And vesta to continue the big fogs point, have you ever boarded a trawler that was fishing for large bails floating in the gulf stream?
How bout catching the two guys with 20k pounds of illegal stripers. The guy setting the illegal fish pots in closed waters knowing they're facing prison. Should they just be armed with a wet noodle?
All I Know is the Lobster wars past and perhaps present off the East Coast and a few horror story's of the Vietnamese owned refugee shrimp boats being set afire off Texas by legal and illegal competition.
At one time the foreign flag ships came in so close to shore with their sweeping nets they swept up thousands of set lobster pots.
TheGovernment was so afraid of an international incident between the American fisherman and a foreign ship destroying their property, a huge row broke out between the Americans loaded for bear to protect their property and rights that few lobster boats went out without being armed to the teeth to protect their traps.
I can equate this with American ranchers near the Mexican border having their cattle stolen and brought back to Mexico. Today it is vehicles that are stolen and find their way across the border.
Also today we have limits and no catching of indangered species for American registered fishing boats but what to do with the foreign boats that thumb their nose at the American Laws and come in so close to shore that with a good pair of glasses see the workers covering up their spy equipment and bringing in nets of fish we cannot collect to be frozen aboard. The huge Factory ships.
What can the Coast Guard do, cannot do more then perhaps board them and order them out to sea, the next day they are back.
We do not have enough Coast Guard to prowl both coasts to do all the jobs they are suppost to do, We in this area are very Proud of our Coast Guard, they have brought in tons of drugs every year. They are on the river with diving teams to search and rescue, the number of things they must handle are on our coasts mostly and we depend on them to keep us safe.
We have allways been a Navy/ Marine town with all the infighting and ruckus they cause but the Coast Guard has all ways kept a low profile. Not much help for the fisherman that have to watch a foreign registered ship destroy their property and earnings for a full year. So the locals arm themselves and the government get all upset about the consequences of the locals defending their property.
Have to come be raised in any sea port to understand, you see a scow covered with rust lying high in the water with $50,000 worth of radar on top, Big tankers laying off the coast in quarantine waiting for inspection, and all these local boats headed out to meet them before the inspection.
We do not have enough Coast Guard to be able to stop the smuggling and theft of our fishermans gear. We need more boats and more people in the Coast Guard, as long as we are afraid to touch a vessel under a foreign flag -------And the crew may be Russion or Iran. but the boat registered to say Italy, then problems arise. Whatever they catch is now a product of Italy even if caught off the coast of Maine.
You know that man that was arrested when his jet ski concoked out, he swam ashore onto an airfield. Arrested for trespassing they said. Problem is the law of the seas has a hefty fine for people in his situation that are NOT allowed on land. Don't matter whose property Civilian or Government, I wonder if this man sued the airfield for not giving him relief, rest and false arrest for tresspassing on land.
