CCA Florida Focuses On Illegal Gillnetting (Seawatch, October 2000) by Ted Forsgren
CCA Florida has announced the beginning of a special project to address continuing problems with illegal gillnetting. The Net Ban Enforcement Project, which was announced publicly last month, is a result of growing concern among anglers, fishing guides, and other conservationists that outlaw netting is undermining the recovery of some inshore fisheries. Our goal is to substantially reduce outlaw netting by focusing public and government attention on netting violations, arrests and prosecutions. The new Fish and Wildlife Commission has made improvements in net ban enforcement and has made many arrests. Nevertheless, the poaching continues on a regular basis. Initial efforts of the project will focus on Southwest Florida from Manatee County to Everglades National Park. CCA Florida will be examining all areas of net ban enforcement, documenting various types of poaching activities, arrests and prosecutions. Netting violations will be tracked from arrest to final court action—with special attention paid to major violations and repeat offenders. We are currently tracking about 40 major and first-time violators in Southwest Florida as well as looking into the final resolution in a number of past cases. This is not the first time that poaching activity in Southwest Florida has been thrust into the public spotlight. In July 1998, poachers blatantly stacked the filleted carcasses of 52 undersized snook in the center of a public road on Pine Island (Lee County), Florida. Two weeks later, poachers responded to the public outcry over the incident by dumping another 45 snook carcasses on the side of the road. The area is also a hotbed of illegal pompano netting that threatens the recovery of that species. [For more on illegal pompano netting see FWC Considers Rule Changes to Address Illegal Pompano Netting.] Even though the new Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has stepped up enforcement efforts, their resources are stretched thin with responsibilities for boating safety, manatee speed zones and fisheries enforcement. Outlaw netters are taking advantage of the lack of on-the-water presence. It also appears that they’re taking advantage of an overloaded judicial system when the cases are taken to court. In a recent Miami Herald article, Lt. Steve Mevers with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Lee County said illegal netting is a "nonstop problem" despite strict penalties adopted by the Florida Legislature. "The penalties don’t seem to matter to them," Mevers added. "The money and profit are still there for those who want to gill net. Right now the fines are a cost of doing business... The fishermen have gotten much better at violating the law." As it turns out, CCA Florida has discovered that in many cases, convicted netters aren’t even paying civil penalty fines. The poaching operations use spotters with cell phones and night vision equipment, monitor law enforcement radio frequencies, and hide gill nets in mangroves and marshes for use later in nighttime poaching activities. When spotted, netters commonly attempt to flee endangering both Marine Patrol officers and the public. For example, in an incident that occurred in March in Charlotte County, two netters, one a known multiple violator, were spotted by law enforcement officers using a monofilament gill net in state waters. In attempting to escape, they rammed a Lee County Sheriff’s patrol vessel twice, and dumped a gill net into the water in an attempt to foul the propeller of the pursuing craft. Civil Penalties As part of its investigations CCA Florida has been looking into the application of civil penalties against net ban violators. During the 1996 and 1997 legislative sessions, CCA Florida worked with legislators to strengthen penalties for net ban violations. Laws were passed that restricted judges’ ability to withhold adjudication more than one time for each netter, and allowed for civil penalties of $2,500 for a first offense and $5,000 for a second offense to be applied by the state resource agency. Since that time, 160 civil penalty notifications have been sent to commercial violators based on the disposition of cases involving net ban violations. Of these, 32 violators were notified of a "first strike" against them but the penalty was waived because of late notification to the state. Of the 128 remaining civil penalty recipients, only 14 have paid their fines. Forty-five of the violators who have failed to pay civil penalty fines for illegal netting received more than $800,000 from the state’s net buy-out program which followed the net ban in 1995. Of those 45 violators, 17 received between $5,000 and $10,000, 11 received between $10,000 and $20,000, six received between $20,000 and $50,000, and five current net ban violators received more than $50,000 from the buy-out program. Of the 32 violators who weren’t assessed civil penalties, six had previously received more than $10,000 from selling their nets. Marine Law Enforcement Highlights Despite the current poaching problems, the FWC can point to a number of law enforcement successes. Following are a few examples.
