Doug
Well-Known Member
We fished about a ¼ mile off shore from the flag pole in Victoria yesterday. About 10 am we noticed a large (40 ft) aluminum vessel coming out of Victoria harbour and heading toward the 8 fishing boats out front of the harbour. It got about and 1/8 mile away and then it started head towards us. As it got closer we could see it was US Coastguard patrol boat. It pulled up beside us and there were 4 people on the vessel, three dressed in red and one guy in black. The guy in black came out on deck and said he was an RCMP officer and they would like to board us and check us out. Once they got closer to the 18 ft boat we were on they opted to just tie up and not come aboard. . They identified them selves as US/Canadian patrol and they asking us for photo ID, registration, fishing licenses, boat operators card, home phone numbers and started going through all of our safety gear required for an 18 ft boat. We had everything they were looking for except for not having a boarding ladder. While being checked out for safety gear, we could see the RCMP officer on the phone, calling in and checking out our IDs. They never checked out any of our fishing gear.
They said that they will be doing more patrols of recreational fisherman. I asked, were is their moorage and they informed us that the patrol board runs over from Port Angeles in the morning and picks up the RCMP officer, do their checks, drop the RCMP officer off and head back to Port Angeles.
After being checked out for 30 + minutes they departed and drove past all the other boats and back into Victoria harbour.
It sure seams like a massive cost in fuel, operating expenses and a staff of 4 to check out recreational fishing boats. It’s probably related to the 1st nations request for the Government to have more enforcement on the recreational fisherman. We ended up with a warning ticket with every detail on it.
They said that they will be doing more patrols of recreational fisherman. I asked, were is their moorage and they informed us that the patrol board runs over from Port Angeles in the morning and picks up the RCMP officer, do their checks, drop the RCMP officer off and head back to Port Angeles.
After being checked out for 30 + minutes they departed and drove past all the other boats and back into Victoria harbour.
It sure seams like a massive cost in fuel, operating expenses and a staff of 4 to check out recreational fishing boats. It’s probably related to the 1st nations request for the Government to have more enforcement on the recreational fisherman. We ended up with a warning ticket with every detail on it.