SEAWATCH March 2004 Issue #99

Table of Contents:

• Major Netting Bust Makes Case for Stronger Penalties -- by Rick Farren
• 2004 Legislature to Consider Stronger Netting Penalties
  
• CCA Florida Proposes Alternatives to Biscayne National Park No Motor Zones -- by Ted Forsgren
• BLUEWATER CAMPAIGN -- NMFS Abandons Important Conservation
  Initiative in Dolphin Fishery Plan
• Ghost Net Found off St. Lucie Inlet
• Marine Conservation Initiatives for 2004
  

Major Netting Bust Makes Case for Stronger Penalties

by Rick Farren, Communications Director of CCA Florida

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers arrested two commercial fishermen in the largest illegal inshore fisheries case ever made in Lee and Charlotte counties. The officers seized nearly 6,000 pounds of illegally-caught mullet and 900 yards of monofilament gill net from a lagoon on the Gulf side of Cayo Costa Island in December.

The recent arrests were made during a detail targeting illegal commercial fishing operations in the Matlacha and Cayo Costa areas. When officers attempted to stop and inspect the suspect’s vessel, the two fishermen jumped from the vessel, ran ashore, stripped off their fishing apparel and ran barefoot down the beach, straight to another officer, who made the arrests.

“These types of major violations, and the continued problems with repeat offenders, will only be reduced if the legislature passes stronger penalties for net ban violations,” said Ted Forsgren, CCA Florida Executive Director.

For more than a year, CCA Florida has been actively seeking stronger penalties to curb ongoing net poaching activities in state waters. (See 2004 Legislature to Consider Stronger Netting Penalties.)

“Currently, it's a felony to ‘molest’ a crab trap in state waters, but only a misdemeanor to illegally-harvest thousands of pounds of fish,” said Forsgren.

A check of the vessel revealed a large amount of mullet and a gill net still half deployed. The fish and gill net remaining in the water were so heavy it took officers 17 hours to recover and dispose of the illegal catch.

One of the commercial fishermen arrested is a habitual offender of the state’s constitutional ban on the use of entanglement nets in state waters and other fisheries-related offenses. In October, he was charged, along with four other Lee County residents, with scheming to defraud the state through the illegal sale of $100,000 worth of saltwater products. He was also arrested and convicted in Manatee County in September 2001 and on June 26, 2003, he was arrested by FWC officers for net-transit violations.

A sampling of other netting incidents over the past few months clearly indicates the need for stronger penalties:

In April 2003, 600 yards of gill net along with permit, sheepshead, black drum, snook, bonefish and redfish were confiscated in Collier County from a “blacked-out” skiff by FWC law enforcement officers. Also in April, a net limitation detail in Manatee County encountered a group of fishing vessels that fled as the officers approached. One netter was caught with a 500-yard gill net. A night flight that same month resulted in the confiscation of a 650-yard monofilament net.

Heavy equipment was needed to recover nearly three tons of illegally-harvesed mullet.

In May, FWC officers confiscated 1,400 yards of monofilament and nylon gill nets from coastal waters of Franklin and Wakulla counties. The previous spring officers discovered 1,500 yards of hidden gill nets.

In June, 300 yards of hidden gill nets were discovered in Wakulla County.

In July, two fishermen were caught with 5,855 square feet of illegal seine nets.

In August, 800 yards of abandoned monofilament gill net was found in Wakulla County.

In September, 1,086 pounds of mullet and 200 yards of monofilament gill net were confiscated in Franklin County. In Levy County an abandoned gill net with oversized mesh was discovered with an entangled and dead, 100-pound sea turtle.

In October, a covert detail in Bay County arrested nine individuals, and recovered 13,000 square feet of seine nets and 4,000 pounds of ladyfish and Spanish mackerel.

In November, three gill nets, including one containing rotting fish, were discovered by flight surveillance.

In December in Manatee County, an il-legal, 2,210-square-foot seine net was confiscated. In Citrus County a 2000-square-foot gill net and a quantity of mullet were seized. In Taylor County a 1,250-square-foot monofilament gill net was confiscated.

In January 2004, a suspect in Lee County was caught using two, 2,000-square-foot seine nets. Three netters were caught with a 400-yard gill net and 1,800 pounds of mullet and two violators were caught with a 600-yard gill net. In Citrus County, 200 pounds of mullet and 2,900 square feet of seine net were confiscated. In Taylor County, a 300-yard monofilament trammel net was discovered hidden at the coast.

[return to Table of Contents]

CCA Florida Proposes Alternatives to Biscayne National Park No Motor Zones

by Ted Fosgren

Biscayne National Park contains some of the finest saltwater recreational fishing areas in Florida. Its location in highly urbanized southeast Florida also makes it an extremely valuable component of Flo-rida’s $4.5 billion saltwater recreational fishery. High recreational usage is one of the major values and benefits of the park, but such recreational use can create both management challenges and opportunities. In recent years, some groups and managers have been promoting “no-entry” and “no-fishing zones” as a means to protect natural resources. Such measures have been proposed even before more reasonable and proven measures have been tried.

