Heeding "Deep Throat's" advice in All The President's Men, we decided to follow the money. In the 1960s and early 70s there was a growing interest among fisheries researchers in examining boating impacts. We presume that this interest sprang from the rapid growth of recreational boating, a growth that was generally attributed to the increasing availability of reasonably priced outboard motors. However, this research seems to have come to a screaming halt in the late 70s. Then in 1982 the Wallop Breaux Act - federal legislation which authorized a tax on the sale of recreational fishing and boating gear and which funds much of the fisheries research in the United States and a large proportion of state fisheries department's budgets - was amended to also apply to the sale of non-commercial marine use fuel. Of course by this point most of the non-commercial marine use fuel was going into outboard motors. This amendment doubled the amount of Wallop Breaux funds available to fisheries researchers and bureaucrats, the people who either determined research priorities or carried out the research. Perhaps we had a case of the scientists and the bureaucrats who were responsible for the direction of fisheries research deciding that they weren't all that interested in taking a bite out of the hand that all of a sudden was feeding them so handsomely (for a further discussion of possible conflicts of interest in fisheries management in the U.S., see www.fishingnj.org/netusa4.htm).

But regardless of who did what and why thirty years ago, the impacts of high levels of boating are still being studiously ignored. Not so surprisingly, the recreational fishing groups trying to disguise themselves as "conservation" organizations, with their treasuries bloated by contributions from the recreational boating industry, aren't interested. Likewise, with billions of dollars being spent each year on fuel to keep the recreational fleet churning those waters, the Pew claque has found other areas of interest.[2]  And, of course, the agencies, the personnel and the fisheries management bureaucracy that have become so dependent on Wallop Breaux funding are still keeping their teeth well away from that hand.

But isn't it about time that the research establishment take a serious look at what's really going on in our coastal waters? Back of the envelope calculations, a short boat ride looking at the prop wash instead of the scenery and a few hours observing a local waterway on a holiday weekend in the boating season should be enough of an impetus for some initial research, at least for those researchers and/or institutions that are willing to look beyond their traditional Wallop Breaux funding.