On April 22, at the Destin Community Center, recreational anglers will have a chance to discuss issues such as artificial reef deployment, equitable treatment of recreational fishermen (as directed by the Magnuson Stevens Act), and the red snapper season in federal waters. Capt. Kris Tande, a regional director for Senator Mel Martinez, will be present to hear the concerns of recreational anglers, particularly those in the Panhandle.

Organized by the Emerald Coast Reef Association (ECRA), the meeting will give Tande a firsthand look at snapper anglers’ concerns. They’re hope is to eventually receive support from Martinez on critical issues.

Candy Hansard, ECRA director of reef deployment, spelled out some of their concerns.

“Reef building is the answer to improving and maintaining the health of our fishery—we must speak up if we want to save artificial reef building off our coast,” she said.

As recent as last year, Pinellas County had a self-propelled work barge, a four-man reef team, a monitoring vessel, and one of the most active reef-building programs in the state. The program was completely disbanded by Sept. 2007 due to budget cuts.

“We feel the red snapper fishery off our coast is very healthy, and we believe it is due to active reef-building efforts off the northwest Florida coast,” she added. “Unreasonable federal regulations are threatening to harm our fishery and our economy.”

Federal fisheries managers recently decided to close this year’s Gulf federal recreational red snapper season 56 days early on August 5—cutting it to two months total.