By: Doug Olander
Editor, Fishing and Travel Magazine
Keeping people at home just now is tough medicine for many. In some states, mobs are out protesting, encouraged by the President, to complain that such drastic measures are unnecessary and un-American. Those angry mobs eschew the use of protective masks, since many either believe the coronavirus poses no real danger, or at least don’t want to believe it.
I think a more thoughtful, mature majority of folks realize the stay at home orders are essential, fortunately. However, within such orders, what is and isn’t allowed seems to vary considerably. With our federal government, unable to provide a coherent strategy when this began, states and cities came up with their own patchwork of solutions.
I find it interesting to see how recreational fishinghas fit into all this. At one extreme are true lockdowns, where by law you do not leave your residence except to get essential food or medicine. Clearly, no one can possibly go fishing or do much else in that scenario.
But many states or municipalities have allowed citizens to go out for exercise. Within that framework, some rule books have specified that outdoor activities such as hunting, hiking and fishing are fine.
That, it seems to me, is a breath of common sense and sanity in these troubled and troubling times.
What makes NO sense to me is to specifically not allow people to go fishing. Washington State was for many weeks one such place. I mean, talk about insanity: For some time, boatingwas one of the allowed activities. But fishing was not. So a guy could go out in his boat, maybe with a buddy up in the bow, and that was fine. But if he dropped a line over the side, he was in violation. What the hell? When did someone determine that fish carry coronavirus?
I was sorry to learn that Puerto Rico has also forbidden recreational fishing specifically during the current lockdown, until at least May 25.
The goal of limiting peoples’ movements is to limit their exposure (to infect or be infected). Understood. No parties, no crowds on the beach or in bars, and so on. Makes sense.
But what makes nosense is to forbid people from going outside on their ownto pursue any outdoor activity in which they can engage solo. Case in point: I regularly spend days fishing, here in Florida. I put my kayak in my truck, I drive to a lake or the coast and spend the day out on the water. I return home with my kayak in my truck. I have been no closer to another person than I would have had a stayed at home.
Yet I have had desperately needed time away from home, time in the outdoors, time to “recharge” and maintain sanity. Yet Puerto Rico wants to deny anyone the same opportunity.
So why does PR now allow you to take a walk or a run, or go for a bike ride, but not to go out fishing, even alone, where social distancing is total?
Okay, maybe beaches need to be closed to crowds going there to party. But if individuals, alone, want to surf fish or in fact surf (a surfer was arrested over the weekend on a Rincon beach. he was totally by himself), why not?
When rules can be logically and clearly understood as necessary to achieve certain goals (in this case, keeping people distant), they can and should be adhered to. But the public has a right to demand common sense.
Telling a guy he can ride his bike but not walk down to a lake or lagoon, by himself, to cast a lure, or to paddle his kayak, defies common sense. People should be encouragedrather than forbidden to pursue all outdoor activities that can be done alone; indeed, many such activities are by their nature solitary. Making this illegal is demoralizing and unnecessary. I would think Puerto Rico could do better by its citizens.
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