Here is another industry California government is trying to kill. Sacramento is killing agriculture and oil industries, financial companies are leaving the State. The almond industry is moving to Idaho, joining tens of thousands of middle class people fleeing the State.
“San Luis Obispo County sportfishing operators are sounding the alarm over proposed new California emissions standards they say would render their boats useless and put them out of business.
“If the current regulations are set to pass, then I’ll be shut down,” said owner and operator of Avila Beach’s Flying Fish Sportfishing Wayne Blicha. “I’ll have a worthless boat in California.”
In its mission to aim to clean up the air, protect public health and combat climate change, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) has proposed amendments to its commercial harbor craft emissions regulations that would require many boats to upgrade to cleaner, “tier 4” engines with diesel particulate filters between 2023 and 2030.
The goal is not to protect the environment—but to kill jobs—and they are doing a very good job.
California fishermen say a new air quality rule could put them out of business. Here’s why
By Mackenzie Shuman, Sacramento Bee,, 8/16/21
San Luis Obispo County sportfishing operators are sounding the alarm over proposed new California emissions standards they say would render their boats useless and put them out of business.
“If the current regulations are set to pass, then I’ll be shut down,” said owner and operator of Avila Beach’s Flying Fish Sportfishing Wayne Blicha. “I’ll have a worthless boat in California.”
In its mission to aim to clean up the air, protect public health and combat climate change, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) has proposed amendments to its commercial harbor craft emissions regulations that would require many boats to upgrade to cleaner, “tier 4” engines with diesel particulate filters between 2023 and 2030.
In some cases, the upgrade is impossible because of the material of the boats, so it would require operators to replace the entire boat, they say. It could also lead to higher ticket prices for consumers.
CARB says the proposed upgrades would substantially lower diesel emissions from harbor craft — which include commercial fishing boats, charter fishing boats, tug boats, ferries, dredge boats and excursion boats like whale-watching operators.
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The regulations include grace periods of up to six years to allow operators to buy new boats, or two years with indefinite renewals until a compatible engine for their current boat becomes available.
“The proposed amendments are expected to avoid 501 premature deaths, avoid 153 hospital admissions and avoid 224 emergency room visits” from air-pollution-related causes between 2023 and 2038, according to CARB’s Manager of the Freight Technology Section, David Quiros.
If CARB were to exclude sportfishing boats from its proposed regulation amendments, “by 2035 the emissions from all harbor craft would be two times higher than if they were included,” Quiros wrote to The Tribune in an email.
Laura Dickinson [email protected]
Sportfishing boat owners say new regulations will put them out of business
Fitting those tier 4 engines into sportfishing vessels, however, causes concern and doubt among owners such as Blicha.
Blicha has owned his boat, the Flying Fish, since 2016. It’s a 43-foot fiberglass sportfisher.
Annually, he takes about 3,000 people out of Port San Luis to go fishing for rockfish and cod in the Pacific Ocean off the Central Coast. His business generates more than $200,000 a year, minus expenses and payroll costs for himself and his two employees, he said.
Flying Fish has a tier 3 diesel engine, which was installed in the boat in 2010, he said.
“The problem with the (tier 4) upgrade is that our engine room won’t hold and won’t tolerate that technology,” Blicha said. “Even if it’s allowed, what it will probably do is cut my capacity quite a bit because they are much heavier engines, and it would change the stability of the vessel.”
Kyle Dyerly, who owns and operates the Phenix, a 45-foot fiberglass sportfisher out of Avila Beach, said he’s also concerned about the rules.
“It will effectively shut down sportfishing and whale watching in California, period,” Dyerly told The Tribune.
He also pointed to the problem of how hot the tier 4 engines burn.
Because his boat — along with most sportfishing boats in California — is fiberglass, Dyerly said the engine and exhaust would need significant heat shielding so it essentially doesn’t melt the boat.
“We’d have to buy new steel boats,” he said. “And those are not cheap. It’s not like I can bust out a couple million dollars to buy a new boat.”
