Tuesday, February 02, 2010
State youth life-jacket bills mulled
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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The Wild Life blog
Look ahead, if you will, to a warm early summer day.
You and the family are out on Smith Mountain Lake in your nifty little fish-and-ski combo. You've spent some time dunking worms for bluegills, and some time pulling the kids on the towable.
And now here comes Johnny Law.
It's a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries conservation police officer.
He's friendly. Nothing too worry about, he assures you. He just wants to make sure you've got your registration, fishing licenses and the proper safety gear aboard.
You do.
So off he goes and the fun continues.
Then here comes Johnny Law again.
But this time it's the Coast Guard.
And this time you end up with a hefty ticket because little 10-year-old Sarah wasn't wearing a life jacket.
That really can happen due to an inconsistency in Virginia boating regulations.
Federal law requires kids ages 12 and under to wear life jackets while topside aboard under way recreational boats.
Virginia law doesn't.
So on waters where there is concurrent state and federal jurisdiction -- such as Smith Mountain Lake and most of the state's other large public waters -- the Coast Guard can cite boaters who don't have their kids in the proper gear.
Conservation police officers can't.
Efforts have been made in recent years to enact youth life-jacket laws in Virginia, but the bills failed.
That could be changing.
The General Assembly is currently considering and generally supporting two identical youth life-jacket bills -- House Bill 168 and Senate Bill 93.
Unlike previous efforts, this time the bills seek to bring Virginia's law exactly in line with the federal rules and would apply only to waters under concurrent state and federal jurisdiction.
The bills would require children ages 12 and under to wear a serviceable and properly fitting Type I, II, III or V, Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device.
The rule would not apply when boats are moored or anchored, or for kids below deck or in enclosed cabins.
The civil penalty for violating the rule would be $100, with any money collected paid toward the Motorboat and Water Safety Fund of the Game Protection Fund.
Violaters could have the fine waived if they complete a boating safety education course within six months of the offense.
The bills have the support of the Virginia Safe Boating Alliance and appear to have good support among legislators.
The House's bill is still at the committee level, but the Senate passed its bill 30-10, so that bill will now go to the House.
Will it get the support there that it did in the Senate?
Considering that the House's committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources supported House Bill 168 19-3, that appears likely.
Assuming it does pass, and assuming that the governor signs it, the law would take effect on Jan. 1, 2011.
A number of other outdoors recreation-related bills remain in play at the General Assembly. They include:
House Bill 131: This bill would allow the DGIF to change the wording on its check-off program that allows hunting license buyers to donate money to Hunters for the Hungry.
The current system set the donation at $2. The bill seeks flexibility, allowing for donations of "at least" $2.
It passed unanimously in the House.
House Bill 399: The DGIF's system of issuing kill permits for nuisance animals has generated plenty of complaints from hunters over the years, and this bill seeks to address one: That some people treat animals killed under such permits as hunting trophies.
Here's the key wording of the proposal: "The parts of any deer or bear killed pursuant to this section or wildlife killed pursuant to subsection C shall not be used for the purposes of taxidermy, mounts, or any public display unless authorized by the director or his designee. However, the meat of any such animal may be used for human consumption."
The bill passed the House 97-0.
House Bill 486: Impeding hunters is already illegal in Virginia, but some crafty anti-hunters have figured out a loophole: simply place bait -- over which hunting is illegal in Virginia -- around the area you don't want hunted.
After unanimous passage in the House, this bill is well on its way to closing that loophole.
House Bill 1283: You know that cool shed deer antler you found last March while scouting for turkeys? Well, technically you should have left it lying there among the ferns.
Though no game warden in his right mind is going to write someone up for picking up a shed, Virginia law does not specifically list sheds among the animal parts that may be possessed without the required tags and permits.
This housekeeping bill will change that. It passed the House 95-1.