Council Takes First Steps To Protect Dolphin And Wahoo (Seawatch, October 2000) By Ted Forsgren In September, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council adopted and sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the first federal fishery management plan and regulations for dolphin (mahi mahi) and wahoo. Although the Council fumbled on one of the significant allocation issues, overall, they enacted some very good, proactive management measures which will protect dolphin and stop the development of a directed commercial longline fishery. The dolphin fishery has always been predominantly recreational; however, in recent years, a number of commercial longline boats began to directly target dolphin. Some boats landed as much as 28,000 pounds per trip. The longline threat and the absence of any federal fishery management plan or regulations moved the South Atlantic Council to initiate Council plans for dolphin in the Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean regions. Also recognizing the longline threat and the tremendous value of dolphin to the saltwater recreational fishing industry, CCA developed a "Five Point Plan and Recommendations for Dolphin" which was supported jointly by CCA Florida, CCA Georgia, CCA South Carolina and CCA North Carolina. We’re pleased to report that, except for the issue of "historical allocation," the Council incorporated most of CCA’s recommendations into their final actions. The Florida and Georgia representatives on the Council led the way for most of the conservation-oriented measures, while all the North Carolina representatives argued for higher commercial trip limits and a guaranteed commercial quota, as well as higher recreational bag limits and no minimum size limits. The management measures adopted by the Council and awaiting NMFS approval are as follows: * A commercial trip limit of 1,000 pounds off of Florida and Georgia, and 3,000 pounds off of South Carolina and North Carolina. This measure will stop the development of a directed longline fishery while allowing the traditional commercial hook-and-line fishery to continue. * A prohibition on the use of pelagic drift longlines to take dolphin or wahoo in any of the areas recently closed by the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) to swordfish and tuna longlining. This measure eliminates a major loophole in the NMFS area closures and will prevent longliners in the closed areas from redirecting their fishing effort from swordfish to dolphin and wahoo. Coupled with the NMFS plan, the Council measure effectively removes all pelagic longlining from the entire Gulf Stream off of Florida’s east coast from Key West to Georgia. * A recreational and commercial minimum size of 20 inches (fork length) off of Florida and Georgia (no minimum size off of North Carolina and South Carolina). The minimum size is probably the easiest, least disruptive way to regulate recreational take while providing enhanced resource protection. Research indicates that dolphin grow extremely fast and most are sexually mature at 20 inches. * A 10 fish bag limit or 60 fish
boat limit, whichever is less, for recreational fishermen.
* Prohibit the sale of dolphin by
recreational fishermen. * Establish an allocation measure which allows commercial interests to take 13% of the total landings or 1.5 million pounds, whichever is greater. This measure will result in a shift in historic allocation because the long-term average (1984 - 1997) is 89% recreational and 11% commercial. Additionally, the 1.5 million pound commercial quota is greater than the total pounds landed commercially in 11 of the last 14 years. CCA is concerned about this provision because we do not want the same kind of shift from recreational to increased commercial take that occurred as a result of federal regulations in the amberjack, gag grouper and shark fisheries. However, the other commercial controls, particularly the trip limits and longline area closures, should provide sufficient controls in the short term and allow the allocation issue to be readdressed. The NMFS recently published 1998 information on the total marine fishery landings, both shellfish and finfish, in all coastal states. Their data indicates that in the southeastern U.S. from North Carolina to Texas, commercial fishermen take 94.6% of the total marine fishery landings. Recreational fishermen take only 5.4%. In dolphin management and allocation, CCA and the recreational fishers are not asking for any more fish, we simply want to maintain the historical allocation as a predominantly recreational fishery. CCA Takes Stand To Protect Threatened Billfish (Seawatch, October 2000) by Rick Farren A recent drift longline management regulation issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is an improvement in juvenile swordfish protection but it fails to address excessive billfish, shark and sea turtle bycatch from Gulf and Atlantic longlines. With ineffective time and area closures and no vessel buy-out, the NMFS new regulation offers no overall reduction in commercial longlining effort and, in fact, threatens to shift effort and increase wasteful bycatch in other U.S. waters. In response, CCA and the Billfish Foundation have filed suit in federal district court to force NMFS to comply with congressionally-mandated bycatch reduction requirements and to protect against harmful overfishing. "Although the NMFS plan, combined with proposed dolphin longlining regulations, shifts most of the longline effort away from federal waters