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Gag Grouper Rules To Tighten Despite Pleas From Local Captains

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By FRANK SARGEANT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 3, 2008

So much for public input.

Despite testimony from dozens of offshore skippers who, without exception, reported gag grouper numbers at very high levels, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council last week voted to tighten harvest regulations on the popular reef species. Grouper harvest would be shut down from Jan. 15 to April 15, and the bag limit dropped from five fish to one if the rule gets final approval this spring. The overall grouper bag limit would drop to three fish of all species.

The aim is to reduce harvest at least 45 percent, in an effort to assure that more gags survive to full spawning maturity. The federal regulators chose to believe dock and telephone surveys rather than reports from the captains and divers at the St. Petersburg meeting, even though many reported remarkable numbers of the fish both inshore and offshore.

"My clients often catch 100 gags a day," said captain Dave Mistretta of St. Petersburg. "We will get 10 or 12 slot fish out of that."

Mistretta called the federally accepted surveys "ludicrous" for their inaccuracy.

"There are not many days that we don't approach 100 grouper," said captain Rick Rodriguez of Hernando Beach. "And these fish are in close much of the year, 25 to 45 feet. It's not like I'm running out a hundred miles offshore. I can't imagine how any survey could possibly come up with the numbers federal personnel are using."

Rodriguez said he had offered to take federal survey personnel out on his boat to show them the abundance of the fish, but had been refused repeatedly. He said he spends an average of 250 days a year on the water.

"I know what's happening out there, and there absolutely is not any decline in the numbers of these fish," Rodriguez said.

Leon Kass, who operates a marine electronics engineering facility, said pressure on offshore fish has been a fraction of historic levels for the last year because of fuel prices, which dramatically cut back on recreational trips.

"I just laid off 12 people, to give you an idea of how this market has slumped, and now you the council want to shut it down even further," Kass said. "We have electronics now that they could use to mount accurate surveys that are based on real conditions, but they have refused my offers to help them set something like this up."

Spearfishing charter operators also testified that tighter limits or closing fishing during the prime winter tourist season likely would put them out of business.

But the pleas all fell on deaf ears on the council.

"They already had their minds made up before the hearing," said tackle shop owner Vance Tice of Tampa. "You wonder why they bother even to go through the motions."

The rules also will have a major impact on grouper showing up on restaurant menus and in fish markets. The council set a 1.2 million-pound annual quota for Gulf gag harvest. When the limit is reached - probably in the fall, if patterns hold - all fishing for reef species would be shut down. The current annual commercial take is around 2.6 million pounds.

To the council's credit, it is constrained to halt "overfishing" on any species within two years under federal law. But at issue is the survey method used to determine that overfishing.

Two years ago, the same survey methods were used to declare an emergency shutdown on red grouper. A few months later, after a lawsuit by the Recreational Fishing Alliance and the Coastal Conservation Association, the rule was reversed and red grouper were declared to be in fine shape - as anglers had told the regulators prior to the shutdown.

On the bright side, any rules that limit harvest are likely to improve fishing; we surely will see more and bigger grouper if the rules are put into place. But if the feds wipe out the reef charter and dive-boat industry, tackle shops, boat companies and associated marine products manufacturers - all based on rather shaky data - it will be an enormous and shameful economic mistake.

ETC.: Captain Sergio's Saltwater Fishing School begins Monday at 6:45 p.m. at Brandon High. The three-week class costs $75. For details, visit www.reelfishy.com or call (813) 973-7132. ... I will join captain Mel Berman of WFLA, 970 AM, for a fishing clinic Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Hurricane Pass Anglers Club, American Legion Post 7, 1760 Turner St., Clearwater; the public welcome. ... Captain Chet Jennings joins Berman for an inshore fishing clinic Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Toyota of Tampa Bay, 1101 E. Fletcher Ave., Tampa; (866) 438-8696. ... I will present a free fishing clinic Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club, Compton Center, Tampa Palms.

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