Show up to meetings and public hearings when you can.
Send in public comments (you can email these things, and you don’t have to say anything beyond, “this is totally wrong, and the reason is __________. If you make ________ decision, then I will not spend _______ dollars in my local economy this year that I normally would have.” If you own a business that relies on sportfishing or offshore recreation, then you need to state that fact and simply state that you disagree. You don’t have to be an expert on the issues to make a comment for the “record.”
Lastly, and most importantly, FIGHT anyone who wants to make excuses or be apathetic. “We’ve kicked the can down the road for too long” is HORSE DUNG. We have had great rules and regs in place on most of the species at issue since the 80’s or 90’s and they have worked extremely well. Our community’s culture has also changed from loading the boat being a good thing to loading the boat down with fish being a bad thing. Again, the #1 thing that people utterly FAIL to understand here is that the fish are perfectly healthy- they’re better than in the past 3 decades by far, and that makes zero difference to these people. They have jobs to justify, and there are millions of dollars spent every year on campaigns to “end overfishing” on species that are actually healthy while the truly overfished species continue to be crushed (usually by other countries’ fleets).
We will let you catch em all year round even though we know that not many people go in the winter. ( the weather basicly closes the season.) however we will only allow you to catch 2 per trip. ( $200 in fuel for 2 lobster rec and commercial (wonder why all the spiny lobster comes from florida. I love frozen seafood LOL
Our tradition is that of the first man who sneaked away to the creek when the tribe did not really need fish.
Oh, you are talking about “2 per person per trip”… Sorry, I thought you were saying that they recently proposed a 2 per boat per trip limit. South Florida is responsible for most of this madness. Many species down here are truly fished out and it makes the rest of the region has to pay the piper for their sins. They could literally only have regulations south of Jupiter and there wouldn’t even be a need for regulation north of that.
But you are right. It’s (**() rediculous that the regulation is 6 lobster per person in florida and 12 per person (min-season), when the rest of the states are at 2 per person. What ever happened to the doctrine of fairness that MSA is supposed to offer?
Skinneej, funny you say that Fla is the problem. That is what one of my neighbors said who works for the DRN in fish studies about the BSB and Red Snappers. When I mentioned that on another thread Phin didn’t agree completely. I agree they may not be the whole problem but they are a big part of what is effecting us. Common sense tells me if the rec. limit was 341,000 lbs that should be distributed throughout the 4 states that are effected. If they have facts that show one state is harvesting more fish then another then the lb limit should be adjusted to reflect that, the problem they have no clue what is harvested. I for one have never been checked or asked how many fish i caught or how many lbs. Truth be told I may have contributed only 10lbs or so to the 341,000 lbs. I pefer to catch them when the weather cools down and the trolling is all but over.
A wise man once said “Do as I say not as I do” Good advice when I tell you that.
Do you think that fair division of who gets to catch what will be based off acres of habitat, number of fish actually counted, or historical catch?
How can we possibly not be screwed over?
Wait until dolphin or cobia are cut off for us near the end of a “fishing year” in April or May because Florida wanted a June-May 31 fishing year instead of a Jan-Dec 31 one.
The federal managers don’t want it split up by states because then… well… that’d diminish the need for their jobs to exist.
Also,
If you want to call one area overfished, then be careful saying a whole state. It’s 40 miles to 30 fathoms out of N. Florida - not 5 miles like in the Keys… Much of Florida is MPA or sanctuary also… so that has placed even greater pressure on the areas that remain open. That leads everyone to believe that the fishing down there stinks and therefore the FISH must also stink. Not necessarily true.
We have the same thing here. Go anchor on avg live bottom in 300ft, and you will bring up 25lb red snapper and 5lb red porgies. Anchor on avg live bottom in 100ft and you’ll bring up 10lb red snapper and 1lb red porgies. So does that mean they’re doing bad here?
The fish are naturally protected in the deeper portion of their habitat here now that bottom longlining isn’t allowed. vertical hook and line only works on reef fish here when the current’s slack. You get a few minutes maybe 3 or 4 days a month that are actually fishable in those locations.
People have ZERO clue about what’s actually out there and think that since their beaten up, pounded fishing holes are a good reflection of all the bottom that’s out there.