off Florida’s coast, it’s still a major disappointment in respect to fisheries-wide bycatch reduction," said Ted Forsgren, executive director of CCA Florida. Federal legislation, which was backed by CCA during this past congressional session, offered viable solutions to virtually all Gulf and Atlantic longline management problems. It would have closed nearly 160,000 square nautical miles of U.S. ocean in the south Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to longlining. Additionally, by creating an extensive longliner buy-out program, the measure would have insured a significant reduction in billfish and juvenile swordfish bycatch, a reduction in the longlining fleet and an overall reduction in longlining effort. FWC Considers Rule Changes To Address Illegal Pompano Netting (Seawatch, October 2000) By Ted Forsgren At its September meeting in Deland, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) directed its staff to draft a proposed rule to manage the commercial pompano fishery by establishing allowable harvest zones and trip limits and special-activity licenses and endorsements. CCA Florida has been supportive of anti-poaching restrictions since calling for an investigation, in February of 1999, into the rising commercial pompano harvest. Commercial landings of pompano declined dramatically shortly after the net ban went into effect in 1995 because virtually all commercial take was done with gill and trammel nets in state waters. Within a few months fishing guides and recreational anglers began to see dramatic increases in pompano. However, illegal pompano netting and net ban violation arrests became widespread, while at the same time pompano landings rose to pre-net ban levels. The vast majority of fish brought to market were reportedly caught in federal waters nearly nine miles offshore. Pompano abundance has again declined dramatically, particularly in Southwest Florida. CCA Florida Recommendations CCA Florida made the following recommendations to the Commission, in Deland, regarding the ongoing pompano poaching problem.
Cobia Considered For Stronger Protection (Seawatch, October 2000) by Rick Farren In May, during a meeting in Pensacola, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) held an initial public hearing and discussion regarding cobia management. Anglers and charter boat captains from the Panhandle testified that they were seeing fewer and fewer cobia during the annual spring migration. They believed that the major problem was individuals and charter captains, with commercial saltwater products licenses, targeting cobia specifically to sell. Often these boats hold six to eight people including captains and crew, allowing them to take and sell two fish per person. The FWC requested staff to further investigate the issue. CCA Florida’s executive committee discussed the situation and adopted a position statement which recognizes that in the long term, as in the successful management of redfish, eliminating financial incentives to exceed cobia limits through a prohibition on sale will be essential. In the meantime, CCA Florida supports "restricted species" status which will prohibit all sale of recreationally-caught cobia, including fish caught during charter or guide trips. In addition, the daily bag limit for both commercial and recreational anglers should be reduced to one fish per person with a maximum boat limit of four fish. The state of Texas and Mississippi have already prohibited commercial harvest and sale of cobia. Florida currently has a two-fish per person bag limit and a minimum size of 33-inch fork length for both commercial and recreational fishermen. The same regulations are in place for federal waters in the Gulf and South Atlantic. At its September meeting, the FWC requested the drafting of a rule that would designate cobia as a "restricted species" and would establish a one-fish daily bag limit for recreational fishermen and a four-fish daily vessel limit for all harvesters. CCA Florida Comes Through For Fish Hatchery (Seawatch, October 2000)
At the recent Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) meeting in Deland, representatives of the Tampa and Pinellas chapters presented the Fish and Wildlife Foundation with a check for $12,000 to be used for improvements at the Port Manatee Redfish Hatchery. The money, which was raised by the two chapters through local volunteer events, will be used to purchase badly-needed bird netting, pipes and plumbing fixtures. The bird netting is extremely important to successful raising of hatchery redfish in the one-acre ponds because of the heavy losses to invading flocks of cormorants and other wading birds. At the same meeting, thanks to a grant from the FishAmerica Foundation, CCA Florida’s state office was able to donate an additional $10,000 to the hatchery for the purchase of aerators that will allow the fish-raising operation to expand into additional rearing ponds that are already on the sight.
CCA members from the Tampa and Pinellas chapters have also been contributing volunteer man-hours at the hatchery on a number of structural projects, and this spring hope to put up additional netting and help with the cleaning of ponds between broods.
Legislative Conservation Awards For 2000 (Seawatch, October 2000) The Coastal Conservation Association of Florida has selected the following seven state legislators to receive Legislative Conservation Awards in recognition of their support for marine fisheries conservation issues during Florida’s 2000 legislative session.
