Last week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife delayed opening California’s recreational ocean salmon fishery through the month of April, despite plans made earlier this year for the fishery to open in some locations as early as this Saturday, April 4, because of the state’s “physical distancing requirements.”
The current coronavirus case numbers are:
16349 = Number of confirmed cases in the state of California
388 = Number of deaths related to the coronavirus in California
Today, Charles Bonham, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing to postpone the sportfishing season through May in rural areas, the Sacramento Bee reported. “I myself want to go outdoors and recreate, but I’ve decided personally my duty is really to stay home, stay healthy and help save lives,” Bonham said. “On one hand, the outdoors is a place of solace and reinvigoration, for some folks, it’s very spiritual. We need those things in these desperate times. Conversely, if we’re not responsible and thoughtful of how we’re being outside, we can increase the risk in a moment of crisis.”
“This is so extremely stupid I go fishing in the mountains and I do not see anyone for miles,” one man commented on the article. “I am not going out into the mountains to visit people in the country, I am go to go fishing. Totally unnecessary and an abuse of authority!”
California Globe looked at the state County map of COVID-19 cases by KCRA:
- Del Norte County: 2 cases reported, 0 deaths
- Siskiyou County: 4 cases, 0 deaths
- Shasta County: 21 cases, 3 deaths
- Humbolt County: 49 cases, 0 deaths
- Mendocino County: 4 cases, 0 deaths
- Tehama County: 1 case, 0 deaths
- Plumas County: 3 cases, 0 deaths
- Butte County: 12 cases, 0 deaths
- Glenn County: 2 cases, 0 deaths
- Lake County: 1 case, 0 deaths
- Colusa County: 2 cases, 0 deaths
- Yuba County: 11 cases, 0 deaths
- Sutter County: 16 cases, 2 deaths
Southern CA Rural Counties show far more cases and deaths:
- Inyo County: 11 cases, 0 deaths
- Tulare County: 135 cases, 6 deaths
- San Bernardino County: 530 cases, 16 deaths
- Riverside County: 946 cases, 25 deaths
- Imperial County: 68 cases, 3 deaths
“Increased and irresponsible public usage of public lands by those who either ignore or misunderstand the orders put forth by public health officials … is creating unique challenges,” Staci Heaton, of the Rural County Representatives of California, said in a letter to Bonham.
“Heaton noted that rural communities are particularly at risk of being overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 patients. Many small hospitals have just a handful of ventilators necessary to keep patients breathing, and they are particularly at risk of having a shortage of healthcare workers should they start to come down with symptoms of the disease.”
RCRC’s mission is: “RCRC provides the rural county perspective on a myriad of issues during the legislative and regulatory process, including land use, water and natural resources, housing, transportation, wildfire protection policies, and health and human services. The core of RCRC’s mission is to improve the ability of small, rural California county government to provide services by reducing the burden of state and federal mandates, and promoting a greater understanding among policy makers about the unique challenges that face California’s small population counties.”
With the significantly greater number of cases and deaths in the southern region, the focus should be on those rural areas rather than shutting down the entire parts areas of the state to sport fishermen. This is bureaucracy and command and control at its ugliest.
View Comments (63)
I just hope and pray that, if nothing else, these absurd actions by these malevolent and useless bureaucrats is serving the purpose of waking more people up to what is really going on here.
Thank you Showandtell!
So stopping us from fishing is supposed to stop the pandemic how.?
The reason for fishing season postponement is because of the small tourist communities that fisherman flock to during the season.
I live in one of those small mountain tourist communities. Our community has a higher percentage of covid-19 cases per capita than the Bay Area. Small tourist towns are begging you not to come. Just until we this virus beat.
Never mind that it's not true and that no ban of the season was ever discussed. What was discussed was possible postponement of the opening of the season in some places based on local (not state) concerns that the virus could be spread at gas stations, boat launches, etc. Everything people touch is a potential disease vector. We need to be smart and take care of each other by taking care of ourselves and sacrificing a bit of individual freedom for a finite time to ensure our strength as a community.
While I don’t like the restrictions...with just a little self introspection one should be able to see that these restrictions should be followed. Please be safe for all of us.
Introspection has nothing to do with this. Epidemiologists Jim Enstrom and Jeffrey Klausner say, "Because of the epidemiologic characteristics of the novel coronavirus — the relatively short duration of infectiousness (~ 8 days) and low proportion of asymptomatic infection — there is low potential of COVID-19 to cause epidemic spread in the general population. While original models predicted massive spread resulting in infection of more than 50 percent of the general population, that has not occurred in any area."
You or any epidiemologist has no idea how many cases there are because we would need to do 200,000 to 500,000 tests a day to have an accurate picture. My er room could never handle even a minute surge and we have 0 icu beds. To push an early rather than late opening is asking for disaster. We worked on models of this in med school and US is doing some things very right and if they intensify for 8 to 12 more months we will save a million people this year who would not have periahed if not forc19.
So sick of this self-righteous proclamation by bureaucrats like Charles Bonham that "they are saving lives." What about the people who must be in despair, who aren't in the news (except for places like The Globe), who have been forbidden to go to work but who must still take care of their families and pay the bills? Who are truly between a rock and a hard place now? Who, ironically, are the ones who pay the bureaucrats like Charles Bonham (et al's) salaries? What about THEIR lives? Where is the show of at least SOME help from CA leaders by repealing, e.g., AB5, ASAP? Come ON now, let's get real, these people aren't serious about helping anyone but themselves.
Of course, we'd be issued a pro-rated refund for the closure time. Yeah, didn't think so.
With thousands of miles of rivers and creeks, hundreds if not thousands of lakes I wonder how Mr. Bonham if this were to come to pass how he plans to enforce this?
My Question I have 3 fishing poles & it's a Spirtual Mental cleansing for me to take my dog & just sit alone at the lake. This isn't right at all.
Hopefully there should be no reason to police it. It should come naturally to someone who Cares for others besides just themselves.
In this case, can I get a refund for my fishing license. if I can’t fish, no point of having a license. I solo fish and i there aren’t many people where I fish
That is a very good point;however; have you seen when the Government takes they give back?
California governing body is the laughing stock of our nation.
Oh, by the way, isn't this the same commission that has utterly failed to get rid of the invasive nutria swamp rat that reproduces exponentially and has torn up the Delta?
So if we cant go fishing then return are fishing license money we all.paid for.this year
How in the world do these people ever get elected? I hope that people remember this and vote in a more educated way. This is truly sad.
Yes it is.
They are appointed
Everyone's trying their best to stay safe during this but this is just over the top. Our Fish and Wildlife director thinks we all go to the lake to socialize and be close to strangers? NEGATIVE. If I come within twenty feet of someone on a river or at a boat ramp something's wrong. Very controlling move from our lovely government.
It’s not those of us that fish that are the problem. But if they open it up to us the zoo of idiots that won’t obey the safety rules will come too. From 20 plus family member groups establishing a 100’ plus beach head and smothering out all the open space to party boaters getting wasted, and hanging all over everyone and trashing all the facilities without care.
Unfortunately we can’t trust that everyone will act responsibly. So as usual the bad actors get us all punished and regulated.