Lake Garda Fishermen to Resume Using Small Engines After 18 Years
After 18 years of only paddling, the small fleet of lake fishermen will be able to return, in about twenty days, to using an engine: small, with a maximum of six horsepower, but sufficient for the purpose.
The law has been passed in the provincial council: fifteen days after publication in the bulletin, it becomes enforceable. The text follows the draft law presented by Nerio Giovanazzi and Paola Vicini Conci, approved in committee and amended by the assessor Grisenti, who is the presenter.
The changes regarding the ban established in 1983 concern fishermen with a license B residing in the lakeside municipalities (Torbole, Riva, and Molina): they will be allowed to freely use a outboard motor up to 6 horsepower for their excursions on Lake Garda in Trentino.
Limitations and technical regulations
The protected zone is reduced from 500 meters to 300 meters, as on the rest of the lake, and must be crossed perpendicularly along the shortest route to and from the mooring area.
Scuba divers entering from the shore are no longer required to be followed by support boats: a floating balloon will suffice to signal their presence.
Finally, the regulations on cabin boats with auxiliary engines have been amended: they can use the motor only when necessary.
It remains to be clarified through a subsequent measure by the port inspectorate what is meant by absence of wind.
Diverging interpretations between those checked and inspectors have caused some misunderstandings in the past: however, these can be easily clarified by introducing a clear limit.
Proposals and political reactions
Before the debate in the assembly, assessor Grisenti suggested the possibility of establishing a port inspectorate in Riva.
Currently, the only such organization is in Trento, with jurisdiction over all bodies of water in the province.
Riva has been aspiring for years to attain greater autonomy, which the characteristics and size of Garda seem to justify: this could be the right moment.
Paolo Matteotti and Pietro Bertoldi, environmentalists who have always been aligned, the former with the Margherita, the latter with the Greens, express moderate satisfaction with the amendments they managed to negotiate thanks to their respective representatives in the province, Molinari and Berasi, to the Giovanazzi draft approved in committee.
It is, after all, a compromise: between the ideal of a total and absolute ban on the use of any motor (including large public service boats) and the increasingly pressing requests of recreational enthusiasts, who cannot see what tragedy a small, essentially silent, low-power motor could cause to the lake, capable of gliding a five or six-meter boat with its gentle hum.
However, a respectable compromise due to the concession’s lightness, mindful of the need to safeguard the lake’s surface.
Much more explicit is the satisfaction expressed by Giancarlo Angelini, Adolfo Pellizzari, and Alberto Rania, respectively president and secretary of the Amici della Tirlindana Club.
Among all, they dedicated years to achieving the revision of the 1983 regulations, which they believe were based on misguided environmentalism, sickly due to a lack of understanding of the phenomenon and populism.
