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US federal judge declares boating illegal in all US navigable waters

By IBI Magazine

In a rather bizarre ruling that has marine industry officials worried, Judge Robert G. James of the United States District Court, Western Division of Louisiana, has said that it is criminal trespass for the American boating public to boat, fish, or hunt on the Mississippi River and other navigable waters in the US.

In the case of Normal Parm v. Sheriff Mark Shumate, James ruled 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. That, in effect, makes boating illegal across most of the country.

“Even though this action seems like a horrible pre-April fools joke, it is very serious,” said Phil Keeter, MRAA president, in a statement. “Because essentially all the waters and waterways of our country are considered navigable in the US law, this ruling declares recreational boating, water skiing, fishing, waterfowl hunting, and fishing tournaments to be illegal and the public subject to jail sentences for recreating with their families.”

Last month, James rejected the findings of the Magistrate judge who found earlier that the American public had the right under federal law and Louisiana law to navigate, boat, fish, and hunt on the waters of the Mississippi river up to the normal high water line of the river. Judge James Kirk relied on the long established federal principles of navigation that recognized the public navigational rights “…entitles 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 Glen Mazzella, MRAA chairman, in the statement.

(14 September 2006)

Don’t believe everything you read. That article is absurd.

Let me rephrase that…

If that article is true, we have even greater problems ahead of us in our judicial system. God, I hope it’s not true! It’s crazy that someone has even thought about it.

i hear ya, but it caught my eye.

I’m thinking that’s not going to be the last we hear of this.

I saw this posted esle where…and my thought when I read this is still….”What was he thinking?”

I heard about this too and thought it had been confirmed to be true. Congress will likely step in and take care of it.

Link to free public…

I did a little internet search on this Judge James and found the same story of his ruling on several websites. It unfortunately looks legitimate (the story, not the ruling). I checked snopes.com and found nothing. I am pretty confident (fingers crossed) the Supreme Court would drop this ruling like a sack of potatoes. I know there are some real nut jobs in our court system but I can’t imagine we have that many that this would not be overruled. Don’t sell your boats yet.

If a ruling like this was passed there would be grounds for a revolutionary war in my opinion.

Lock and load…

Kevin Turner posted this on 9/13/06. It’s in the Miss. River gen. disscussion forum, with a little more info. I tried calling a local t.v. station about this ( channel 4 Milwaukee ) and they knew nothing about it. On a quick check of court rulings they found nothing, only some blogs on the internet. The guy said he would try a little more, but they get a lot of stuff on the net that gets blown out of proportion from what the real story was.
We need some people to call their t.v. stations and e-mail some senators or something to find out if this is indeed true. It is awful hard to beleive, but the way things are going I would’nt be surprised either.

after 911 anything is possible.

I’ve got my muskeet in hand and my fiend Betty is working on a flag.

This judge should have an email address on the net…

I’m not going to sweat it, my boat get’s up on plane faster then BrianK’s…. …..

Two words: Hover boat.

Problem solved.

two other words: “eat me”

Four words: “try to stop me”

according to some other sources they are starting to enforce this already in louisiana.

No kidding? Credible sources???

And here I always thought the South was backwards.

this info that they are starting to enforce the law is from some freinds that live down there. they have already started posting signs at all landings down there. i checked on another site from down that way and they are saying the same thing.

this is just part of what they are saying.
Being from Louisiana this is all over the Louisiana fishin forums here .Its true he did rule and we are having big troubles with land and navagational water rights down here . Seems the CCA and other big touurnaments wont take sides either to help out anglers .Everyone is neutral but the land owners and the fisherman .Then this ruling what was He thinking ? Anyways where I fish in the intercoastal ther is posted signs all over the place .I just ignore them if the water flows in and out of it soo do I

Twice in the article they talk about the tgwo judges citing federal law. But they dont say what laws. I’m curious as to which laws were cited and what the actual text is. If the one law does say the water belongs to the riparian land owners, then the fella’s in congress need to change the law.

Hope that didnt sound like I was trying to support the judges decision. Because it was a foolish one.

It comes down to some simple reasons with some really hard answers.

Situation:Private lake that is not accessible to the public. Mississippi floods a 1/2 mile over private property and now there is water from the river to the private lake. Every year the same set of anglers know that the water floods to this private lake. So they race down there and get onto this pivate lake.
::Note the private lake is a fisher rearing pond::

Now the private land owner is trying to protect his investment. But because of the flooded waters it allows navigable waters over private land to this lake.

So he files a suit. Using the law that states navigable waters yes but that law does not specifically state for hunting or fishing.((( Loop Hole )))

So what needs to happen??

How do prove that an angler does know where the high water mark is and the private property starts?

There does need to be some clarification and even ago as far as posting private land. Like for hunting.
make the law state if the land is posted and the water is high they can’t go into the posted area. ( this is just a thought)

The ruling to make it illegal is a bit much and sounds like there just needs to be some clarification and some changes.

The changes that are needed need to keep both parties in mind and and some give and take on ech parties part. A line needs to be drawn somwhere to move on.

Just my .02 cents

Now these are just thoughts for discussion. What do you all think? Does this make some sense?

Quote:

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The ruling to make it illegal is a bit much

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Like using a hatchet to remove a fly from your buddies forehead

Nice skippy
or a hatchet to remove gonorrhea. Way overkill.