"Roger Long" wrote

I googled up the case and some other documents. It looks like a much
bigger deal if you are a fisherman than a boater. It seems to involve
access to the water that covers the intertidal zone when the tide is above
low.

I don't see how this could be an issue in this part of the world where
access to the intertidal zone for fishing and navigation is already common
law. There have been some attempts up this way by landowners to say that
sunbathing and reading books are neither fishing nor navigation but no
serious attempt to say that recreational boating is not navigation.

If the common law in the river states is such that landowner's property
extends to the low tide line, this could be a huge flap.

The problem is that the ruling limits access to only the "main shipping
channel". Also Louisiana law grants public access to the whole river up to
the normal high water mark. Common law grants access to the banks and
portages. This ruling negates both.

I don't think you can get away with thinking you can't worry about it
because it doesn't effect me because in all probability it will soon. I
don't mean to adopt the NRA's "don't give an inch" philosophy but this is
way more than an inch. Theoretically based on this ruling a shore side
property owner could go to Federal court and win a judgment voiding all the
mooring permits in front of his property out to the main channel.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
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