SeaWatch is underwritten by THE ORVIS COMPANY

SEAWATCH July 2002 Issue #91

Table of Contents:

• FWC Task Force Sweeps Illegal Nets From the Waters of Franklin and Wakulla Counties
• Gulf Council Backs Off Four-Month Gag Grouper Closure
  
• Florida Legislative Conservation Awards for 2002
• Mullet Carcasses Discarded During Roe Season
  
• Science on Safe Havens as Manatee Birthing Areas
• Page Two Articles
  • 2002 Law Enforcement Incident Review
    
  • Third Annual Mangrove Festival
  • California Anglers Slow Down Closures (MPAs)
  • REPORT: No-Take MPAs Ineffective as Fishery Management Tool
  • No-Fishing Zones May be Planned for Biscayne National Park
    

FWC Task Force Sweeps Illegal Nets From the Waters of Franklin and Wakulla Counties

by Rick Farren, Communications Director

In May, law enforcement officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) discovered nine illegal gillnets totaling 4,500 feet hidden in remote areas of Franklin and Wakulla counties.
Eight officers with the FWC recently took part in a search and recover detail which used a helicopter to locate nets hidden in outlaying areas of Franklin and Wakulla counties. An airboat and a 17-foot skiff were then used to retrieve the illegal gear. The nets were all found and recovered in a six hour operation on May 24, 2002.

A few days later, officers located another abandoned monofilament gillnet, and an abandoned 110-yard nylon net containing 400 pounds of catfish.

Last year, in April, officers in the district worked a similar detail in the same two counties in which they discovered and confiscated seven gillnets totaling more than a mile in length, including a 700-yard, three-walled trammel net commonly used to entangle pompano.

Since passage of the constitutional ban on gillnetting in 1995, law enforcement officers have uncovered or confiscated literally hundreds of gillnets hidden in various remote locations throughout the two-county area.

According to a report in the Apalachicola Times, law enforcement officers working in Franklin and Wakulla counties have recently encountered stepped-up use of gillnets. As explained by one officer, more netters than usual are dropping their nets and running when discovered fishing illegally by law enforcement officers. That action can result in felony dumping charges if they’re caught.

Editor's note: See article below -- Law Enforcement Incident Review -- for a review of some of the other net ban enforcement cases that have been made by the FWC during the first six months of this year.

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In May, following a huge turnout of recreational anglers at a meeting in Destin, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council decided to modify its “preferred” alternatives to remove a proposed four-month gag grouper closure on recreational anglers as part of the red grouper recovery plan.

CCA Florida felt there was simply no legitimate reason to include a gag grouper closure on recreational fishers in the red grouper recovery efforts. Gulf red grouper stocks have been hammered into an overfished condition by the commercial longline fleet not by recreational fishers.

That same message was delivered again and again from a crowd of more than 200 who attended the Gulf Council’s hearing in Destin. CCA Florida members, other recreational anglers, charter boat captains, charter boat associations, fishing clubs and chambers of commerce representatives from central Florida through the Panhandle attended and testified in opposition to the closure on gag grouper. The statements by recreational interests were bolstered by written comments from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission which also opposed the gag grouper closure on anglers.

CCA members and others in support at the meeting also wore brightly-colored tags with the words “NO GAG GROUPER CLOSURE, FLORIDA’S RECREATIONAL FISHERS HAVE ALREADY DONE MORE THAN THEIR FAIR SHARE.”

Previous Management Inequities
At the meeting, CCA Florida presented an analysis of Gulf grouper landings before and after federal regulations which clearly indicated that the Council’s past actions toward recreational fishermen in gag grouper management have been horribly inequitable. The cumulative impact of 11 years of Gulf Council gag grouper regulations have caused the average annual recreational landings to be reduced by 42 percent. Commercial landings have not been reduced at all. In fact, after enacting previous federal regulations, average annual commercial landings have increased by 7 percent.

In addition, CCA pointed out that conservation of gag grouper is not an issue because a recent stock assessment indicates that, thanks to the greatly reduced take by recreational fishers, gag grouper are no longer overfished.

Red Grouper Proposals Being Considered
As part of a mandatory effort to stop overfishing and restore depleted red grouper stocks in the Gulf, the Council is proposing regulations to reduce both commercial and recreational takes of red grouper by 45 percent. For the commercial side, the Council is proposing to prohibit longlining in waters less than 50 fathoms deep. In recent years, the commercial industry has taken 75 percent of the total Gulf red grouper landings. Commercial bottom longlines take 66 percent of that total.

