What a shame. You'd think the farm owners could sue the boaters for negligence.
They can and should!
Apart from collisions, vessel owners are also liable for their wake, propellers and pollution.
I don't know anything about this particular farmer or the reporter's information, but something just doesn't add up.
How do boats "destroy" 100,000 pearls a year on this site alone? Not a very good location, if you ask me. If the farmer loses individual inventory pieces to wakes, then their suspension system is flawed. If their lines are cut by props and sunken, then it's a wrong practice again and should be using a submerged trestle system. Sunken lines can always be recovered by divers or grappling hooks and refastened.
Perhaps they are complaining about an estimated loss of opportunity rather than quantified damages, afterall pearls just don't just "go poof" under any circumstances.
No doubt however, there are times when one's inventory is more vulnerable to damage. For example, juveniles rearing, following recent grafts or heavily bio-fouled adults, lines or floats.
We have quite alot of boat traffic in our area as well and most oyster growers lose some inventory in the few days and weeks after spat is set. That said, the amount of loss is negligible, admittedly because they don't use secondary containment. In fact, if a single spat shell falls from the two-strand, the adjacent spat shells thrive. The same can be said of an entire string or line. It's all factored in their viability.
Boats have been around a lot longer than sea farms and the unless the farmer has exclusive riparian rights to the watershed, advocating "exclusion zones" is a dangerous precedent and a slippery slope for other users and upland holders.
At this point in the application processes for my leases, compliance with the Navigable Waters Act must be established. For the purposes of a License of Occupation, it's incumbent upon me to provide reasonable access to any and all upland regions or watercourses. Again, it's up to me and me only, to operate with proper marine engineering in any of my systems. Likewise, the ball is in my court to secure, observe, record and report any violations or damages. Law enforcement will only get involved, if damages are willful and targeted.
Please don't get me wrong, as I certainly have sympathy for farmers and their inventories. I am definitely not taking the "boaties" side either. One only needs to hang around the boat launch at the local marina to realize many boat owners are dingbats with more money than common sense when it comes to seamanship and preparedness.
It's for reasons just like these, that I've selected sites suited for the purpose. The lagoon is not navigable for the mostpart, other than at very high tides around the moons. Even then, navigation is dangerous and well out of the way of incidental traffic. The bay where the lab and holding area is located at the west side of Lagoon Island has trecherous access and well out of the traffic lanes of power boaters.
Now, if I could only keep the kayakers from peeing on my sea asparagus patches and crapping on the trails ...
