Keys fishermen said a resounding “no” at a public workshop Thursday in Key Largo to a controversial federal proposal to use catch shares to manage the commercial snapper-grouper fishery in the South Atlantic.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council says nine stocks of snapper-grouper from North Carolina to the East Coast of Florida are either overfished or about to be depleted to unhealthy levels. Since 2008, the council has been discussing the use of catch shares as a tool to stop overfishing and boost stocks.
If that referendum were held today in the Keys, it would be thumbs down – if comments at Thursday’s meeting are any indication.
“There’s probably going to be two-thirds of the fishermen now are going to be out of business,” warned Bill Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association. “We are talking in excess of 2,000 people. You would literally collapse the economy of the Florida Keys.”
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