The real challenge to park managers is to not shut down access, but rather to work cooperatively with recreational fishers to develop plans which provide access as well as resource protection.

The most important action park managers can make is to use the recently-formed Biscayne National Park Fishery Working Group to make specific recommendations and modifications on the proposed zones in the park’s preferred alternative. Local knowledge and local buy-in is critical to the success of the plan and the Fishery Working Group contains diverse and knowledgeable local interests.

Such groups have previously been used by the National Park Service in Florida to develop access and resource protection plans. For example, about 10 years ago, Ft. DeSoto National Park, Pinellas County, and knowledgeable local anglers and guides developed a successful plan which provided seagrass and manatee protection and access for various types of fishing.

At a recent meeting of the Biscayne Fishery Working Group, park staff stated that, according to creel surveys, 40-45 percent of the mutton and yellowtail snapper taken in the park are undersize. Such information demonstrates that the park already has a serious enforcement and public information problem. Adding more regulations with complex zones and areas is not going to provide any real benefits unless the existing enforcement and public information problems are resolved. Using the local Working Group can help by enhancing local buy-in and voluntary compliance.

Access Restriction Zones in the Draft Alternatives
CCA firmly believes that no-fishing/no-entry zones should be the last, not the first, management option pursued. However, four of the five management alternatives proposed by the park contain increasingly larger “no-combustion engine zones.” The size, management and configuration of many of these zones will make them defacto no-fishing zones. We feel that the park should modify these zones to provide access corridors for reasonable “on plane” boat speeds or slow-speed zones, or reduce the overall size of the zones. The local Working Group can easily provide specific recommendations along these lines.

For example, the no-combustion engine zones in the Arsenicker Keys area in two of the alternatives are 2-miles wide in some areas. In addition, the Featherbed Bank no-combustion engine zone is about 1.5 square miles. Such zones would effectively eliminate most recreational fishing.

Not everyone has the financial means to afford a boat with a poling platform and/or electric trolling motors. Even with such equipment, poling or electric trolling for 2 miles in and 2 miles out of an area is very difficult or even impossible under some wind and tide situations. We recommend that much of these zones be eliminated and/or modified to “slow speed” with some designated higher speed access corridors. Such designations would allow use of a combustion engine while still providing protection for seagrasses and other resources.

Two of the five alternatives contain “access by permit only” zones. CCA Florida does not support this concept. It is unclear from the park’s proposals who or what would be allowed and who would be excluded. In addition, the current enforcement problems indicate that such measures would be extremely difficult to implement. Thus, any possible benefits from such zones are highly questionable.

For more information, and to view maps of the proposed zones, go to www.nps.gov/bisc/, then click on Management Docs.

More information on CCA’s position on Marine Protected Areas.

[return to Table of Contents]

NMFS Abandons Important Conservation Initiative in Dolphin Fishery Plan

In a shocking move, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has removed critical conservation measures, including commercial trip limits, from a federal management plan for dolphin and wahoo, despite the plan’s unanimous passage by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

“The plan as originally developed by the Councils is exactly the way fishery management should work. It fixed the problems before any had a chance to develop,” said Fred Miller, chairmen of CCA’s Government Relations Committee. “With the stroke of a pen, NMFS has essentially told the entire Council system that it should not pursue precautionary measures in fisheries management and should instead try to salvage a stock after it is too late.”

In developing the plan, the South Atlantic Council, in conjunction with the Mid-Atlantic and New England councils, had recognized that the vast majority of dolphin are caught by recreational fishermen and stipulated that management should be designed primarily to benefit the recreational fishery.

For more than a decade, conservationists have voiced concerns that the commercial longline industry’s intense fishing effort could shift to traditional recreational species like dolphin and wahoo after regulations were implemented in traditionally commercial pelagic fisheries. To prevent the expansion of a directed commercial longline fishery for dolphin, the South Atlantic Council plan included a commercial trip limit of 3,000 pounds off of North and South Carolina and 1,000 pounds off of Georgia and Florida. Additionally, a control date of May 21, 1999, was adopted to limit entry into the fishery. The NMFS action to remove the commercial trip limits and the control date from the plan came more than three years after the plan was submitted by the Councils.

“Initially, we were very encouraged by the Council’s proactive proposal to protect this important recreational fishery,” said Michael Kennedy, CCA Florida Chairman. “However, the NMFS’ decision now makes this fishery vulnerable to exploitation by the commercial longline industry.”

In the late 1990s, CCA Florida worked closely with state chapters in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and with CCA National staff to create strong grass-roots support for CCA recommendations on dolphin management. Although many of CCA’s recommendations were incorporated into the final plan, the primary objectives were to stop commercial longlines from directly targeting dolphin and protect the longstanding status of the dolphin fishery as an overwhelmingly recreational fishery.

“CCA has relentlessly pursued a solution to the problems caused by longlining. Unfortunately, this action reduces the overall conservation benefit of the plan,” said David Cummins, CCA president. “This is a step backward for conservation-minded management and CCA will not let it go unchallenged.”

