Quote:
Originally Posted by Descant
As noted earlier, the cruisers tend to go by once, not repeating in circles. While big cruisers are noticeable, I see most of them never leave the dock, or they leave the marina and anchor in front of the beach at Silver Sands.
The budget at MP ("Navigation Safety Fund") isn't the entire problem. Ever since they rolled MP into state police to get federal Homeland Security money for the coast, the requirements to be an MP officer have required more training and it is harder to find people who can train from February to April and qualify.
I am confident the Resources Committee will sort things out. I think they've done well by us in the past.
YES, to me, kayaks etc should pay a fee. Every time one of them gets into a foolish act of bravado, Fish and Game and MP have to go to the rescue, body retrieval, etc. At the very least, they should be treated like hikers and be responsible for costs, or buy a voluntary "Hike Safe" card. Major issue when a kayak blows off the dock. When it is found, nobody knows who it belongs to or if a person fell overboard, but there is still a search party. Camps and others who own many craft should qualify for "fleet rate", noting that youth campers don't go out unsupervised.
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Kayakers are part of HikeSafe. They would probably support moving to a boat registration format; but that may actually lower the amount of money moving toward SAR - as 100% of the HikeSafe goes to SAR and only $1 of a boat registration.
It would be a required purchase rather than a voluntary; but I don't what the ratio would be.