I had a great day on the water this past Sunday with my sons. It was a little wind but not uncomfortably so. For 4 hours we were out on an adventure to catch whatever may come our way. Rekindling the past, bonding , catching up. While not all but most of our time on the water was spent on the Queens side of the Detroit River. It seems that may have been our last one. The cost of the license is high but not prohibitive but now with the reports out of New York state in order to fish those waters reporting in is mandatory and failure to do so will cost a $1000 fine.
Roy M. Anderson, a seasonal resident of Thousand Island Park, found out May 30 that long-held notions of where it's OK for United States citizens to fish no longer apply. While fishing a favorite spot in the Gananoque Narrows with a friend, his boat was boarded and then "seized" by Canadian Border Services Agency officers. I was dumbfounded," Mr. Anderson, 22, Baldwinsville, said. "My dad's 67 years old and he's fished there his whole life without a problem."
According to Mr. Anderson, officers came aboard his boat and checked his $83 Canadian fishing license, which he always carries, and checked for outstanding criminal warrants, of which there were none. Trouble started when Mr. Anderson was asked if he had reported his presence in Canada at a port of entry, which he had not. At the time, he was less than a quarter-mile into Canadian waters.
"I was told, 'If you are in Canadian waters, you should be running toward a port of entry. If you're not running toward a port of entry, you are in violation of the law,'" he said. Mr. Anderson, who fishes the narrows daily in the summer, said he had been checked previously by Ontario Provincial Police and Canadian game wardens and was always left with the impression that, as long as he was not anchored or otherwise on shore, he was doing nothing illegal.
This time, his boat was searched for contraband and seized and he was told that it would cost him $1,000 to get it back. If he could not immediately come up with the money, he would be placed in handcuffs and made to lie on his stomach while his boat was towed to shore in Canada, where he could face a fine of up to $25,000 under the Canadian Customs Act."I had to pay it on the spot," Mr. Anderson said. "They seized my boat and I had to buy it back on the spot."
Why the change in policy enforcement? Here is something that you need to keep an eye on. Two cases of border patrol giving tickets to boaters on the river (St. Laurence). Case #1 was a US. fisherman who was drift fishing in Canadian. water near Ga. when he was stopped by Cd. border patrol and asked for his fishing license which he had. They then asked for his reporting in # and he did not have one since he had not landed but had had just come by boat for the US to fish, not touched land or anchored. They told him since he was not under power he was deemed to have landed and they gave him a ticket for $1,000.00 which had to be paid on the spot by credit card or they would impound the boat. The guy paid the ticket – I saw the photo copy of this ticket at a meeting of the 1000 Is. International Tourism Council. He was told that he should have gone to report in station in Gan and phoned in when he came over AND phoned back in before he left Cdn. water. US fishing guides and resort owners are having fits!!
Case #2 was reported to Mary at Caiger’s by a regular customer who said it happened to member of his family ( I have no proof to confirm this ). A guy on a PWC went from Canada to Boldt Castle, just to look at it from the water. He drove around it and decided to stop on the water to look at it more closely. While stopped on the water he never touched land or anchored. He was stopped by US border patrol and given a $300 ticket for illegal entry into the US. The customer that told Mary the story went to customs at Boldt Castle to inquire about the law and the officer on duty said that he knew nothing about the law. The ticket was written by a different agency. Apparently there are laws on the books in both countries that say if you are not under way you are considered to have landed and they have been there for ever but have not been enforced. This should make for an interesting season for tournament anglers and recreational fishermen.
So it seems that a game of tit n tat is going on for some reason. The Canada Border Services Agency is adamant that all anglers will need to check in. Superintendent Wiley told me the policy is the same in Michigan waters, New York waters and the Boundary waters between Minnesota and Ontario. You must use an approved phone on land in order to do this. Everyone on the boat will have to have a passport, passport card , an I-68 card, a Nexus card or carry their birth certificate with them in case they are checked. The number to call is (888) 226-7277 and is available 24 hours a day.
The State Department said Tuesday that Canadian border officers had the law on their side when they seized an American fisherman's boat and fined him $1,000 for fishing in Canadian waters without registering at customs. In fact, they could have made him pay more, the department said. In a statement, the State Department said the Canada Border Services Agency was acting within "long standing regulations" by penalizing Roy M. Anderson, the Thousand Island Park resident who was snagged by Canadian officers while fishing, unanchored, in a favorite spot in the Gananoque Narrows. All foreign boaters must report to Canadian authorities upon arrival in Canadian waters regardless of whether they anchor their boats, the State Department said, echoing the Canadian government's position. North country boaters have long been under the impression they did not have to report unless they anchored.
A spokesman at the State Department's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Charles E. Luoma-Overstreet, said in a statement, "We understand that this case was handled consistent with long standing regulations. We refer you to Canadian authorities for further information."The State Department's backing of the Canadians' approach comes as Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, challenges the CBSA's interpretation of the law and after New York officials asked the CBSA to refund Mr. Anderson his $1,000.
David A. McCrea, a charter captain out of Henderson who fishes frequently in Canada, said "there's no rhyme nor reason" to be found in the enforcement of the Canadian fishing and boating regulations. He said calls to the border agency's Canadian Passenger Accelerated Service System, or CANPASS, which is designed to expedite the customs and immigration process, rarely provides a satisfactory answer as to what is and isn't allowed. You call that number five times and get five different answers," he said. "You just keep calling back until you get the answer you're looking for and then you get that guy's badge number.""They don't want us to go over there. It's quite apparent to me," he said. "It'll be the last time I buy a Canadian fishing license."
O'Sammy's been gone for a little over a month now but his reach is still pulling at us from the grave. I don't know the reason for the change in interpretation of the Canadian Customs Act but it seems we're dancing to a tune not familiar to friends but from a place far away. As the war on terror winds down we need to rely on trust more and not a change in policy to crack down on law abiding citizens. With all of the money spent on high tech gadgetry to stop illegal crossings, allowing a dad and his sons to float down the river may be worth more in the long run to all of us.
This was a compilation of info from these articles:
http://www.worldfishingnetwork.com/users/tweinz/blog/be-prepared-if-your-fishing-the-us-or-canadian-side-of-a-body-of-water-109390.aspx
http://watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110621/NEWS02/306219939/-1/NEWS
http://watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110622/NEWS02/306229942/0/news
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