johndiver999
Contributor
So you changed your tune. Before it was "I would support a sustainable harvest"... now it seems to be more honest and implies that opening the fishery (at all) is like opening Pandora's Box. We won't be able to close it or go back and consumptive users will never be satisfied - those are primarily political arguments.
If the fishery is to be opened, then it should be done because a sustainable harvest is possible. Citizens have a right to kill and eat and to harvest wild animals - if the take is sustainable. FWC promotes fishing and hunting! Is turkey hunting allowed because otherwise the woods would quickly be overrun with turkeys? I kinda doubt that.
As previously mentioned, the goliath population 50 years ago may have very little relevance to what can be generated now due to reduced juvenile habitat availability.
FWC and fisherman should NOT have to demonstrate that jewfish are eating "everything" - the bar is actually much, much lower... it should be: Can a sustainable harvest be initiated with careful monitoring? 100 fish is nothing!
Also goliaths DO compete with fisherman for targeted game and food species! To argue otherwise is nonsensical when there is so much overwhelming evidence of it occurring. As mentioned, feeding studies appear to document that grouper and snappers etc. are not important items in their typical diet, but that is irrelevant in this case.
The goliaths are concentrated on wrecks and artificial reefs (as are other fish). The (very common) problem arises when a fisherman hooks or spears a fish and the goliaths have been trained to immediate attack and steal the struggling or compromised fish. They can be so effective, that it prevent fisherman from actually landing a fish. This is EXTREMELY frustrating to fisherman.
The difference in behavior between goliaths that have become habituated to "stealing fish" on popular fishing sites versus their normal behavior on natural reefs in less popular or further offshore sites is dramatic. For example, if you spearfish in areas that are rarely frequented by divers, the jewfish just move off or hide and they might give out a boom or two as they move off. These types of individuals are zero concern to spearfisherman. Contrast that to popular wrecks where goliaths will leave the bottom and actively approach a diver in the water column and if/when the gun is fired, they know exactly what that means and they will often attack instantly.
All these learned behaviors don't make the species bad or worthy of elimination, but they are super frustrating to spearfisherman and hook and line fisherman and they do present a potential hazard - particularly to freedivers who might get tangled in a speargun line after a goliath grabs the fish and runs for a hole in the bottom.
The argument that fisherman are ignorant when they complain about negative interactions because poorly funded scientific feeding studies show game fish predation is unimportant (from a large scale, ecosystem approach) is very shortsighted and equally tone deaf to the political realities of the situation.
Also, the issues you raise about barotrauma caused by fisherman trying to harvest goliaths is a straw man argument. There are many people who target jewfish for fishing now - they apparently do catch and release. If catch and release has some kind of terrible impact, then why has it been going on now for years and years - with no obvious negative consequences?
Would fishing for a 100 fish make a difference?
From my perspective, there is no convincing scientific evidence that taking 100 fish (for one year) is not currently supportable. The real question is more nuanced and primarily political... is it a good idea to open Pandora's Box?
If the fishery is to be opened, then it should be done because a sustainable harvest is possible. Citizens have a right to kill and eat and to harvest wild animals - if the take is sustainable. FWC promotes fishing and hunting! Is turkey hunting allowed because otherwise the woods would quickly be overrun with turkeys? I kinda doubt that.
As previously mentioned, the goliath population 50 years ago may have very little relevance to what can be generated now due to reduced juvenile habitat availability.
FWC and fisherman should NOT have to demonstrate that jewfish are eating "everything" - the bar is actually much, much lower... it should be: Can a sustainable harvest be initiated with careful monitoring? 100 fish is nothing!
Also goliaths DO compete with fisherman for targeted game and food species! To argue otherwise is nonsensical when there is so much overwhelming evidence of it occurring. As mentioned, feeding studies appear to document that grouper and snappers etc. are not important items in their typical diet, but that is irrelevant in this case.
The goliaths are concentrated on wrecks and artificial reefs (as are other fish). The (very common) problem arises when a fisherman hooks or spears a fish and the goliaths have been trained to immediate attack and steal the struggling or compromised fish. They can be so effective, that it prevent fisherman from actually landing a fish. This is EXTREMELY frustrating to fisherman.
The difference in behavior between goliaths that have become habituated to "stealing fish" on popular fishing sites versus their normal behavior on natural reefs in less popular or further offshore sites is dramatic. For example, if you spearfish in areas that are rarely frequented by divers, the jewfish just move off or hide and they might give out a boom or two as they move off. These types of individuals are zero concern to spearfisherman. Contrast that to popular wrecks where goliaths will leave the bottom and actively approach a diver in the water column and if/when the gun is fired, they know exactly what that means and they will often attack instantly.
All these learned behaviors don't make the species bad or worthy of elimination, but they are super frustrating to spearfisherman and hook and line fisherman and they do present a potential hazard - particularly to freedivers who might get tangled in a speargun line after a goliath grabs the fish and runs for a hole in the bottom.
The argument that fisherman are ignorant when they complain about negative interactions because poorly funded scientific feeding studies show game fish predation is unimportant (from a large scale, ecosystem approach) is very shortsighted and equally tone deaf to the political realities of the situation.
Also, the issues you raise about barotrauma caused by fisherman trying to harvest goliaths is a straw man argument. There are many people who target jewfish for fishing now - they apparently do catch and release. If catch and release has some kind of terrible impact, then why has it been going on now for years and years - with no obvious negative consequences?
Would fishing for a 100 fish make a difference?
From my perspective, there is no convincing scientific evidence that taking 100 fish (for one year) is not currently supportable. The real question is more nuanced and primarily political... is it a good idea to open Pandora's Box?