"The Department of Justice has ordered the creation of a new category, the Chesapeake Striped Bass Restitution Fund, within IDEA. The money paid into this account will be used only for 'the protection, scientific study, and/or restoration of marine and aquatic resources and associated habitat in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.'
"NFWF has not yet determined the specific guidelines for these grants [we have not yet received any funds from this settlement, either]. We have been directed by Justice to do so with input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and likely will solicit input from both the Maryland DNR and Virginia Marine Resources Commission."
Vincent Grey of Abingdon writes: "The Eastern Shore is in a recession far worse than in the central part of the state. I think a mutually beneficial change of law that could help out would be to allow waterfowl hunting on Sundays during the December and January split season. At that time of the year, with little tourism, hunters staying at hotels, campgrounds and buying gas and food could help out a lot.
"I understand that it is good to prohibit Sunday hunting in the fall to allow non-hunting outdoor enthusiasts ample opportunity to be outside. However, I find it hard to believe that we need to keep a Sunday hunting ban in January. Open up the marshes for folks like me who work five days a week and would love the ability to get out in a field or marsh on a Sunday. I think that rather than closing it on Sunday, another option would be to close it on Wednesday, similar to the crabbing season."
Paul Peditto, head of DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Service, replies: "There's several speed humps to get over. First, the waterfowl guides and outfitters have opposed this in the past and I suspect they'd continue to do so.
"More importantly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently gives us a pass on the unhunted Sundays in our calendar. In other words, say we have a 60-day season for ducks or geese. If we don't hunt a particular day during a split, the Feds would normally take that out of the 60, even if we don't hunt it. We managed to avoid that penalty on Sundays now because the majority of Atlantic Flyway states don't have Sunday hunting.
"If we were to close any other day, they would not give us the compensatory coupon for those days. So we would have a 60-day season that includes eight Wednesdays and the Feds would require us to count those unhunted Wednesdays against our 60, effectively reducing the season to 52 days.
"I suggest we take the bird in the hand that we have now."
