Skip Zinck is willing to take a dive for the governor.
Now all Martin O'Malley has to do is say "yes." Last weekend at the annual Maryland Saltwater Sportsfishermen's Association shindig in Ocean City, Zinck issued an invitation to the governor to spend some time on his fishing boat for a little show and smell.
Anytime from May to Thanksgiving, as long as it's warm enough for diving, O'Malley can hang out topside while Zinck takes a plunge into the Chesapeake Bay to grab a mason jar filled with bottom goo.
Zinck figures that while the governor knows the bay bottom is fouled with life-robbing sediment, he might not know how vile it is.
"It's a cesspool. If I open the top and let him sniff, it will make his eyes water," the Severn resident says. "My wife won't let me wash my dive gear in the house, it's that bad."
Zinck made his offer during a Q&A; with O'Malley a week ago Saturday. When the governor couldn't hear Zinck's question about bay water quality, he urged him to step up to the microphone. The avid angler just kept walking to the front of the ballroom until he was face-to-face with Maryland's chief executive
"It was absolutely spur of the moment," Zinck says, laughing, when I reached him by phone. "I was very cautious. I walked up slow. I didn't want to get shot."
The governor, he says, "looked me in the eye" and seemed attentive. An aide took down the particulars of the invitation and promised to be in touch.
"I told them, 'You can pick the time. You can pick the spot,' " Zinck says.
Let's hope the governor's handlers are smart enough to know a good photo op and learning experience when it's handed to them. I'll bet Zinck doesn't even ask for gas money.
Zinck took a dive for me last year near Sandy Point to show me how easy it is to find derelict crab pots. Naturally, some aromatic goo came up with the pots.
One bit of advice to O'Malley: For practice, stand downwind of the Back River Sewage Treatment Plant on a ripe day and inhale. Just not too deeply.
Flounder count
The regulators responsible for setting limits for Eastern Seaboard fisheries have agreed to cap the recreational summer flounder catch at 2.05 million fish.
That means Maryland anglers will be getting 2.9 percent of the coastwide allotment, or 60,519 fish, by far the smallest slice of the pie.
Fisheries biologists, trying out different combinations of size and number of fish to keep the state in compliance, expect to have a formula by the end of this week, says Mike Luisi, Maryland's flounder point man.
Last year, Chesapeake Bay anglers were allowed two fish daily, minimum size 15 inches, while coastal anglers could keep four fish at 15 1/2 inches. Maryland overshot its recreational target of 61,000 fish by 79,000.
Luisi says the technical committee for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has frowned on allowing separate regulations for the bay and the coast because it makes it difficult to determine which rules prove more effective.
Hoping to drive down the harvest and avoid a repeat of last year's problem, Luisi and other biologists are looking at 16 1/2 -inch and 17-inch minimums with differing daily bag limits. Thankfully, they are not considering closing the season midsummer, something that happened several years ago, which put a hurting on Ocean City tourism.
States that fail to adopt regulations that meet ASMFC muster will be required to enforce a two-fish limit with a 20-inch minimum size during an open season from July 1 to Sept. 1.
Tag lines
If you've always wanted to meet Lefty Kreh but don't want to pony up $500 to attend a March dinner honoring his 50 years of contributions to fishing and conservation, there's a cheaper alternative.
Kreh and a host of other fly fishing experts will be at Tiefest 2008, a free expo Saturday at the Kent Island Yacht Club sponsored by the Kent Narrows chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association. The doors open at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. Details can be had by calling 888-758-6580.
The Department of Natural Resources is having two meetings this week of interest to anglers. The first is a discussion about derelict crab pots, or "ghost pots," and whether they pose a threat to marine life and navigation. The meeting is tomorrow at 6 p.m. at DNR headquarters, 580 Taylor Ave., Annapolis.
On Tuesday, there's the monthly meeting of the Task Force on Fisheries Management, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Annapolis Doubletree Hotel, 210 Holiday Court. Representatives of conservation groups and recreational and commercial fishing interests are supposed to put their cards on the table so everyone can see what everyone else hopes to gain when this exercise ends in December.
Should be fascinating, yes?
candy.thomson@baltsun.com