This Memorial day in the Keys we are expecting a crush of boaters that will likely create 30-40 mile traffic jams on our two lane highways.
There will be more traffic on the water than on the land. ...............
One of the fish that still won't be caught is the jewfish aka Goliath grouper.
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A divided board of Florida game regulators took a tentative step Wednesday that might eventually allow fishermen to catch and kill goliath groupers, a fish that was almost driven to extinction 30 years ago by over fishing and pollution.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told its staff to craft a regulation it has proposed that would allow 100 goliaths to be caught and kept annually during a four-year period. Supported by fishing groups, the proposed limited harvest calls for a lottery to issue $300-per-week licenses that allow each recipient to catch and kill one Goliath, with proceeds funding research of the species.
But board members said that did not mean the regulation would ultimately be approved even over the next few years, saying the science may not support its quick adoption.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/florida-takes-step-toward-the-catching-of-goliath-grouper-fort-lauderdale-jack-nicklaus-fishing-atlantic-ocean-caribbean-b1846658.html
Truth is the above is major league BS of the worst kind. Years ago South Florida spearfishermen almost decimated the entire population of jewfish.
Instead of making it illegal to spear them in their infinite wisdom regulators just stopped it all together.They made jewfish a zero bag limit.
Things were OK for the first 8-10 years. Than we started to notice that most Gulf side wrecks,(GOM--Gulf of Mexico)where most jewfish live,were now loaded up with big goliaths that ate anything we hooked. From spawning snook that would have been released to juvenile grouper,juvenile crawfish to anything hooked by a fisherman.When the regs were asked how to solve the problem they said find another wreck to fish.Arrogant SOB's for sure.
Today things are much worse.
I chatted with a customer the other day a world class angler/captain who told me he witnessed a giant jewfish sucking up cobia of 30-50 lbs. like they were lollypops. We also note there is a rather big shortage of cobia over the past few years.
It just gets worse every year with a fish that has become an apex predator and is fearful of nothing.
On many wrecks they will sit under your boat and wait until you hook a good fish and than gobble them up.
Anyway the proposed regs which still allow the original cause of the disappearance of jewfish, spearfishing, are worthless and should not even be considered.