[return to Table of Contents]

Ghost Net Found off St. Lucie Inlet

An abandoned gill net containing hundreds of dead sharks and other fish and a loggerhead sea turtle was discovered eight miles off St. Lucie Inlet near Stuart in January.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) helicopter located the 250-yard gill net and directed a patrol boat to the site. Divers and special agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) assisted in the recovery.

“Retrieving this net was a priority for us,” NOAA special agent Jeff Radonski said. “The potential for even more incidental killing of sharks, sea turtles and fish was tremendous.”

Law enforcement officers have appealed to the public for help in tracking down the owner of the gill net.
Anyone with information can contact the FWC’s toll-free Wildlife Alert Hotline at (888) 404-FWCC or *FWC on a cellular phone (#FWC in some areas) or call NOAA Fisheries at (321) 269-0004. Callers to the FWC’s number can remain anonymous and may qualify for a reward. [PHOTOS]

[return to Table of Contents]

Marine Conservation Initiatives for 2004

In February, CCA Florida’s Board of Directors approved the organization’s 2004 Fisheries Conservation Work Plan. Following are highlights of that plan. For more information on any of CCA Florida conservation initiatives, or contact the Tallahassee advocacy office at (850) 224-3474.

Net Ban Enforcement
CCA Florida will continue to support stronger net ban enforcement efforts throughout the year by documenting poaching operations and highlighting major netting arrests. During the 2004 legislative session, CCA will be working for passage of an FWC-recommended increase in penalties for major netting violations from a misdemeanor to a felony, the same penalty that currently exists for “molesting” a crab trap in state waters.

The CCA Board also approved initiation of a program to address the use of so-called “cast gill nets,” which are being used to entangle Spanish mackerel on Florida’s southeast coast. Opposition will also continue to commercial industry lawsuits seeking to allow the use of 500-square-foot gill nets with unlimited mesh size.

Saltwater Fishing Access—Marine Protected Areas
CCA will continue to oppose large-scale and arbitrary marine “no-take, no-fishing” reserves while advocating for more effective, proven fisheries management measures. Alternatives are being prepared to plans by Biscayne National Park to develop large, no-motor zones in Biscayne Bay that affectively prevent most fishing access.

Recommendations by the South Atlantic Council will be monitored to insure anglers’ concerns are considered.

Support will also continue for the CCA-sponsored Freedom to Fish Act which has been introduced in the 108th Congress.

CCA's Position on Marine Protected Areas.

Bluewater Campaign
Final passage of the long-awaited federal Dolphin and Wahoo Management Plan failed to include commercial bag limits that would have prevented development of a major commercial dolphin longline fishery. In 2004, CCA will seek to reintroduce those measures to insure protection of the species and to maintain the traditional commercial/recreational harvest levels.

In the Gulf of Mexico, CCA is seeking the reconsideration of a dolphin management plan by the Gulf Council.

Fisheries Management Plans and Regulations
CCA will seek additional FWC rules to close poaching loopholes in the commercial pompano fishery, and protect permit with a size and boat limit similar to rules that currently govern cobia take. Joining with CCA National, CCA Florida will seek stronger Gulf Council controls on commercial gag and red grouper, and red snapper harvest in the Gulf of Mexico. Recommendations by the South Atlantic Council regarding grouper, snapper and amberjack rules will also be monitored.

Legislature 2004
In addition to seeking tougher net ban violation penalties, CCA will work with legislators to ensure the proper, mandated use of recreational saltwater fishing license monies. Other specific FWC budget items receiving support include $600,000 for continued state-wide artificial reef construction, and funding for the saltwater redfish hatchery at Port Manatee.

CCA Florida's 2004 Legislative Updates.

Saltwater Fishing Access—Manatee Zones
CCA will be working with the FWC on implementing “measurable biological goals” to require manatee protection and management by science instead of lawsuits and emotion. CCA staff will also review and comment on FWC manatee protection plans as they relate to saltwater fishing access.

CCA Florida's position on Manatee Protection and Angler Access

[Return to Table of Contents] [Return to CCA Florida home page] [Return to list of SeaWatch publications]

CCA Florida is deeply appreciative of YAMAHA for their continued support of marine conservation initiatives in Florida.  YAMAHA outboard engines are available for auction at every CCA Florida banquet and provide a valuable fundraising opportunity for the organization.

CCA Florida would also like to recognize:

WEST MARINE COMES ONBOARD
CCA Florida would like to acknowledge the very generous support from WEST MARINE in the form of gift cards for local chapter banquets. WEST MARINE was also a major matching contributor to the most recent annual fall fundraising appeal, providing a major commitment to conservation of Florida's marine resources.

FLORIDA SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE and the WICKSTROM FAMILY continue to provide generous support for CCA Florida's membership growth programs and for marine conservation in Florida.

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

THE ORVIS COMPANY continues to make a significant annual donation of mercandise to CCA Florida. The staff and members of CCA Florida are deeply grateful to Orvis for their commitment to marine conservation and their support of our efforts.

OCEAN WAVES is demonstrating support for conservation by providing four pairs of high-quality sunglasses and a Guy Harvey Print to each of CCA Florida's fundraising banquets.