Nice black grouper caught in Biscayne National Park.

South Florida anglers and boaters made their feelings known to Biscayne National Park managers during mid-September public meetings in Miami, Homestead and Key Largo.

It comes as no surprise that the overriding message was: Beef up fisheries resource law enforcement rather than close public fishing waters within park boundaries.

Naturally, Park officials quickly parroted that same old gloomy message—there’s no money in the budget to permit that.

“If I want to improve fisheries resources in the park, I can’t depend on law enforcement because I can’t get the budget to do it,” said BNP Superintendent Marl Lewis.

Yet park users are told by the feds that there is an emergency—a depletion of reef fish in park waters. And the park has a burning desire to fence off tracts of reef bottom to keep anglers out, and allow divers in, to see an ecosystem “unimpaired” by fishing.

The real emergency is the dearth of law enforcement on Biscayne National Park waters. And nearly every speaker in attendance was quick to point that out.

As for Superintendent Lewis’ waving the white flag over law enforcement, the following comments, submitted electronically to the Miami Herald, sum it up:

“Your constituents want more law enforcement. The fishermen and divers want you to do something about the scofflaws. And if you are unable to do what the park’s users and owners want, maybe you should step aside. It is our park, you are our hired hand, please do the job your constituents want done, or just move on to Montana now.”

And yet another commenter insisted on accountability along with law enforcement:

“How about legislation that would mandate stiff penalties for fish and game violators, including mandatory equipment and vehicle forfeitures? Of course, the legislation would also have to mandate that the fines and all receipts from the sale of seized assets would be dedicated to law enforcement only, and not dumped into some federal “slush fund” for an unrelated pork project.”

CCA Florida was represented by vice chairman Jeff Allen. “I’ve fished for 20 years in Florida and I’ve never been checked while out on the water. I have been checked at the ramp. But if you want to catch people doing something illegal, then get out there,” said Allen.

Spearfishers, too, voiced displeasure with the park’s proposal to close waters to fishing or spearfishing, and many spoke out against proposals to establish a boating user’s fee or permit.

John Walter, who spearfishes and fishes with rod and reel, called fees or permits “heavy handed.”

“If the key is to control the harvest and control access, a fish tag system might be the best approach,” said Walter.

Coral Gables angler Richard Kernish, who has fished for bonefish and permit in park waters since the early ‘80s, spoke about the troubling history of reactive rather than proactive management in both Biscayne and neighboring Everglades National Park.

“Just as Everglades rangers did little to stem shallow boat running and prop scarring over the last 20 years, Biscayne has had too few rangers to check boats for fisheries and resource violations for as long as I can remember. It’s time for the parks to enforce laws rather than exclude anglers,” said Kernish.

Public comment is welcome until Oct. 6. Comments may be submitted electronically at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/bisc.