before the gunplay begins. It sucks!
Yeah I think you could interpret it this way. After thinking about I'm sure the trade rag is giving a slanted view point. Of course if the law were held to a literal sense it would be unenforceable. Can you see the poor water cops in the South telling all them good ole boys they cant go fishing? They would need the National Guard
I'm not sure you have to be a good ole boy to have that response. Fishing rights have started wars, and this Yankee turned Floridian (primarily for the fishing) views an assinine ruling like this one to be right up there in magnitude with the banning alcohol. While it made Carey Nation, Eliot Ness and Al Capone famous, it was a stupid law that was widely disregarded and held in contempt by most of the citiczenry. Further, this one isn't enforcable. Money talks, and the amount of money spent in the fishing insustry in this country simply would not allow a ruling like that to stand.
I believe the good judge should polish his hamburger-flipping skills. His sanity is about to be called into question, and I suspect his job might be in jepoardy.
sounds to me like the **** that happens when society becomes too reliant on lawyers to solve its percieved problems. Maybe I dont know shit because I live in Western Australia but it looks like BS to me. People need to say what the **** and get on with their lives. Maybe a drunken rant but maybe Im onto something, you decide. Its not me whos breaking the `law` by going boating
I can not see this ruling lasting very long. The pull of the NRA, DU, Delta waterfowl and the RFA are not going to let it stand. The Oil companies and fur bearers have always had a scewed perception on land rights in Louisiana, no were else have I seen someone try to POST a navigable waterway, wich is common practice in LA.
Fortunately this ruling will be appealled and overturned. Now you see why there's such a fierce fight over the judiciary in this country.... Since my politics are somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan you can guess which way I'll be voting come November. Friends of mine that have visited New Orleans recently have remarked about how bad it looks in comparison to what Mississippi seems to have accomplished.... Wonder why.
__________________ Tight Lines
Capt Bob LeMay
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I guess this means only native Americans (formerly known as Indians) will be the only ones allowed to fish the Mississippi?
They are the only one allowed to hunt whales, seals, use and collect ivory, fish for endangered salmon, fish the rivers using dynamite, not restrained by fishing seasons or limits, buy cigarettes without paying the federal tobacco tax, open casinos, … and now fish the Mississippi.
boating declared illegle 
They would need the National Guard 
