Biologists who manage South Carolina’s fish and game species often find it necessary to change bag limits, creel limits and size minimums to meet the needs of both the wild populations and the sportsmen who target them.
It’s rare that they’d need that ability at a moment’s notice, but certainly, if surveys and data indicate the need for a change, it doesn’t need to wait for the state legislature to give it an okay.
That’s why it’s important for the state house and senate to approve a ground-breaking fisheries bill that addresses the needs of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources in managing different fisheries on different bodies of water. That’s why it’s important that the bill not turn into a political football and be booted out of bounds the way it was last fall.
If you are unfamiliar, here’s how it happened: The bill moved through the state legislature, after SCDNR had done due diligence in examining the recommendation of biologists and receiving stakeholder input. With basically only floor votes remaining, the bill was taken hostage by a Richland County legislator angry over a bill he felt would reduce the voting rights of his constituents.
According to longtime outdoor writer Pat Robertson, all the back-channel work needed to bring the bill back in front of the legislature – and get it through – has been done. The bill, which changes the way certain species are managed on certain waters to address issues SCDNR staff have targeted, is one that is desperately needed.
Even more than that, however, the state legislature needs to take a long look at its role in managing the Palmetto State’s fish and wildlife. There’s no way, absolutely no way, a state senator from Dillon has any level of expertise about managing the crappie population on, say, Lake Hartwell, or a state representative from Rock Hill knows anything about managing rabbits in Barnwell County. The expertise belongs to the underpaid, overworked SCDNR staff.
South Carolina is one of the few states where fisheries and wildlife regulations are at the whim of the state legislature. It’s ridiculous to think how easily one or two state senators or state representatives could hold up a piece of much-needed wildlife legislation and do the state’s sportsmen a disservice in the process. Biologists need the ability to make decisions that are in the interest of game or fish without worrying how they will play in the office of some legislator from Pickens County or Pamplico.
Beyond the passage of the fisheries bill, SCDNR needs to be able to address fisheries and wildlife issues that arise. Would it be too much to ask that SCDNR staff and the Natural Resources Board be able to decide how many crappie a fisherman can take in one lake or whether a five-buck season limit is needed in one game zone?
I don’t think so.
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