As you may or may not be aware, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is seeking to completely revise the Wisconsin DNR Administrative Code part NR 20.40 as it relates to regulation of and permitting of fishing tournaments in the State of Wisconsin. This is not the first time the Scott Hassett, the overzealous and unchecked DNR and its Board have focused there wrath on Wisconsin sportsmen.
I have attached a link to the full rule change information for your reference/convenience: http://www.wisconsinbass.com/DNR_tourn_changes.pdf
I am urging you to please get involved with this and reject this legislation for multiple reasons including:
The proposed changes will entirely eliminate any fishing tournaments in the months of July and August. Our fishing season is already short, running from May (in the South) to October (due to weather). The proposal is discriminatory and applies only to tournament fishermen/women and organizers of the events. Other fishermen using the same waters at the same time are not subject to any of the proposed changes. Clearly, these regulations affect one user group and not another.
The economic impact is substantial, and tourism dollars would suffer greatly. Many resorts, marinas, restaurants, gas stations, etc. rely heavily on tournaments during this timeframe. To pass legislation forbidding tournaments then ensures those tourist and visitor dollars will not be spent. I have attached an economic impact study done by the DNR and the UW System showing how one small tournament brought over $2,000,000.00 to one small Wisconsin community. One could do some simple math using the 400 open water and ice fishing tournaments held in the state and by using the DNR’s own numbers of total tournaments. I will use a small number of $100,000 per event. This seems to be a reasonable number as some will bring in less and many substantially more. This is new money brought into a community from other states, counties and in some case countries. The tourist dollars generated on the low end would be over $40,000,000.00 million dollars to communities around Wisconsin.
User fees. Part of the proposed changes call for user fees to fund the program. Again, those fees would be levied against only tournament fishermen and organizers.
No difference for varying target fish species. One of the reasons that the DNR claims this legislation is needed is to help curb fish mortality, especially in the summer months, yet there is no difference in how different fish species are addressed. In other words, some fish species (like walleyes) have higher mortality rates that bass or muskies, as they are less hardy. Yet, there is no accommodation for this…all species are treated the same. Another example, I doubt that the annual cost will be $76,000 to run the program. How can one person manage 400 permits and associated paperwork per year? This will result in a gross expansion of DNR machine with no payoff. If this unjust tax and regulation would pass, what happens after the $90,000 for the pilot program is recaptured? Will the tournament fees go down? If not, where will the excess money go? Since this is essentially a “tax” on tournament participants, then I would argue that those funds need to be returned to the participants in the form of improved access areas, expanded parking at popular tournament sites, state-of-the-art weigh in facilities, etc. Additionally where is the $15,000 that the Wisconsin Bass Federation gave to the DNR to fund the pilot program.
Regulation of AIS (Aquatic Invasive Species) I have the most problem with this regulation, especially the whole filing a plan part. Unless the WI DNR will require EVERY boater in WI to have similar procedures, this is an unjust regulation. Tournament officials could be required to recommend boat/trailer cleaning and disinfection, but to make it mandatory for a very small group of users and not all boaters is not acceptable. Unless every vessel is treated, this regulation will do nothing to prevent the spread, while placing one more stringent requirement on tournaments.
Throughout these proposed regulations, tournaments are treated as a burden to the state and the resource. In reality, tournament anglers are just fishermen who want to compare their catch, then release them to be caught another day. They aren’t taking anything away from the resource, because in reality, they could legally harvest every fish they catch within the daily creel, just like the non-tournament anglers often do. But they don’t and wouldn’t want to. So, I have a hard time with any agency that comes down so hard on a group of anglers that do more for the resource and support the agency more than any other angling group.
Again, I am asking for your support and involvement to get these proposed changes stopped and reel in this overzealous and unchecked DNR and its Board.
Thank You in advance for your consideration. If I can help in any way please contact me.
Chris Johnson
Appleton, WI