Court Opinion

ID: 9522399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:24:44.908204+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:42.628611
License: Public Domain

WILLIAM A. BABLITCH, J.
(concurring and dissenting). I respectfully disagree with the majority's conclusion that commercial fee fishing in an artificially constructed pond is a permitted activity in a shoreland conservancy district.
At times, the syllogisms of legal analysis must bend to the spirit that emanates from within. This is one of those times. Simply put, this is not fishing.
Fishing is many things, the least of which to many who indulge is the catching of fish.
It is, in the winter doldrums, the casual browsing through the fishing catalogues, the fisherperson's equivalent of the gardener's seed catalogues, contemplating the coming renewal;
It is the snap of a twig across the lake on a dew filled morning signalling the approach of a deer taking the first sip of the dawn;
It is the desolate cry of a loon signalling its mate in a most haunting communion indecipherable to mere humans;
It is the screech of the owl ten feet above the river bend warning the invader of its displeasure as we approach at dusk to witness the fleetingly hypnotic hatch of the mayfly, ironically renewing itself at the moment of its demise;
It is the swish swish swish of the giant wings of the heron as it rises reluctantly from its shallow water *392preserve, glaringly reminding us that this is its home, not ours.
It is all of this, and more, that brings us back again and again. This is fishing; the catching of a fish is merely ancillary.
And it is this, I submit, that the authors of the legislation establishing conservancy districts were referring to when they specifically enumerated "fishing" as a permitted activity. The statute speaks to this when it states as its purpose to "further the maintenance of safe and healthful conditions; prevent and control water pollution; protect spawning grounds, fish and aquatic life; control building sites, placement of structure and land uses and reserve shore cover and natural beauty." Section 144.26(1), Stats. (DNR promulgated Wis. Adm. Code ch. 115 pursuant to this statute).
An artificially constructed pond within yards of a natural waterway, 100 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 3 feet deep into which is put a corn or pellet baited hook with sufficient strength of line to water ski a polar bear is not fishing. Commercial fee fishing requires no license, carries with it no restrictions as to time, amount of equipment or other regulation. It simply is not fishing within the meaning contemplated.
I have no objection to this activity. But not within a conservancy district.
I am authorized to state that Chief Justice Nathan S. Heffernan joins in this opinion.