This one red grouper would represent this man's bag limit, if the new regs pass.

When the Council announced its proposed plan in March, the CCA and FRA requested public hearings before any action would be taken. The Council agreed to hear public comment at a series of meetings and has indicated it will announce a decision in July.

If the bag limit reduction and seasonal closure are enacted, Florida can expect an enormous economic impact as many recreational boats—which vastly outnumber commercial boats—stay at port and forego their usual expenditures on fuel, oil, bait, ice, food, beverages and equipment.

That might be a bitter pill more easily swallowed if the Council prescribed equal medicine for the commercial industry. But the Council’s history of bowing to commercial lobbying offers little hope for equitable decisions.

Forsgren notes, “There’s more red grouper being allocated to a small handful of longlining boats than to the entire recreational fishery. We think that’s totally out of whack. Our question is that how in the world can you [close the recreational season] when you’re allowing commercial longliners to take 10,000 pounds of red grouper per trip. That makes no sense.”

Three years ago, the Gulf Council was actually poised to prohibit commercial longline fishing in waters shallower than 300 feet. It was a proposal supported by CCA, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other conservationists. As damaging to reef habitat as it is to fish stocks, the multi-hook, passive longline gear was long ago outlawed in Florida state waters, South Atlantic federal waters, and some parts of the Gulf of Mexico. On the Gulf red grouper grounds, however, longline fishing grew unchecked until, by the late 1980s, it accounted for the lion’s share of the regional grouper haul—eclipsing recreational catches. As evidence of a red grouper stock decline in the Gulf emerged in the late 1990s, authorities finally began taking an honest look at removing longline gear from the red grouper grounds. After some backroom meanderings, the Council reversed course in 2003 when NMFS mysteriously produced a rosier stock assessment for red grouper. Instead of curtailing longline fishing, the Council trimmed the commercial quota and cut the recreational bag limit from 5 red grouper per person, to 2.

Fast forward to 2005: For the feds to further trim already meager recreational limits, based on highly suspect data, is unacceptable, if not downright insulting.

Hopefully, a seabreeze of sensibility will dispel the haze of statistical misrepresentation behind the latest NMFS plan. Otherwise, it would be a tragic day when the local fish market is the only spot recreational anglers will be allowed to visit for red grouper.

Next month: While anglers accept single-fish limits and closures, fisheries managers typically dole out excessive amounts to commercial interests.

FS