Posted on 10/23/2009 5:16:57 AM PDT by Red Badger
DESTIN — News that a federal agency had slammed the door on this year’s amberjack season without notice didn’t sit well Tuesday with charter fishermen.
They believe Big Brother is out to take their livelihood from them.
“They’re killing us,” said boat captain Thomas Swanson. “They’re flat killing us.”
Read the press release from the NOAA Fisheries Service »
A morning announcement that no greater amberjack could be caught after midnight Friday swept across the docks at Destin Harbor. It didn’t take long for an angry group of fishermen to gather to vent.
It also didn’t take long for the fishermen’s frustrations to reach the ears of state Sen. Don Gaetz and, eventually, Gov. Charlie Crist.
Crist said he’d do what he could to help.
“We’ll do all we can as quickly as we can,” he said.
Fishermen said the last week of October is crucial a time when they need to make money.
There are 11 days left in the Destin Fishing Rodeo and, with a ban already in place on snapper, amberjack is the last large fish charter captains know they can find for their customers.
“I’ve been amberjack fishing since they closed the snapper Aug. 15 and now they’re closing the amberjack on us,” captain Greg Marler said. “People are going to quit coming to Destin to fish if they can’t catch anything.”
The announcement that a “recreational quota” of 1.368 million pounds of greater amberjack had been reached went out over the Internet on Tuesday along with word that the season would close.
As the news spread, captains and mates assembled on the dock behind the scales where weighmaster Bruce Cheves presides over the day’s catch during the annual fishing rodeo.
“As we sit here, there’s amberjack being caught on short (four-hour) trips. There’s no shortage of them and there’s no shortage of snapper,” Cheves grumbled. “Economically, they’re killing us. Rodeo entries are down about 25 percent.”
On a sun-kissed October day, most of Destin’s 200-plus charter boats were stuck in port.
The ban on red snapper has devastated recreational fishing in Destin, the fishermen say, and eliminating amberjack will only make a bad situation worse.
“You can see how it’s affecting us by the number of boats at the dock. Usually during October the boats are all gone,” Marler said.
The fishermen say the people making the regulations don’t know what they’re doing and use faulty numbers to support their actions. The snapper are so over-populated now, the fishermen say, that they’ve gone through all the available shrimp and are eating the young of other fish and killing those populations.
Roy Crabtree, the regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service, said his agency gathered its information on pounds of amberjack caught by studying “several different sources of data.”
The data is based on “landings” and some of the data is collected through “dock-side surveys and phone calls,” according to Charlene Ponce, an agency spokeswoman.
Crabtree said data collected this year indicates there could be an amberjack catch that exceeds the annual allotted limit. That would mean harsher restrictions on fishing next year.
Crabtree also said that the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council could be persuaded to change the dates that it closes gulf waters to fishing.
“If folks would rather have closures at a different time of year I would have no problem with that,” he said.
He said the council is scheduled to meet in Destin next August.
The sudden decision to close the amberjack season immediately was another sore spot for the assembled charter fishermen. In 11 more days, Marler said, the fishing rodeo will be over and the amberjack fishery would have several months to recover its numbers.
Destin Mayor Craig Barker said federal regulations are crippling and could eventually destroy the charter fishing industry in his city and elsewhere.
“If allowed to go forward, these closures will further devastate the economies of coastal fishing communities all across the Gulf of Mexico and shatter the lives of the men and women who work so hard to earn their living from the sea,” he said in a news release.
Gaetz sent out a call Tuesday to Florida’s U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and George LeMieux and U.S. Reps. Jeff Miller and Allen Boyd.
“I’ve asked them to join me in asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service to reconsider and recall their announcement,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz said he had also asked Crist to “use his influence on behalf of the state of Florida.”
Asked about Gaetz’s call, Crist responded. “We certainly can try.”
Gaetz said he had also, in his role as chairman of the state Senate’s Committee on Florida’s Economy, requested that Workforce Florida “develop and authorize dislocated worker and training services to Northwest Florida fishermen who have no other choice but to seek other ways to make a living.”
“This is not just based on the amberjack decision,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville. “It’s about the national attack on the sport fishing industry.
“Those of us who represent coastal communities have to speak up about insensitive and really dumb decisions like this,” Gaetz said.
“....They believe Big Brother is out to take their livelihood from them....”
Their analysis is correct. They hit the nail squarely on the head.
Next will be the freshwater fishing.
Then they will shut down the farmers and home growers[garderners}.
This year, for the first time ever in my life, and I’m 54, I had to buy a Florida fishing license, because of a FEDERAL MANDATE. Up until July, Floridians have NEVER had to buy a SALT WATER FISHING LICENSE IF YOU FISHED FROM THE SHORE...............Boat fishing licenses have been required for about 15 years now, but shore or surf fishing was exempt...............
Then they will shut down the farmers and home growers[garderners}.”
I think there is a recent thread of FR to the effect that all fishing is to be shut down -— poor lil’ fishies.
FYI: The came for the commercial fishing industry in the late 70s, 80s and 90s, and sportfishers cheered. Now it is their turn.
They came for the loggers, miners, and the small farmers long ago. No one noticed.
The US used to be filled with hard working professionals who loved their work, fed the nation, and provided a positive balance of trade, now it is filled with people sitting behind desks wishing they were doing something else.
Your analysis is correct. So long as it happens to the other guy, no one gives a damn. Until their ox gets gored.
Step One:
Create a crisis.
http://www.tnr.com/article/environment-energy/aquacalypse-now?page=0,0
vob
govt ping
This has been going on in Alaska for years, nothing new.
THe problem is less the boot of the FedGov across the necks of fishers, then it is a inept group of fishery ‘managers’ that can’t seem to stay ahead of the data they use for their work.
Don’t allow foreign fishing boats within 200 miles of the US for start....
Well, no salmon season for awhile now, no water to farmers in San Joaquin Valley due to a smelt...swine flu pandemic, I’m going kosher. This is all because of the Climate change...next on the list to slam America(ns).
It occurs to me that the people who sign these ‘orders’ have homes, go shopping, out to dinner, to the movies......
“FYI: The came for the commercial fishing industry in the late 70s, 80s and 90s, and sportfishers cheered. Now it is their turn.”
SOOOO true. I have commercial fished for 25 years. Selfishly, it puts a smirk on my face to see this happen. The sports fisherman and their puker boat operations cheered increased commercial fishing regulations.
A sad day for America, but, F them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.