Business and fishing
January 26, 2007 at 9:59 am by Web Editor in NewsBusiness and fishing go together almost as well as business and golf.
Maybe even better.
That was the message coming out of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment this week, as lawmakers sized up Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Go Fish Georgia proposal.
John Biagi, the state’s assistant chief in fisheries management, said the purpose of the governor’s $19 million initiative is to promote and improve recreational fishing in Georgia, and that includes improving access to lakes and rivers. Already the state generates $1 billion from freshwater fishing and $550 million from saltwater fishing. But people aren’t coming from out-of-state to fish in Georgia. They’re tearing through here on their way down to Florida.
"Georgia ranks 21st in the country in attracting non-resident anglers," Biagi said.
Surely Georgia can do better.
But fishin’?
"It is big business," Dan Forster, director of the wildlife resources division for the Department of Natural Resources, told the Senate committee. A premium fishing tournament can create a $20 million impact. Your restaurants. Your hotels. A large single-day event can net $1 million. Wal-Mart sponsors a fishing tournament in other states, Forster noted. Georgia could partner with Wal-Mart to do the same here.
The senators liked what they heard.
"It’s good economic policy for the state across its entirety," said Sen. Ross Tolleson, R-Perry, the committee’s chairman.
"This is a great opportunity for increased business in Georgia," said Sen. George Hooks, D-Americus, who noted the awesome success Alabama has had hyping its golfing trails.
Not to diminish the benefits to business, God forbid, but there was nothing in Biagi and Forster’s presentation that gave any indication the governor has applied hard science to what increased motor boating and potential development along riparian waterways would mean for Georgia’s natural habitat.
Biagi said he isn’t worried. He says in the last 15 years the federal Environmental Protection Agency has imposed stricter emissions standards on outboard motors. Tournaments wouldn’t have a huge impact.
Hooks, a veteran of the committee, agreed.
"These are big lakes regulated by the Corps of Engineers," said the senator. "One thing I would say is we would probably have to enhance our game and fish officials on these lakes, but the money you’re to generate from fishing licenses would go back into their coffers."
"What we find in our line of work," Biagi said, "is that people who appreciate the resources — anglers — understand that you need to have clean water, you don’t overharvest the fish population. We see it as a more conservation-minded approach."
Wal-Mart and conservation.
That’s like George Bush and international relations.
If the Legislature approves the funding, the DNR is in a position to "make everything happen," Biagi said. Thirteen million dollars in the supplemental budget has to be obligated before the end of the year to meet the intentions of the governor, and that money would go toward capital improvement projects. These projects would include up to 300 potential boat ramps around the state at $100,000 per ramp, parking for boats, a 15-stop tournament trail and a tourist destination featuring an aquarium, fish hatchery and other fishing tourism attractions.
"The hatchery is likely going to be near an interstate somewhere in the state," Biagi said. "The museum would enable people to see the different types of fish Georgia raises across the state, fight a fish on a computer screen, take a virtual boat ride; etc. It would be similar to a fishing museum that already exists in Texas."
Biagi said the state would not be introducing any fish that aren’t already actively managed in the state. Ideally, he said, the DNR would be adding 50 pounds of forage fish per acre, including rainbow trout, lake chubsuckers and lake sturgeons.
Send to a friend:
Leave a Reply