More people, more boats … less Coast Guard presence.
Our area has been able to rely on the rapid response of the Milford Haven Coast Guard Station for more than 50 years. If the present plan goes through, that presence will be reduced to six months a year.
That might make sense, if our waters were in use just six months a year by recreational boaters; for the summer is, of course, the busiest season.
The waters, however, are used year-round, and hazardous occupations such as oyster tonging take place in the coldest months when conditions on the water are most treacherous. Recreational boaters transit the Chesapeake Bay in all seasons, and the commercial fishing industry, while a fraction of what it was 50 years ago, continues setting out daily to harvest seafood bounty for our tables.
Also, the past 50 years have seen an explosion of the local population, with hundreds of homes built on the waterfront, hundreds of pleasure craft moored at their docks, and thousands more people taking t...