The Council’s proposal also gives the commercial industry an 8 percent harvest reduction “credit” toward the necessary 45 percent reduction in red grouper landings for the existing one-month closure. However, as CCA predicted when it was enacted, the current one-month closure has not reduced commercial landings. In fact, landings went up in the first year of the closure. Giving “credit” for the closure amounts to double counting a fake, ineffective regulation. The Council should instead include additional “real” regulations to control and reduce commercial take.

For the recreational side, the Gulf Council is proposing a one fish bag limit with a July closure on red grouper only for recreational anglers. In addition, as requested by CCA Florida, the Council will examine a red grouper two fish bag limit with a minimum size increase from 20 to 22 inches as an option for recreational fishers. CCA Florida feels that two of the current five fish aggregate grouper bag limit could be red grouper. This would reduce recreational angler landings by about 6 percent, not the 45 percent that the Council wants to impose on both sectors. However, based on what the Council has already done to recreational fishers in gag grouper regulations, it’s reasonable to suggest that the Council take the greater percentage reductions for red grouper recovery out of the commercial industry. It would not compensate for the unfair impacts on recreational fishers in gag grouper regulations, but it would be a good start in the right direction.

[Editor’s note -- Final action on the council proposal took place the week of July 8, 2002. Please see the July 16 CCA Florida Press Release for the new regulations that were adopted by the council.

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Mullet Carcasses Discarded During Roe Season

According to an article published in April in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, west coast mullet netters have returned to a tradition that was all too common before the net ban. Apparently, during last winter’s roe season, mullet cast netters began discarding male mullet and keeping only the more valuable females and the roe they carry.

The problem first came to light when a charter boat skipper discovered hundreds of dead fish floating on the surface in the Gulf of Mexico. Thinking at first that it was red tide, he eventually determined the dead fish were all mullet—and were in fact all male mullet that had been culled so the commercial netters could carry more female mullet which is generally worth five to 10 times as much. In that way they maximize the storage capacity of their mullet skiffs while out castnetting. A fish house operator in Cortez reported that by the end of the mullet roe season netters were bringing in only females.

Law enforcement officers with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have also reported discovering discarded mullet carcasses in Tampa Bay during last winter’s roe season that were left to rot after the valuable roe had been cut out.

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Science on “Safe Havens” as Manatee Birthing Areas

by Ted Forsgren, Executive Director of CCA Florida

Some manatee interests are arguing that areas like Turtle Bay need to be set up with extreme no-entry or no-motor restrictions to provide quiet areas where females can go to give birth. However, available research does not support the idea that areas like Turtle Bay are, or ever will be, used by manatees as birthing areas.

From 1986-1991, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service radio tagged and tracked pregnant females in Brevard County to determine the times and locations where birthing occurred. Remember that Bre-vard County has the largest no-entry and no-motor manatee protection zones in the entire state—the closed area by the Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent no-motor zone in the Banana River.

The research and tracking confirmed the birth locations for five females. None of the births occurred in the huge no-entry or no-motor zones. Three females gave birth in residential canals and boat basins in Brevard County. A fourth female traveled 98 kilometers south to give birth in a residential canal near the Vero Beach power plant.

The fifth female traveled 100 kilometers north by-passing the huge no-entry and no-motor zones to give birth in a newly-constructed boat basin in the Daytona Beach Municipal Marina.

Information Source: J.P. Reid, R.K. Bonde and T.J. O’Shea. 1995. “Reproduction and Mortality of Radio Tagged and Recognizable Manatees on the Atlantic Coast of Florida.”

— U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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Thank You

We are deeply appreciative of Mercury Marine for their continued support of CCA Florida
conservation initiatives.  Mercury donates two motors for every CCA Florida banquet. 

CCA Florida would also like to recognize:

FLORIDA SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE and the WICKSTROM FAMILY for their generous support for our membership growth program and their work for marine conservation in Florida.

STELLA MARINE of Palm Beach Gardens and Stuart for a major Gold Level donation in support of "our waters and fisheries and to do our part to make sure our children have the opportunity to enjoy those great natural resources."

CALUSA CAST NETS and CRACKER CAST NETS for their consistent and longtime support of marine conservation through donated and discounted cast nets provided for every CCA Florida fundraising banquet.

THE ORVIS COMPANY who continues to make a significant annual donation of merchandise to CCA Florida in addition to underwriting a majority of the expenses related to publishing SEAWATCH.

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