Weekly news, tips, trivia, fun facts and wild tales from the outdoors
April 8, 2015
If a car’s vanity license plate can tell you a lot about the person behind the wheel, what can a boat name tell you about the person behind the helm? Well, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) has just released the national boating organization’s 23rd Annual Top Ten Boat Names List. You’ll also read about a game law violator who was nabbed with the help of a hunter’s remote deer cam, and much more!
2015 List of Top 10 Boat Names
Big and small, power or sail, there are many different kinds of boats and equally different kinds of boat owners. The one thing they seem to agree on is how boating makes them feel, at least if your looking at a boat’s name on the transom.
“Serenity” has been named the No. 1 boat name for the second year in a row with the release of the 2015 list of the Top Ten Boat Names from Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS). It is also the name’s tenth appearance on the popular list of boat names issued annually since 1992 by the recreational boat advocacy, service and safety group.
“Calm, peaceful and untroubled is what boating is all about for so many boaters,” said BoatUS spokesman Scott Croft.
The BoatUS list of Top Ten Boat Names for 2015 are: 1. Serenity, 2. Seas the Day, 3. Andiamo, (Italian for “Let’s Go”), 4. Aquaholic, 5. Second Wind, 6. Island Time, 7. Happy Ours, 8. Journey, 9. Serendipity, 10. Relentless.
“Picking a boat name can be harder than naming one’s own child,” said Croft, who has had to name several of his boats through the years. “Boat names can reflect your lifestyle, your relationship to loved ones or what you do for a living. And that’s only the beginning.”
Game Camera Photos Lead to Multiple Charges
With the widespread use of game cameras in the woods theses days, one would think it might keep game law scofflaws at bay. Well, no.
Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife Enforcement Natural Resources police officers arrested a Sussex County man March 31 on multiple charges, culminating an investigation into illegal deer hunting that was prompted by trail camera footage from Dec. 4, 2014 of a man hunting with a rifle on private property.
David M. Naumann, 42, of Georgetown was charged with hunting whitetail deer during a closed season, trespassing to hunt, failure to tag antlerless deer, failure to display required hunter orange, unlicensed hunting, removing antlerless deer parts prior to checking, failure to check antlerless deer within 24 hours, failure to retain tag with antlerless deer, possession of unlawfully taken antlerless deer, and unlawfully taking an antlerless deer during archery season with a weapon other than bow and arrow or crossbow.
Naumann pled guilty to six of the charges in Justice of the Peace Court in Georgetown. He was fined $1,113 and lost his hunting license for two years.
Court Dismisses Anti-Hunting Groups’ Lawsuit
The notorious anti-hunting organization Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and its grassroots front group, Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting, suffered a major blow late last week when a Maine Superior Court judge dismissed their lawsuit filed late last year against state wildlife regulators.
In its suit, the HSUS-funded anti-hunting group sought to silence the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife from educating voters on the impact of the referendum known as Question 1 that if passed would have banned bear baiting, hounding and trapping in the state and would have had national repercussions.
Maine voters for a second time rejected the referendum in November. The court found Maine citizens unquestionably deserved to hear from the state’s wildlife experts when it comes to regulating hunting via the ballot box.
The original lawsuit filed in October sought an injunction that would remove the TV advertisements being aired by the Maine Wildlife Conservation Council that featured department personnel talking about the dangers of Question 1.
Alaska Launches Improved Online Store For License Sales
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) recently launched a new online store where the public can purchase sport fishing and hunting licenses, commercial crewmember licenses, king salmon stamps, duck stamps, and big game tags.
With new and improved features, customers can now print their licenses at home. For those purchasing king salmon stamps and duck stamps, the validated stamp numbers will be printed directly on the license.
Another new feature is the ability for the public to purchase more than one license in one transaction. This is a great time-saving option for fishing and hunting lodges that want to purchase licenses for their clients. Fish processors and captains can purchase their licenses for all their crewmembers. Families can also buy licenses for the whole family through just one transaction.
Quote of the Week
“The scientific name is Odocoileus virginianus couesi, after Dr. Elliott Coues, a military surgeon whose hobby was nature study. He was the first to describe this deer that is second in size only to the diminutive Key deer in southern Florida. Dr. Coues name is pronounced ‘cows,’ and for years I pronounced the Coues deer as ‘cows’ deer. However, a lot of folks pronounce it Coues (‘coos’). ‘Cows’ just doesn’t have a ring for such a great little deer. On my recent Coues bowhunt the owner of the ranch I hunted told me, ‘cows are cows, deer are Coues.’ Even so, the apparent correct pronunciation is ‘cows.’”
– Dr. David Samuel,
“The Elusive Coues Deer,”
“Whitetail Journal,” 2006
J.R. Absher is a freelance outdoor writer whose articles and columns appear in numerous national publications. He offers his unique perspective of the outdoors weekly for sportsmansguide.com. You may contact him at jrabsher@me.com.
Guide Outdoors Readers: If you are a boat owner with a “named” boat — please tell us what it is named. Or, if others have seen a clever name on a boat, please tell us about it below.