May
1998Issue #72
May
1998Issue #72
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Legislators to Poachers-Time to Stop Gill Netting in Florida Waters
by Rick Farren
Newly passed legislation restricts possession of gill nets on small boats and addresses conflicts of interest on fishery management councils.
Nothing ever seems to happen easily during a Florida legislative session, but for the second year in a row, CCA Florida representatives and conservation-minded legislators have conducted a down-to-the-wire campaign to a successful conclusion. When the dust settled, two very important pieces of legislation were passed that will improve protection and management of Florida's marine resources.
"In the end it was another great legislative session for fish," declared Ted Forsgren, CCA Florida Executive Director. "The measures to control outlaw gill netting were essential. If they had not been approved, then the magnitude of illegal netting during this year's fall mullet season would have exceeded anything this state has ever seen."
Two days before the end of the session, the House actually killed one bill (SB 152) by a vote of 66 to 42, only to have it rise from the dead the next day. Eventually, in the final hour of the final day, bills to improve net ban enforcement and to keep lobbyists off fishery management councils obtained final approval. Once again, Senator Jack Latvala was the major driving force behind the legislation.
This year, the struggle to get strong marine resource protection legislation passed was not primarily a result of disagreements with the commercial industry. Most of the fishery issues had been worked out between commercial and conservation interests. The fisheries legislation was instead held hostage by the House during the final week of the session because of disputes with the Senate on other issues. Fortunately, the disputed issues were settled in the final hours and the legislation was allowed to move to final approval.
Senate Bill 1506 by Senator Latvala (R-Palm Harbor), with House sponsor Representative Everett Kelly (R-Tavares), is the major marine fisheries bill to come out of the session. In its final version it contains many new provisions sought by conservationists, state agencies and the commercial fishing industry.
At one point during the session a number of negative amendments were added to the legislation including a definition for seine nets of 3-inch stretched mesh, effectively turning them into gill nets. "Our position was that we could not accept any type of setback on enforcement of the constitutional gill-net ban," explained Forsgren. Sponsors of the bills also indicated a commitment to withdraw the legislation if the 3-inch mesh stipulation wasn't removed.
The possibility of no legislation being passed was enough to encourage the commercial interests to withdraw the negative amendments because of measures in the bill they were seeking which had no impact on gill net enforcement measures.
The new laws contained in SB 1506 that are related to net ban enforcement include: a prohibition on the possession of any gill net on any airboat, on any vessel less than 22 feet in length, and on any vessel less than 25 feet in length if the primary power of the vessel is forward of the vessel center point. These laws will improve enforcement in parts of the state where the local judiciary has been loosely interpreting current net transit laws.
The bill also contained a directive to the Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) instructing them to adopt rules which prohibit the possession and sale of any mullet taken by illegal gill or entangling nets. (Gill netting leaves telltale marks on the bodies of fish.) Violations of these two new laws will be subject to the major net ban fines and penalties passed during last year's session.
"We've provided important new tools to the Marine Patrol," said Forsgren, "and reduced the window of opportunity for poaching in state waters without hurting legitimate commercial activities."
For the commercial industry, the bill will actually have a very positive effect on the state's legitimate castnetters who have been negatively impacted by the rampant poaching of mullet by gillnetters. It also contains language that will stabilize the stone crab and blue crab fishery, and the collection of marine tropical fish. Without legislation, a moratorium on entry into the stone crab industry would have expired on July 1, allowing a rush into the fishery.
SB 152, by Sen. Jack Latvala, with House sponsor Rep. R. Z. "Sandy" Safley (R-Clearwater), prohibits the Governor from nominating for appointment to the federal fishery management councils any paid lobbyist for any entity whose interests are affected by the actions of the councils. The bill comes in response to an appointment last year of a paid commercial lobbyist to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
Both bills will still have to be either signed by the Governor or allowed to become law without a signature.
Thanks go to all CCA Florida members and members of the grassroots network who wrote and called their legislators to encourage passage of this important legislation. Your efforts really made a difference.
MFC Rule Defining Seine Nets Approved by Governor and Cabinet During a Busy Day in the State Capitol
Sometimes a lot can happen on just one day in the effort to protect Florida's marine resources.
On March 24, the Governor and Cabinet approved a new Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) law which clearly defines and distinguishes legal seine nets from illegal gill nets, thus ending the use of "scam" gill nets in the Panhandle.
A group of commercial netters and a local judge have been claiming that a loophole in the definition of a seine net allows them to use 500-square-foot "seine" nets with 3-inch stretched mesh throughout the net except for a small section of true seine material. The result was effectively a gill net of the same type that was specifically outlawed by the Save Our Sealife constitutional amendment.
It was the same ploy commercial netters used during the net buy-out program in which millions of taxpayer dollars were used to purchase more valuable "seine" nets that were basically gill nets with a small piece of seine material sewn-in.
The Marine Fisheries Commission, in an effort to enforce the constitutional netting restrictions, consequently passed a rule which defined seine nets as having less than 2-inch stretched mesh throughout. Commercial industry attorneys immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the rule. They lost when an administrative law judge ruled in favor of the MFC's right to pass the rule.
Although commercial attorneys appealed the judge's decision, that didn't prevent the Governor and Cabinet from voting for the new rule. Nor did it prevent its implementation on April 13.
The motion and second to approve the MFC law were made by Attorney General Bob Butterworth and Secretary of State Sandra Mortham. Governor Lawton Chiles spoke in favor of the law noting that it would provide a clear "bright line" distinction between legal seines and illegal gill nets which was necessary for both net fishers and law enforcement officers.
