January 12, 2014 — Anyone who fishes in saltwater in South Florida likely has been befuddled trying to stay within the law while simply catching dinner.
Nowhere is this problem more vexing than the Keys, where an angler could be subject to four sets of regulations — Atlantic federal and state waters and Gulf federal and state waters — on a single fishing trip. Throw in special regulations in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Everglades and Biscayne national parks, and it’s enough to make an angler’s head explode.
Said Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council member John Sanchez of Homestead: “Right now, honest to God, you’ve almost got to bring your Philadelphia lawyer with you when you go fishing. Let’s make this a little simpler for the public because some of this is absolutely crazy.”
Simplification is what a joint committee of the Gulf and South Atlantic councils set out to do at a 2 1/2-day meeting last week in Key Largo: identify species suitable for South Florida-specific regulations and cut down on cross-jurisdictional, conflicting rules. A separate ad hoc steering committee was established to tackle the controversial issue of whether to reopen the harvest of Goliath grouper, closed since 1990 after the fishery collapsed. The meeting was the first of several, and any and all recommendations will have to pass muster with both councils and NOAA Fisheries.