I just do not see a silver lining in this ominous black cloud. Putting the government in charge of anything is akin to an oversight committee being led by red tipped white cane carrying baffoons. The track record and current situation is deplorable. A string of miserable failures from top to bottom. Fisheries destroyed, businesses shutdown, failing and fleeing the state. A deficit that just cannot be addressed.
What this does is a domino effect and hits families for generations. Kids won't have memories of visiting grandpa pond. Families won't have that fishing day in the backyard pond. Why? Prices to own and stock a pond could increase tenfold. And since the resentment towards the government and it's workers is at an all time high, no one is going to want to tell anyone they even have a pond. It's just going to end up being another misguided prohibition taking away private property owner's rights. A Pond Patriot Act. We will come and inspect your pond, you pay for that, it might pass, but the rules are so damn vague, if we are in a good mood, we might pass you. So you get certified to plant your own pond on your own property. No one plants them any longer. No one raises fish to plant in them. A regular 2-3" bg is going to be going from 50 cents to $5 a piece. A 1 lb LMB over $10. Then they have to come out and inspect that you have fish that came from a certified farm, and reinspect your new fish don't have parasites or disesases. You pay for that. And they may never stop inspecting, once they know you have a pond.
Like any prohibition, it will drive all business to a black market. Where the intent was fixing the fishery, and tracking what is where, the bait bucket brigade and black market will be worse than anything they could have dreamed of. Those guys will not care about parasites, diseases, endangered species. You could see more invasives, pike, gar, snakehead, anything. And all that formerly taxable revenue for a broke ass state, kiss that goodbye. No permits, no sales tax, no nothing. Some farms have already shutdown. The guys that build ponds will take a hit, more hard working businesses flee the state. Most of my suppliers and I laugh, they really can't stop anything, people are going to give the government half a peace sign and do what they want.
