MERCER: Is there a right to spear a fish?

FORT PIERRE - An argument about equal rights took place a few days ago during the meeting of the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission.

Equal rights, that is, for the opportunity to enjoy the natural resources of South Dakota.

And more specifically, equal rights in the opportunity to take fish, whether by spear, arrow or hook.

Or, as commissioner Paul Dennert, of Columbia, put it, spears and arrows have been around much longer than motor boats and electronic depth-finders.

It's an interesting fundamental question.

The argument was whether to allow a general expansion of spearfishing for game fish in South Dakota.

The issue came before the commission because of another right - the right to ask.

South Dakota law allows members of the public to petition state boards and commissions with rule requests.

Technically the right to petition applies to all state rule-making bodies in South Dakota. But the Game, Fish and Parks Commission might be the only one where it happens more often than a blue moon.

In this instance, a petition came from Bill Donovan, of Harrisburg. He runs a diving business in Sioux Falls.

He wants spearfishing allowed in more waters of South Dakota, especially in lakes of the eastern counties.

It's never comfortable when someone brings a rule-change petition to the Game, Fish and Parks Commission.

The message implicit in a petition is unhappiness: That perhaps the commissioners haven't been doing their job well enough, or the GF&P's administrators need to be trumped through a direct appeal to the rule-makers.

Nothing binds the commission to take action sought in a petition. The petition can simply be rejected.

Or the commission can take the intermediate step of deciding a proposal should be made, with a public hearing to follow, and then decide.

That's what happened. The commissioners voted 5-3 to look at a proposal from GF&P staff. After taking public comments, the commissioners rejected the proposal 5-1 Thursday.

Commissioner Barry Jensen, of White River, had made the motion in November to look at a proposal. Then he made the motion to kill that proposal Thursday because it covered all inland waters.

Jensen said he hoped the proposal would have come in a different form with different wording.

"They're like a piece of legislation. They need to be very precise. They need to speak to specific things," Jensen said. "I don't believe that has happened here."

He said he doesn't think bowfishing and spearing and underwater spearfishing are the same activities, but they currently are treated the same.

Jensen kept going, saying the commission owes sportsmen the opportunity to express themselves.

"I'm very happy to see all the comments. Man, that was overwhelming, almost," he said.

Jensen and Dennert are former legislators. Dennert said he didn't know much about spearfishing and the petition process allowed him to be educated.

"Something new to me," Dennert said.

Jensen, Dennert and commissioner Cathy Peterson, of Salem, all said more areas should be opened to spearfishing.

Wildlife Division director Tony Leif said he would work on it.

If so, the petition succeeded.