Save the Goliath Grouper!
- Thread starter Catito
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tekkydiver
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A limited harvest would be a good thing.
Who is going to regulate that?
CuzzA
Wetwork for Hire
Yeah. It's funny to me to that the media always mentions South Florida, and only wrecks. As if they didn't have habitat before ship wrecks and as if they don't live in all Florida waters, the longest coast in the lower 48. On the Gulf Coast they are everywhere. Wrecks, ledges, reefs. There's an imbalance to the ecosystem. It's a big lie they only eat crabs and lobsters. We don't have lobsters like South Florida, yet they're abundant all over. Way more here than S. Florida. They eat anything they can fit in their mouth.
That said, this won't pass, just like all of the previous meetings. If it did they'd probably do a limited lottery tag system like they do with bears and gators. If it did happen I would hope spearing would be prohibited gear. Nevertheless, some of these wrecks are literally nothing but jewfish, a sunken boat and bait. The biodiversity is suffering and taking a few of the monster garbage can eaters out of the system would be beneficial.
CuzzA
Wetwork for Hire
I'm in favor of a limited trophy harvest awarded via lottery, with a high tag fee. Put the money toward reef programs.
Allow mounting but require all remaining meat to be donated to scientific study, along with the location culled.
We can study the effects of the culling, along with finally answering rumors about mercury and other diseases.
100days-a-year
Contributor
I'm okay with a limited harvest in certain areas but I have yet to see any evidence they are as well established in all of their traditional range. From the Keys to Ft Pierce they certainly are but as you go north they are not as thick as when I first started diving and I came in just a few years before they were closed.
The GOM certainly seems full of the buggers.
The GOM certainly seems full of the buggers.
You can voice your opinion here:
The Commissioners
There is an option on this page to email all of the commissioners at once. I’ve done so and would encourage all of you, on both sides, to do the same.
The Commissioners
There is an option on this page to email all of the commissioners at once. I’ve done so and would encourage all of you, on both sides, to do the same.
tekkydiver
Contributor
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- 482
100% -- Fisherman and hunters in Florida fund the habitat. I'm all in for divers to pay their share! Just make Florida Fishing licenses mandatory with a Scuba stamp. Fishing Licenses are required for "Catch and Release" fishermen. The money generated would go a long way to preserve and protect the resource. Also, due to toxins, the large Goliath Grouper have no food value. But a cull would help other Grouper populations, as well as Permit and other wreck dwelling game fish they eat. ... And anyone that has baited a hook with a lobster carcass knows how much they love the crustaceans.
HalcyonDaze
Contributor
Yup. Three years ago after a year-long public comment period the FWC commissioners determined that the data was not there to support a reopening of goliath grouper to harvest. For one, there's never been a stock assessment for them that's passed management review. Since then, the commission makeup has changed and at least one of the members added since has reportedly pressured FWC staff to find "alternate data" supporting a reopening.
Suffice to say I'm not a fan of the idea, and the fact that May 12 is going to be a doubleheader also featuring a roundtable panel (sans public comment) on the issue of shark depredation pretty much says what this is about: the perception by certain persons in the fishing community that predator populations which have been in recovery mode for 25-30 years are now "overpopulated" and they want the state to let them be killed off to "balance" the ecosystem. Some aren't even bothering to wait for FWC to change the rules; I'm seeing an increase in dive photos of sharks with gunshot wounds (everything from small-caliber rounds to powerheads to shotguns) and chest-thumping talk on fishing forums of hauling goliaths up, not venting them, and leaving them to die on the surface. One of our former posters said as much the last time reopening goliaths was discussed, telling FWC staff in a public meeting that if the state didn't allow a limited harvest they'd be killed out of spite anyways.
A limited tag program (last time around it was 100 tags per year statewide with a slot limit) is not going to sate that; there have been complaints of "too many" sharks and goliaths for 15-20 years by now. I don't think those complaints will stop until things are back to where they were in the 1980s and 1990s (i.e., hardly any left). It's one thing to determine a species can support harvest to a limit based on hard data. It's another to open it up just because people can't accept they don't have automatic dibs on everything in the ocean and aren't willing to learn how to fish smarter.
Suffice to say I'm not a fan of the idea, and the fact that May 12 is going to be a doubleheader also featuring a roundtable panel (sans public comment) on the issue of shark depredation pretty much says what this is about: the perception by certain persons in the fishing community that predator populations which have been in recovery mode for 25-30 years are now "overpopulated" and they want the state to let them be killed off to "balance" the ecosystem. Some aren't even bothering to wait for FWC to change the rules; I'm seeing an increase in dive photos of sharks with gunshot wounds (everything from small-caliber rounds to powerheads to shotguns) and chest-thumping talk on fishing forums of hauling goliaths up, not venting them, and leaving them to die on the surface. One of our former posters said as much the last time reopening goliaths was discussed, telling FWC staff in a public meeting that if the state didn't allow a limited harvest they'd be killed out of spite anyways.
A limited tag program (last time around it was 100 tags per year statewide with a slot limit) is not going to sate that; there have been complaints of "too many" sharks and goliaths for 15-20 years by now. I don't think those complaints will stop until things are back to where they were in the 1980s and 1990s (i.e., hardly any left). It's one thing to determine a species can support harvest to a limit based on hard data. It's another to open it up just because people can't accept they don't have automatic dibs on everything in the ocean and aren't willing to learn how to fish smarter.
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