"The support of these legislators was extremely important in obtaining $2 million for law enforcement overtime in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) budget," said CCA Florida Executive Director Ted Forsgren. "Such funding was critically needed to address the continuing and serious problems with illegal netting in many areas of the state." Additional budget items for which the legislators provided crucial support and leadership include: $600,000 for construction of artificial reefs, $300,000 for saltwater fisheries stock enhancement research, and $100,000 for repairs and upgrades at the FWC Marine Fish Hatchery. Amendments to continue the tarp "scam" net program were also stopped during the 2000 legislative session, and spending safeguards for the use of saltwater recreational fishing license revenues were protected. "Florida’s saltwater anglers and other conservationists should thank each of these legislators for their committed work on marine fisheries conservation," said Forsgren. "Their efforts further enhanced the 1999 merger of Florida’s fish and wildlife agencies and the restoration of Florida’s coastal fisheries." Dr. Edwin Roberts, Jr. Receives CCA Florida Conservation Award (Seawatch, October 2000)
CCA Florida’s Board of Directors is proud to name Dr. Edwin Roberts, Jr. to receive the CCA Florida Conservation Award. The Conservation Award is presented only to those individuals who have demonstrated outstanding effort and long-term commitment to the protection and management of Florida’s marine fishery resources. During the battle for the "net ban" constitutional amendment, Dr. Roberts was a vocal and visible proponent of the amendment in Northwest Florida. In that effort, he appeared on numerous talk-radio and television shows, even in the face of hostile opposition from the commercial fishing industry. In 1999, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Dr. Roberts to serve on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. His lifelong experience as a saltwater angler and his years of work in fisheries conservation battles have made him a very knowledgeable and effective Fish and Wildlife Commissioner. During his term so far he has taken strong positions in support of the FWC’s decision to stop the giant tarp "scam" net program, and to establish stable, conservation-oriented regulations for red snapper. Commissioner Roberts is also leading the FWC’s drive to stop illegal gillnetting in many areas of the state. Tampa Bay All-Release Tournament (Seawatch, October 2000) Thanks to the hard work of a dedicated group of volunteers, the Tampa Bay Chapter of CCA Florida held another successful All Release Flats Challenge on September 29-30. This annual event, which this year drew more than 190 anglers from around the state, was the first major tournament in the country to use instant cameras and measuring boards to record each catch and allow for a careful release. Anglers are also required to use just the lures provided by the tournament, which evens the playing field and adds to the fun of the event. Entry fees for the tournament include a one-year membership in CCA Florida. CCA Wins Battle For Gulf Red Snapper (Seawatch, October 2000) In August, the 11th circuit court in Atlanta rejected an appeal by the Texas Shrimp Association (TSA) which threatened to remove bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) from Gulf of Mexico shrimp nets. CCA intervened in the original lawsuit more than two years ago in support of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s position to maintain the required use of BRDs in portions of the Gulf. The landmark decision, handed down after more than two years of legal battle between the Coastal Conservation Association and TSA, will continue vital protection for Gulf red snapper stocks. "This ruling is a tremendous victory for the conservation of red snapper," said Will Ohmstede, vice chairman of CCA. "It will continue to protect millions of juvenile red snapper from being destroyed in Gulf shrimp nets and help protect recreational anglers from further reductions in bag limits and untimely seasonal closures." Gulf shrimp nets destroy an estimated four to 12 million juvenile red snapper annually, which results in an estimated 65 to 80 percent mortality in the juvenile population. A 1998 ruling by the National Marine Fisheries Service requiring the use of BRDs in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico has reduced red snapper bycatch by as much as 50 percent, while reducing the shrimp catch by only 2 to 5 percent. "The suit was just another attempt by the shrimp industry to deny their role in the current problems facing red snapper stocks," said Bob Hayes, CCA’s General Counsel. "The bycatch is so extensive that without BRDs, red snapper stocks cannot recover." The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is currently recommending further implementation of BRDs to all shrimp trawlers in both inshore and offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. CCA strongly supports this recommendation for the conservation of marine fisheries.
Thank You CCA Florida would also like to recognize:
Click here to see our 2000 Fall Banquet Schedule. |
Richard
Seward, Vice President, Tampa Chapter; Sean Glucken, Co-President,
Pinellas Chapter; and Steve McCreary, President, Tampa Chapter
present a $12,000 check to Linda Bremer, Florida Wildlife Foundation
Board member; also present were Julie Morris, Chair of the FWC
and Allan Egbert, Executive Director of the FWC. 
Dr.
Roberts was chosen for this award because of his strong commitment
to marine conservation.
