Back to work, grouper diggers. Two major public hearings are coming up, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

You need to attend one or both of them if anglers are going to defeat a controversial federal proposal to cut the red grouper bag limit in half, from two to one, and impose a three-month recreational closure on all groupers.

Both hearings start at 6 p.m. The first is June 28 at the Naples Hilton, 5111 Tamiami Tr. N.

On Wednesday, June 29, you can be heard at the City of Madeira Beach, 300 Municipal Dr.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which came up with the proposal, will conduct the hearings. They'll be followed by a hearing in Fort Myers July 14 before the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. NMFS has final authority but the Council, in effect, can put in its own advisory opinion.

Meanwhile, a storm of protest continues to build against the restrictions.

Nine U.S. Congressmen from Florida have sent NMFS a strong letter attacking the data used to form the proposal as "suspect," adding that a closure would cause "undue hardship."

Earlier, the state's Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission unanimously voted to oppose the three-month closure and expressed skepticism about the supposed 130 percent increase in recreational landings during 2004.

More recently, new catch data for the first four months of 2005 do not jibe with last year's totals, which are estimated from a combination of phone calls and dock samplings. In fact, the four months for this year show a total that is 56 per cent lower than the 2004 spike that led to the current proposal.

Anglers also are expressing outrage at the fact that commercial longlines and other market gear take 80 percent of the red grouper catch even though recreational angling supports many times more jobs and other economic benefits, as well as providing benefits for hundreds of times more citizens.

FS