Time to thin the herd?

[tekkydiver]

Can't hook a permit up on a SW Florida wreck w/o donating it to a Goliath. Over in SE Florida, they enjoy large quantities of lobster. I think it's time for some sensible management. Not so endangered anymore.

FWC to decide on fishing season for endangered Goliath grouper

 

[tridacna]

"Management". Like they're a pest all of a sudden. Stocks are healthy so let's slaughter them. Brilliant idea. Not.

 

[scubadada]

Can't hook a permit up on a SW Florida wreck w/o donating it to a Goliath. Over in SE Florida, they enjoy large quantities of lobster. I think it's time for some sensible management. Not so endangered anymore.

FWC to decide on fishing season for endangered Goliath grouper

As a diver, how could you possibly support this? I have a friend on the Castor, Wilbur, and a friend on the outside of Boynton Reef, Ralph. I would hate to lose either one on them to some greedy fisherman.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

As a diver, how could you possibly support this? I have a friend on the Castor, Wilbur, and a friend on the outside of Boynton Reef, Ralph. I would hate to lose either one on them to some greedy fisherman.

There are different varieties of divers out there, some of whom think "WAAH, THE MEAN GROUPER/SHARK TOOK MY FISH/LOBSTER!!!!" is a sufficient excuse to "thin the herd." At last July's public meeting on the topic in Palm Beach County one former poster on these boards offered up a similar rationale which more or less amounted to this:
I'm hopeful that more reasonable heads will prevail; going by the staff presentation posted on FWC's website the staff recommendation to the commissioners is to continue to evaluate the issue over the next 3-5 years. At the two public comment meetings I attended last year my gut feeling was that the staff weren't sold on a limited harvest either and were just carrying out their marching orders to put it up for public comment, so I'm not particularly surprised.

Personally, I don't consider individual fish "friends" and can't say I'm adamantly against ever opening goliath grouper to harvest; the goal of fisheries management is to maintain or improve fish populations to the level where they can sustain a fishery take. However, there's insufficient data to suggest we're there yet with the goliath grouper - the last several stock assessments conducted were tossed out the window due to deficiencies in the data and while they're certainly numerous in some parts of Florida, they are not in other parts of the state or their overall historic range. Also, as they're considered unsafe for consumption due to mercury content, killing one would be entirely for sport. FWC has gotten repeated earfuls on this matter from concerned parties over the past year and will get it again at this week's meeting.

Basically all the pro-harvest proposal has to stand on is complaints from the fishing community that the goliaths are taking their fish; as with sharks they got used to the days when other predators were so scarce that they didn't have to fight for a catch. The sensible ones have adapted their fishing tactics to the healthier ecosystem.

 

[seeker242]

Basically all the pro-harvest proposal has to stand on is complaints from the fishing community that the goliaths are taking their fish

Not even close to being good enough. Fishermen's inability to manage fish stocks is the very reason why we have a need for fishing regulations to begin with.... Fishermen are not the ones to be deciding matters of fishing regulations. Asking fishermen to decide matters of fishing regulations is like asking Phillip Morris to decide matters of tobacco regulations...

 

[scubadada]

Anyone who has a chance should try to attend the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee meeting tomorrow and Thursday in Ft Lauderdale Agenda

 

[drbill]

I guess some folks just don't like a little healthy competition from a species which they nearly doomed

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Anyone who has a chance should try to attend the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee meeting tomorrow and Thursday in Ft Lauderdale Agenda

I was there yesterday and today to observe the sessions on land-based shark fishing and goliath grouper. Very positive developments on both issues; the commission directed staff to explore additional regulations for the former and a goliath grouper harvest is off the table, at least for now:

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/sports...mmission-tackling-goliath-groupers/546491002/

I believe the applicable term was "overmatch." I'm not sure if the total included those such as myself who signed up to speak but donated their 3-minute timeslot to another speaker, but out of 56 members of the public who addressed the meeting only one CCA representative and one sportfishing lobbyist spoke up in lukewarm support of a limited harvest. It was a similar story with sharks the day before where 21 members of the public spoke, none of whom were land-based shark fishermen. One commercial fisherman went off on a similar tangent as I previously lampooned; the remainder spoke in favor of additional regulation and enforcement of shark fishing from the beaches.

As the saying goes, 90% of life is showing up.

 

[100days-a-year]

Goliath harvest is gonna happen eventually in some form.Fisheries managers are tasked with maintaining healthy stocks and when considered healthy they will open a species up to forms of harvest deemed environmentally responsible.
It may be 5 years or 20 but the there is a population benchmark once met they will have a hard time legally denying harvest.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Goliath harvest is gonna happen eventually in some form.Fisheries managers are tasked with maintaining healthy stocks and when considered healthy they will open a species up to forms of harvest deemed environmentally responsible.
It may be 5 years or 20 but the there is a population benchmark once met they will have a hard time legally denying harvest.

That was the sentiment expressed by the commission and one that I do agree with; the issue is that right now we don't have the data or the benchmarks to determine whether the stock is healthy or not. The directive given to the FWRI staff was to come back by the end of the year with criteria and methods to determine what those benchmarks are to declare the population "recovered," which is what they should have done before proposing a limited harvest.