Craig Jungers said on October 2009 > Here is what I think is happening Craig - it seems I see things much as you do. The history of solving big problems with new laws has now been reduced to attempting to solve minor issues with the same approach - simply because old habits die hard. Your comments on aviation safety ring very true. We (in NZ) have been interested in the recent NY mid-air crash of a small fixed-wing with a chopper - because it was a kiwi piloting the chopper. (Yes, we are, laughably, a small enough community for such an event to achieve national prominence... a bit of a 'did our boy FU' response ;-) At the risk of prejudicing somebody's right to an unbiased trial, it sounds like proper standards were in place, proper rules & protocols were followed, but an air-traffic controller was having a quick private phone call with a friend about some pressing private matter. I have struggled with society's need for no-cellphone-while-driving laws and I can foresee a sudden spate of no-cellphone-while-air-traffic-controlling laws... Are we promoting human intelligence and awareness here - or attempting to move towards being completely mindless automata ? I find interesting the subject of geographical 'limits' to authority (and I suppose I'd better get back onto a kayak topic ;-). Today I had an after-meeting coffee with our Harbourmaster and asked him about his Harbour limits. This had come up in Paddlewise discussions some months back. He said that the trend around the country was for the regional authorities to extend the 'Harbour Limits' to include all maritime territory they were responsible for - salt & fresh. He even advanced the example of one RA - one without a significant port - which has given the Harbourmaster in the adjacent region jurisdiction over all its waters. Seems that our Authority was getting tired of needing to explain to residents who had phoned up to complain about maritime problems (eg: about jetskis exceeding near-to-shore speed limits) that the beach in question was 'outside the Harbourmaster's jurisdiction'. So they took the easy way out (as politicians) and made the Harbourmaster's boundaries coincide with their political boundaries - right out to 12nm. Now all the problems are his ;-) Anyone else see any evidence of zonal creep ? Are you made aware that you paddle within & without Harbour zones ? Best Regards Paul Hayward, Auckland, New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Oct 11 2009 - 22:19:08 PDT
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