“YE GODS and little fishes,” to quote an expression the origins of which are a matter of debate among linguists. Don’t the legislators have anything better to occupy their time this year than do the job that the game and fish folks should be doing?

True, it being an election year the members of the General Assembly are sticking to topics that generate little controversy, except for those few that are totally unavoidable such as what to do about natural-gas deregu-lation. Nonetheless, it is remarkable to contemplate some of the legisla-tion apparently being rushed toward approval.

For example, there’s the House bill to allow dog trainers to use live pen-raised quail to train their hounds for hunting (there apparently is no quail lobby).

Then there’s the one to change the allowable catch maximum size for red drum fish, which apparently also go under the alias of spottail bass, to 27 inches from 23 inches.

There’s another making it illegal to catch a female blue crab, which apparently goes by the alias of the sponge crab, if it is showing eggs.



DOES THE LEGISLATURE really have to spend its time on such matters, even when it has little else to do? Isn’t this stuff that the game and fish people could just issue regulations about?

One supposes the fact that game wardens actually have something to do on their jobs and the legislators have nothing explains some of this. Either that or the red drum fish and the blue crab have the ability to vote