Dyerly said he’s been saving up to upgrade the tier 2 engine in the Phenix to a tier 3 engine. He’s saved about $150,000 for the upgrade, which he originally planned to do himself next year.
“But I’m not going to spend $150,000 on mains that are going to be obsolete the following year,” he said. “I’d rather use that money to move out of the state.”
Laura Dickinson [email protected]
Proposed regulation could impact hundreds along California coast
An estimated 334 commercial passenger fishing boats operate in California out of a fleet of 3,159 boats total, according to CARB. Most, if not all, of those commercial passenger fishing boats would need the tier 4 upgrade and diesel particulate filter.
Locally, the new regulations would impact about 16 boats in San Luis Obispo County, according to a 2018 economic impact report for Port San Luis, the most recent report available.
Dyerly and Blicha operate independently and through Patriot Sportfishing. Other local operations include Virg’s Landing Sportfishing and whale-watching operations such as Sub Sea Tours in Morro Bay.
Over 80% of sportfishing and whale-watching vessels are made of either fiberglass or wood, according to the Sportfishing Association of California.
So, each of those boats would likely need to be decommissioned and replaced with a steel boat, which is simply not feasible for most owners, the Sportfishing Association said in a press release about the proposed CARB regulations.
“Before the owners of sportfishing and whale-watching boats can recover their financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Newsom administration proposed draconian regulations that will remove hundreds of family-operated boats from service,” Ken Franke, president of the Sportfishing Association of California, said in the release. “Boat owners are learning for the first time that their days at sea are numbered and their livelihoods may be lost. Removing sportfishing and whale watching boats from California ports will have a devastating economic impact on coastal communities that depend on tourism for jobs.”
Installing new engines is expensive, owners say
CARB’s proposed amendments to its emissions regulations provide potential extensions for boat owners.
“If engines are unavailable for the vessel’s design, 2-year compliance extensions can be renewed indefinitely or until an engine becomes certified,” Quiros wrote in an email to The Tribune. “In cases where vessel replacement is the only option for compliance, up to six years of compliance extensions can be granted if financial difficulty is demonstrated.”
Quiros also noted that boat owners can apply for financial relief for installing the cleaner engine through the Carl Moyer Program and Community Air Protection Incentives.
To fund the engine or vessel replacement themselves, CARB estimates operators would need to increaseticket prices by 14% to 28% from today’s prices.
For a ride on Dyerly’s or Blicha’s boat, that would mean a standard half-day trip would go from $80 to anywhere between $91 to $102.
Quiros argues that this is something customers would be willing to do.
“Sportfishing customers are buying a leisure and recreation service and are in a strong position to absorb additional costs needed to protect nearby communities by reducing toxic diesel exhaust,” he wrote to The Tribune.
But Dyerly and Blicha say they want sportfishing to remain affordable for the thousands of tourists who come to the Central Coast each year. They fear an increase in ticket prices will decrease their customer base, especially since customers also need to foot the other costs associated with deep sea fishing such as a California fishing license, rods and tackle.
Dyerly said he understands CARB’s intentions to clean up the air in harbors and reduce emissions from the boats — it’s something he supports as long as it is feasible and allows his business to survive so he can put food on the table for his wife and two young daughters.
“I think we should definitely have the cleanest engines we possibly can, but we should be able to do that without completely going out of business,” he said. “And what’s going to happen when we’re gone? We release fish humanely, we teach people about the biology and ecosystems in the ocean. Like, who’s going to be looking at whales, too? I don’t think anyone’s going to be doing that when we’re gone. It’s kind of depressing.”
The proposed regulations are expected to be considered by CARB’s 16-member board in November. The public can soon submit comments to the board before or during the meeting.
A petition calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to “save sportfishing and your access to California waters” has gathered more than 12,500 signatories, and about 337 of those were by San Luis Obispo County residents, according to Marko Mlikotin, a spokesperson for the Sportfishing Association of California. You can sign the petition by going to savefishing.com.
