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What was the outcome of the committee meeting?

How to take action: www.ccamd.org/issues/house-bill-843-anne-arundel-county-natural-resources-fishing-with-a-haul-seine/

Wrote to my delegates in opposition, notified my community (Severn Grove) and wrote to Delegate Howard .

This can’t happen.

Outrageous

Jeff Schomig thanks for the info. Can someone explain how it makes sense to allow such large commercial netting to be done in such small bodies of water? This doesn’t make sense.

Here are a couple of additional details about this: First, the bill, as written, purports to continue the exclusion of haul seins in the Severn River. So this is different than last year's bill, which specifically tried to lift that exclusion and open all of the Severn to commercial harvest. Unfortunately, however, the legal definition of the Severn River in the bill does not include Lake Ogleton or the creeks off of Whitehall Bay. Those bodies of water specifically get opened to 750-foot haul seins in this bill. Second, 750-foot nets could pose a significant impediment to navigation in these small bodies of water. 750-feet practically takes you across Lake Ogleton, for example. Once nets are established, boaters are restricted by law in approaching them. Third, as we understand it, the purpose of these seins is to catch carp and gizzard shad, primarily for Northeast markets and overseas. That's all fine, but our concern is with the impact of these nets on non-target species. We would be willing to talk to the bill's sponsor and commercial watermen representatives to learn more about how these nets are used and how they minimize bycatch but, unfortunately, none of those folks -- or anyone on the Anne Arundel County delegation -- so much as gave SRA a heads-up about this bill. Other recreational fishing, environmental and community groups have been similarly left in the dark. This is particularly disappointing since, after last year's bill, SRA and others tried to impress upon Anne Arundel County delegation members that, as representatives of many community associations along these waterways, we should be brought into discussions early on that involve legal changes to those waterways. By failing to do that yet again, it gives the appearance that someone is trying to sneak something past the residents and recreational fishermen who use the waters targeted by this bill.

Lauren Lacey Haertlein thought you’d want to see this!