| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Anderson: Heavy-handed Gospel About Guide Licensing Spreads NorthBy Dennis Anderson, Outdoors editor and columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune The Coast Guard - for safety's sake, it says - is stepping up enforcement - and hurting the wallets - of small operations on northern lakes. Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard, the pain felt by fishing guides on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers beginning this summer is about to spread north, first to Lake Vermilion and the American side of the Boundary Waters stretching east and west of Ely, and soon perhaps to other major Minnesota lakes -- including Mille Lacs, Upper Red, Lake of the Woods and the Whitefish Chain. Guides in and around the Twin Cities and as far south as Winona who work on the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers first heard in June that the Coast Guard was intent on enforcing a decades-old licensing requirement that would affect them in many ways. At issue is the Guard's "6-pack'' license for captains of boats that carry for hire six or fewer passengers -- a description that covers virtually all fishing guides in the state. Generally, guides wanting to hold the license must attend a course in preparation for a Coast Guard exam. Total cost: about $1,000. Much as it might want to, the Coast Guard can't enforce its licensing requirement on all Minnesota's fishing guides -- only those who ply what the federal government calls "navigable waters.'' Unfortunately -- if you're a guide -- in Minnesota "navigable waters'' covers a lot of territory, as outfitters and guides on Lake Vermilion and in the Ely area are about to find out. Actually, guides in Ely already know. Last week, Commander Mike Lebsack of the guard's Marine Safety Unit in Duluth was scheduled to meet with outfitters and commercial operators in the area. Lebsack has a similar gathering planned for Tuesday with Lake Vermilion guides. It's difficult to overstate the effect this will have on guides and resort owners in these areas. Guides don't take a lot of money, and for that reason there aren't many of them. Resort owners and outfitters nevertheless are dependent on guides, particularly good ones, to accommodate their many clients who don't have the skill or experience to catch fish on their own. Some guides will decide it's not worth the trouble to get a Coast Guard license, and instead look for other work. That said, it seems apparent the Coast Guard -- which at times played the heavy last summer in its dealings with Twin Cities area guides -- now appears to be taking a more sensitive approach to its expansion into waters of the northeast. "The primary concern for the Coast Guard and all other agencies that have a stake in the enforcement of licensing requirements on federal navigable waterways is safety,'' Coast Guard spokesman David French wrote in an e-mail Thursday from Cleveland. "We want to ensure that all operators of uninspected passenger vessels have the appropriate safety equipment and level of boating and operational expertise required to keep their passengers safe while on board these vessels.'' That French had no idea where Ely was when I asked about the guard's expansion into the area should come as no surprise. Last summer, I asked a spokesman in the Twin Cities Coast Guard office whether Lake Winnibigoshish is under, or will come under, the licensing requirements, and he said, "Where's that?'' To which I said: "How long have you been stationed in Minnesota?'' He said: "One year.'' Here's the problem: There is no problem. And try as it might, the Coast Guard won't find one, at least not with inland Minnesota fishing guides. Yet it's apparent a decision has been made in Washington to expand the Guard's authority, if only to protect its turf, budget or both. Does a canoe guide who takes clients to Basswood Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, for example, really need to be licensed by such a large bureaucracy? An argument can be made, of course, that "we can never be too safe.'' But a more convincing argument says overregulation is bad, even counterproductive. Which is the case here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Northland Press | P.O. Box 145 | Outing, MN 56662 | (218) 692-5842 Email: news@northlandpress.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
