Letter to PRAWN
  You've done well on the issue of banning jetboats from the upper Pitt.
  Naturally you can expect attacks from commercial jetboat operators who are out more to make money than to enjoy fishing or worry about preserving quality fishing for the future.
  A few thoughts: On how many other rivers (such as the Dean) are jetboats already banned? To say that allowing a ban on the Pitt would lead to a ban on all or many other rivers is faulty reasoning; you might as well say that putting a 60 kph speed limit on one road means putting a 60 kph limit on all roads.
  And how many "ordinary" anglers possess jetboats? Isn't your "ordinary" guy much more likely to have an outboard or maybe no more specialized equipment than a pair of chest waders? And what about the engine power limits now set on many of our lakes? Should we have 200-horse ski boats on Abbotsford's little Mill Lake? Sea-doos on Lac le Jeune?
  It's all very well to trot out the bogey of private fishing reserves, but
not when it's done only to promote the cash flow of a commercial operation.
  They seem to be shedding crocodile tears for the little guy while hoping to get the little guy and his pals to pay for a fancy jetboat trip up the Pitt.
  No two rivers in the world are exactly alike. Some can handle jetboats and some can't. I've been up there only three times, but I've seen how that beautiful stream has survived the abuse of bad logging, bad road-building and other problems. Now is not the time to let another form of abuse become established.
--Tony Eberts

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