Getting back to the subject-
The problem with shutting one state off and not an adjacent state is fleet mobility. Florida guys will simply bring their catch into Brunswick. I already see more Florida commercial boats off our coast than from any other state… the reason’s obvious.
Sorry for the rant. Probably doesn’t help anything. I agree that different areas have
That is why I said Jupiter and south. The continental shelf is only about 2 miles offshore. It creates a natural funnel for the fish, pushing most species to within 2-3 miles from land. That along with the 10x number of fishermen here and the fact that you can fish in a kayak 250+ days of the year, doesn’t really give the fish a chance to hide. The ledge starts to move further offshore as you go further north. Check out the google satellite map and you can see what I am talking about… Also don’t forget that you can catch grouper, snapper, and lobster inside of Biscayne bay which you could probably do 350+ days a year if you wanted…
That being said, I understand that “quota” is divied up per state based on historical records (which is stupid), but when it comes to bag limits, they should be the same for every state. Just because south florida has a history of raping and pillaging doesn’t mean that they should continue to be allowed to do so. What kind of logic is that?
North of Jupiter, fish have natural protection from:
Skinneej, funny you say that Fla is the problem. That is what one of my neighbors said who works for the DRN in fish studies about the BSB and Red Snappers. When I mentioned that on another thread Phin didn’t agree completely.
</font id=“quote”></blockquote id=“quote”>It’s not really all of Florida. It’s really only the part where the continental shelf comes up to the beach. Fish have no where to hide down here… Anyone who doesn’t get this concept has never been to south florida
The morons who are making these laws need to come up with some new regs for Jupiter South. Maybe come up with a tag system where you can only keep so many a year. I’m not sure what the answer is, but there are an azz of people in South Florida.
Folks, this isn’t about fishing in any form. It is about creating an “environmentally sensitive” area so that they can prevent drilling for oil. There is no reason to think there is oil in Biscayne Bay. However, there are many reasons to believe that oil might be in the 100’ range off the coast of SC. They don’t give a rat’s ass about sport fishing. They only care about preventing the drilling for oil.
Phin, What I’m saying is that its not a one size fits all shoe here. Why should states suffer if their fish are not in any danger of being over fished. Every state should monitor whats going on and report to the Fed’s (hate the big brother thing) and that’s when a decision should be made on what to do. I dont think we are divided we are just putting different ideas and thoughts out there. Face it no one on the site is a fish expert, they may think they are but their not. They can just catch fish not study them. We need to unite and write our elected officals (which I have) and let them know it’s broken and we want it fixed.
A wise man once said “Do as I say not as I do” Good advice when I tell you that.
Oops, I am not disagreeing with you. We have been writing to / talking to / trying to persuade people for quite some time. What we lack is more of us saying the same thing. They know we care. But only offshore fishermen care at this point- and mostly only those who bottom fish. Sooner or later everyone will end up caring. I just hope it’s not too late.
Re: oil drilling, etc.
You boys don’t realize the connection between big oil and the enviro’s. Especially the political and financial connection. Why don’t you think there was more outcry from the big ENGO’s after the gulf spill? There was plenty being said about how there was overfishing though…
Why does an oil company advertise on TV about being environmentally friendly?
Why do they put billions towards environmental publicity? Why are they “partners” with the biggest environmental orgs?
Why did a republican president from a big oil state sign the most recent changes to the federal fishery laws that’re causing a lot of these closures into law? Why do we have a radical head of NOAA in place now?
You really do not want me to get into how deep the politics and money goes in all this. People will get mad at me, and people will say I’m out to hurt peoples’ businesses. Already posted enough about it in the past. Tired of getting nasty emails from people who refuse to accept the truth or even question their good ol buddies. Would rather just trust that everybody way up the line is making great choices and not corrupt or power hungry…
Keep in mind that wind power is coming to off our coast. You say that’s great for fishing. Okay. What happens when there’s a problem? What happens when the infrastructure to support the power generation and transfer has to be sited someplace along the coast? Where are we putting it? Who cares? Fishermen or environmentalists? How will that stuff get done? Aren’t jobs important?
The oil companies want fishermen off the water. Fishermen were on TV crying after the last gulf spill- not environmentalists. Not th
