Boaters Bash Biden Over Dangerous New Gov't Overreach
From the very dawn of this American experiment, there has been an emphasis on keeping our grand nation as free as possible. Liberty should be the rule, not the exception here, and any overreach by the federal government should and shall be met with immediate and vicious friction.
This week, the indomitable spirit of America was roused once again, as boaters and fishermen of the Atlantic Ocean pushed back against the Biden administration’s dangerous new regulations meant to protect the right whale.
“This would be the greatest regulatory overreach in American maritime law” — that’s how Frank Hugelmeyer describes a proposal by the Biden administration to limit the speed of all motorboats over 35 feet from Florida to Massachusetts. “Not only are they creating a serious safety issue, they are creating a massive negative economic impact.”
Advertisement - story continues belowHugelmeyer is president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), and he is just one of a growing number of voices expressing outrage over the proposal put forward by the U.S. Commerce Department under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“It’s stupid,” said Jeff Angers, the president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy. “It’s not what government is supposed to do.”
The far-reaching regulation would restrict speed to 10 knots or 11.5 miles per hour for all boats over 35 feet — for up to seven months out of the year and up to 100 miles out at sea for most of the East Coast.
Those opposed to the overreach reiterated the fact that no right whales have even been involved in a boating accident within federally-controlled waters, while also demonstrating the human danger that the new regulations will create.
It’s also dangerous, according to Chris Edmonston, the president of the Boat Owners Association of the United States, or Boat U.S.
Edmonston said most boats can’t get on a “plane” if they are going under 10 knots. A plane is the speed at which the bow of the boat lowers in order to cut through oncoming waves.
“The boats are designed to ride on top of the waves,” he said. “This is going to make them wallow in the waves — up and down, side to side, pitching,” he explained. “It’s going to be hard to maintain control. You can take waves over the side.”
He said larger boats are especially at risk going through channels near shore.
“They can’t maintain steerage [at 10 knots,]” he added. “If you’re going that speed you’re going to [run] aground.”
The controversy comes on the heels of another right whale scandal, in which an environmental stewardship group declared that Maine’s lobster fishing industry was endangering the animals, which then caused several retailers to bow to public pressure and discontinue purchasing the product.
Similarly, there is no evidence that the Maine Lobster industry has ever injured a right whale in any way.
