Posted on 11/10/2004 7:36:39 AM PST by JesseHousman
Seafood lovers who like their grouper fresh off the fishing boat could be in for some disappointment at the dinner table.
A new grouper quota is prompting federal fisheries regulators to close down commercial grouper fishing in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico starting at 12:01 a.m. Monday, cutting off the Gulf supply of the Southwest Florida favorite until Jan. 1.
Seafood dealers say grouper still will be available at fish markets and restaurants, but it will take longer to get it there from the Atlantic Ocean or Mexico and it might cost more.
How fresh will it be?
"I guess it depends on your definition of fresh," said Ken Moss, manager of Kirk Fish Co. in Goodland.
"If you're from Ohio and you probably never see fish less than a week old, it's not going to make any difference," Moss said. "If you're a local who knows fresh fish, you're not going to be too happy."
Next week's closure is the second part of an annual quota system the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council adopted earlier this year to try to boost what scientists say are overfished red grouper populations.
The Gulf council lowered the commercial quota for deep-water grouper to 1 million pounds. At the same time, regulators lowered the commercial quota for shallow-water grouper to 8.8 million pounds and created a commercial quota for red grouper of 5.3 million pounds.
Regulators decided they would close the shallow-water grouper fishery if either the total shallow-water quota is met or the red grouper quota is met.
The deep-water grouper fishery closed in June when fishermen hit the deep-water quota. The red grouper quota is expected to be met by Monday, according to regulators.
The closures affect fish besides red grouper, including black grouper, gag, yellowfin, scamp, yellowmouth, rock hind and red hind.
Recreational fishermen still can catch grouper, but they can keep only two red grouper per trip compared with five red grouper under old rules.
Commercial fishermen complain that it is unfair that recreational fishermen still can reel in grouper.
Federal catch data show that commercial fishermen have caught, on average, 81 percent of the red grouper caught in the Gulf of Mexico between 1999 and 2001. Recreational fishermen have caught the other 19 percent, according to federal data.
The quotas are set to maintain the historic share of the grouper catch between recreational and commercial fishermen, said Rod Dalton, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in St. Petersburg.
Dalton said a 10-year plan to rebuild red grouper populations in the Gulf of Mexico is aiming for a 9.5 percent reduction in the red grouper catch by 2007. After that, the quotas could be adjusted.
While painful, temporary closures are meant to avoid wiping out grouper populations to the point that grouper fishermen are out of work permanently, Dalton said.
"It's kind of a 'pay me now or pay me later' scenario," he said.
Naples commercial fisherman Tom Marvel said closures should be a first step toward better grouper management — not a permanent fixture of the industry.
He said regulators should find ways to limit the amount of fishing so the quotas are never reached and disruptive closures are avoided.
"You have too much effort chasing too few fish," Marvel said.
While being out of work for stretches of time goes with the territory for commercial fishermen, the grouper closure comes at an especially bad time for Marco Island commercial fisherman Matt Vitielo.
He already has been off the water for the past two months while his grouper boat has undergone repairs.
The boat's back in service, just in time for one last fishing trip before Monday's closure, one last chance to earn a paycheck before the holidays.
"I'll be going to the bank (for a loan)," Vitielo said.
I'll wager it takes much longer and it will come from Mexico.
The federales are doing to the fishing industry in Florida what they did to the shrimping industry: ruin it forever.
The US has spent millions upon millions of dollars in China, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to improve their fisheries to a state of the art while the Gulf of Mexico Shrimping employment is down over 60%.
It is called the tragedy of the commons. It is one of the well-recognized failures of a free-market economy. Even free marketers recognize that this a legitimate area of government intervention.
Not just Florida.............everywhere on the eastern seaboard.
Wild shrimping does a pretty good job of annihilating fish species by killing millions of juvenile fish.....
Commercial fishermen are largely responsible for ruining their own fisheries.
It's been demonstrated repeatedly that, despite claims to the contrary on a lot of FR fisheries management threads, that they're incapable of regulating themselves, and there's no sort of natural market limit that prevents a fishery from being overfished; as a given population gets wiped out, yes, that fish gets harder to catch, but the price received per pound goes up as well as supply drops. And the average commercial fisherman is no more likely to take a long-term view than any of a number of multibillion dollar corporations that have failed to plan long-term and gone bankrupt.
I can remember fishing along the beach for pompano and watching as a spotter plane directed two net boats to an area about 150 yards out. The boats started stringing out net....about a quarter-mile of net. They then surrounded the school of fish they spotted and and "harvested" them.
Once they put an end to that kind of fishing the pompano, flounder, redfish, sea trout and many other species have made a huge come-back.
Old-timers say it's remenicent of the excellent fishing they had back in the 50's and 60's.
Same is true of offshore grouper and red snapper fisheries. Boats were coming in with just a handfull of fish, if any, from offshore trips. Within three years, cathes improved dramatically and are now at about the level of the late 60's and early 70's.
The surprise to me was that it didn't take a lot longer for the species to rebound.
>> Wild shrimping does a pretty good job of annihilating fish species by killing millions of juvenile fish.....
You are absolutely correct. I took a ride on a shrimp boat off the east coast of Florida in the mid 1980's, and I was astonished at the huge numbers of tiny founder, sea trout, redfish (channel bass), croaker, and other fish, that were killed in the nets. The seagulls loved it when the dead fish were thrown overboard, but inshore recreational fishermen have seen their catches decline steadily. Shrimp farming is the future. Get on board, or get left behind.
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.