I. RECOMMENDATION
· The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission should not act to authorize more commercial netting in the inshore waters of Martin County.
· CCA Florida strongly opposes any actions to repeal laws which prohibit the use of seine nets in the inshore waters of Martin County - or any other such laws in other counties.
II. COMMENTS
1. PORTRAY THE OPTION CORRECTLY
One of the three stated options is to repeal the local rule to allow the "statewide net gear rule" to apply so that 500 sq. ft. seines can be used just like the rest of the state. That portrayal is very misleading because 500 sq. ft. seine nets are not allowed in all the rest of the state. In Palm Beach County, immediately adjacent to Martin, all nets except "common cast nets" have been prohibited in the inshore waters since 1939. Similar restrictions have been in place in Broward and Dade Counties for many years as well.
2. MARTIN COUNTY ISSUE NOT UNIQUE
The provisions of the Martin County special act which prohibit the use of all seines except for minnow seines not longer than 30 feet are not unique. There are numerous special acts which remain intact or have been incorporated into MFC (now FWC rules) which prohibit the use of all nets, except hand-held cast nets, in all inshore waters or in specified inshore waters. A very brief review of existing laws shows that such special acts on netting prohibitions include, but are not limited to:
- Volusia County
- Pinellas County
- Palm Beach County
- Flagler County
- Santa Rosa County
- Indian River County
- Pasco County
3. PAST POLICY OF MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION
The MFC's past policy with regard to reviewing and modifying all these netting special acts after the net ban amendment passed was to:
- Remove obsolete provisions such as mesh size and net length restrictions on gillnets.
- Specifically retain any restrictions on netting which were more restrictive than the restrictions in the net ban amendment. Usually no consideration was given to repeal unless there was support from the local government. This past policy of the MFC is clearly indicated by a simple before and after analysis of the actions taken by the MFC on all these local laws.
4. REPEAL SETS BAD PRECEDENT AND BAD POLICY
If the Commission chooses to go back and repeal the Martin County law the FWC will be making a major change in past policy and will be opening the door (or Pandora's box) for a wave of similar requests around the state. The first request you will get is from commercial net fishers in Oak Hill/Mosquito Lagoon in Volusia County.
· ISSUE IS NOT JUST THREE OR FOUR NET FISHERS IN MARTIN COUNTY
Repealing the prohibition of seine nets will open up the waters to any number of net fishers.
· FAILURE TO ENFORCE A LAW IS NOT CAUSE FOR REPEAL
· OPENING UP NEW AREAS TO SEINE NETTING ABUSES WHICH ARE ALREADY OCCURING IN OTHER AREAS OF THE STATE
Current seine netting abuses include carrying numerous nets and tying them together, multiple boat with multiple nets tied together, and the use of "entanglement seines."
III. CLOSING COMMENTS
In discussing this issue with local fishing clubs, guides and anglers in Martin County, we have had difficult time trying to get people to understand that the FWC might act to authorize more inshore commercial netting. For the most part, they simply do not believe that in this day and time, the Florida Commission would ever take such action.
CCA Florida strongly urges the Commission to not reverse past policies and begin actions which would authorize or encourage additional commercial seine netting in inshore waters of Martin County or any other county where such nets are currently prohibited.