Implementation of the new MFC rule effectively deflated a ruling just a few days later by Circuit Court Judge Charles McClure that the phony "seine" nets were legal under the Constitution.
The case was brought by a Wakulla County commercial fishing organization attempting to gain legal support for the bogus nets.
Legislative Committee Attempts End Run
On the same day of the Governor and Cabinet vote, members of the House Water and Resource Management Committee in the Florida Legislature were adding language to a fishery bill that would have allowed the use of 3-inch mesh on seine nets. "The amendment was specifically directed at undermining the action taken by the Governor and Cabinet," said Ted Forsgren, executive director of CCA Florida. "It was an attempt to legalize the use of 3-inch mesh gill nets in all Florida waters."
The 3-inch definition was later removed from the legislation.
In both governmental forums, Wakulla County netters argued that small-mesh seine nets would kill too many "baby" fish.
"I find it difficult to believe that the netters are genuinely concerned for the occasional 'baby' fish killed in a seine net when they show no concern for the many millions of juvenile fish killed as by-product of commercial shrimping operations," said Forsgren.
The MFC estimates that more than 100 MILLION POUNDS of juvenile fish and other marine life are killed and discarded by shrimp trawlers in Florida every year.
"Their concern for 'baby' fish is just a ploy to get to use gill nets to kill the 'mother' fish," said Forsgren, referring to spawning female mullet which are harvested for their high-priced roe.
Ironically, on the very same day that the House Committee was voting to damage new enforcement measures, and the Governor and Cabinet were voting to strengthen net enforcement, Florida Marine Patrol (FMP) officers were involved in a major, anti-poaching operation just 25 miles south of the Capitol.
While patrolling the coastal marshes along the Wakulla County coastline an FMP search helicopter had located several large stashes of illegal gill nets. FMP officers on the water, with the help of the helicopter crew were pulling large numbers of the nets from their hiding places in the marsh.
"In the last two days we've pulled out 10 gill nets hidden in the marshes," said Lt. Eric Johnson, FMP. "Many were 300 to 400 yards long." Lt. Johnson stated that the gill nets were in barrels or on pallets back in the marsh grass and were not visible from water level.
Lawsuit Compels NMFS to Implement BRDs on Shrimp Nets in the Gulf
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has announced that it would finally implement its rule requiring "Bycatch Reduction Devices" (BRDs) on shrimp trawler nets in the Gulf of Mexico.
Shrimp nets kill approximately 80 percent of the juvenile red snapper in the Gulf every year, but until Earth-justice Legal Defense Fund filed its lawsuit less than a month ago, NMFS dragged its feet on implementation of the rule, overstepping its deadline by nearly half a year.
"NMFS knew that the snapper fishery was being devastated by trawler bycatch, but it took a lawsuit to get them to take action. This is a huge victory for the red snapper fishery," said Jamie Brigman, an attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
Unification Amendment Placed on the November Ballot
On May 5, the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) officially placed the Fish and Wildlife Unification Amendment on the November general election ballot. The proposed amendment is now part of a constitutional revision bundle entitled "Conservation of Natural Resources and Creation of a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission." If approved by the voting public the new agency would be established on July 1, 1999.
"I'm very excited about the prospect of an all-out campaign to finally unite our two commissions for the very best resource management system in Florida," said Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee (FWCC) Chairman Curt Kiser. "We're glad this issue is now before the public and we're confident of a very resounding approval rating come November."
If approved by voters, the proposed amendment would combine the existing Marine Fisheries and Game and Fresh Water Fish Commissions. The new agency would be called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and it would have constitutional status with final rule-making authority, allowing for management based on science and conservation, not political pressure.
The Unification Amendment has been endorsed by Coastal Conservation Association Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation, and more than 200 other conservation, environmental, fishing, hunting and animal welfare organizations in the state. It has also been endorsed editorially by nearly all the major daily Florida newspapers.
The only part of the final language conservationists are disappointed in was an amendment introduced by the Department of Environmental Protection during the final meeting that left control of the saltwater fishing license revenues with the Legislature. Some CRC Com-missioners argued that the Legislature should keep control of this money. All other license revenues from freshwater fishing and hunting will go directly to the new commission.
Conservationists will be working during the 1999 legislative session (pending a positive outcome in November) to ensure that saltwater license revenues are also directed to the new commission.
The Unification proposal was adopted on a vote of 34-2 which was the strongest vote of the nine revisions ultimately approved by the CRC. The proposal is now part of a proposed revision that has four distinct parts that will be voted on as a single package.
Section One amends the Natural Resources Clause of the Florida Constitution to require that adequate provision shall be made by law for the conservation and protection of natural resources.
Section Two converts the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission into the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and transfers the jurisdiction of the Marine Fisheries Commission to the new commission. The regulatory and executive powers of the state over fresh water aquatic life, wild animal life, and marine life are also granted to the new commission. There will be seven commissioners appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. The new commission shall not be a subunit of any other government agency and shall be responsible for management, research, and enforcement.
Section Three creates a bond authority for acquisition and improvement of land, water areas, and related property interests for the purposes of conservation, outdoor recreation, water resource development, restoration of natural systems, and historic preservation.
Section Four creates restrictions on disposition of publicly-owned conservation lands back into private hands and sets requirements for a determination that the property is no longer needed for conservation purposes.
A special thanks go out to all the CCA Florida members who wrote letters and attended CRC meetings to speak on behalf of unification. Conservation activist Bud Kilgore, of the Sarasota Chapter, organized a bus load of members to attend an important meeting during the final round of public hearings.
For more information on the Unification Amendment contact the Fish & Wildlife Conservation Committee, PO Box 5848, Tallahassee, FL 32314-5848; (800) 647-9912.