Tag Archives: Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission
FF&WC assessing spiny lobster’s role in protecting state’s coral reef
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission acknowledged Friday they are researching if the eating habits of the spiny lobster can help preserve the state’s fragile coral reef ecosystem. “We are looking into whether spiny lobsters, especially the spotted spiny lobster, because it feeds directly on the reef, while the Caribbean spiny lobster, feeds mostly off of the reef in the surrounding seagrass and hardbottom habitats, can be used as a form of biocontrol of the invertebrates like fireworms and corallivorous snails that eat coral,” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:22
Hurricane Ian: How will the stranded shrimp boats on Fort Myers Beach be cleaned up?
“You come and you see your business sitting on land when it’s supposed to be in the water,” said Tacey Gore, the owner of the shrimp boat Lexi-Joe. Over the last three weeks, Gore and her husband haven’t been seeing anything but their boat on dry land. Unlike the boats scattered along San Carlos Boulevard that are mangled and in the mangroves, cranes aren’t picking the ships up and it might be awhile before they do. “The cranes are massive,” Gore said. “They have to come in parts and get put together. They’re basically going to have to set up a makeshift boatyard here.” Getting a crane that big is just part of the problem. Getting it through the Matanzas Pass is another problem. Video, >click to read< 15:06
Stone crab season opens Oct. 15 with new regulations in place
For roughly a week now, armadas of Floridian crabbing fleets and their deckhands have boated miles offshore into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean to lay their traps on the depths. Come Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020, these crabbers will venture out again to launch Florida’s stone crab season, hauling in anticipated bounties of Menippe mercenaria and their treasured claws. “We’re putting them out right now,” Richard Stiglitz, owner of the Homosassa-based Salty Bones Fisheries, said about 650 of his 10,000 traps. It’ll take some time before crabbing crews know what kind of season they’ll have. >click to read< 10:05
Florida stone crabbers asking FWC to hold off on new rules
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission may enforce tougher rules on fishing to help increase the stone crab population, but fishermen say that could destroy their business. We talked to some of the members of the Florida Stone Crabbers Association who say a one-two punch of COVID-19 and these new rules will make a bad situation even worse. “I’m afraid that’s it’s going to cripple the livelihood of so many people out there,” said Carrie Doxsee. FWC says the state’s stone crab population is declining due to overfishing. Video, >click to read< 09:59
Apalachicola Bay Oystermen to Lose Livelihoods – Supreme Court defers ruling on water war
Florida is poised to close Apalachicola Bay to oyster harvesting in a board vote slated for July 22. The proposed closure is the most dramatic step to be taken by Florida during its longstanding complaint against Georgia. The closure would start Aug. 1 and extend through Dec. 31, 2025. “You’ve got people out there working in the bay,” commission Chairman Noah Lockley Jr., a commercial fisherman said at the commission’s July 7 meeting. “These people need to either get some help or get some retraining, or something. That’s what they’re supposed to do, but they’re just going to come shut the bay down. Possession of an Apalachicola Bay oyster in or on the bay would be banned, as would be possession of the wooden tongs used to harvest oysters. >click to read< 11:09
The Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant is leaking radiation contamination into Biscayne Bay
Wednesday’s news of radiation contamination emanating from the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant leaking into Biscayne Bay alarmed Florida Keys citizens on every level. First, the Keys drinking water comes from the same neighborhood as the plant. Second, the affect to the fishery — so close to home waters — could also have an enormous impact. Florida Keys Commercial Fishing Association’s Bill Kelly said he called on Nick Wiley, the director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, to study the problem on Wednesday. “We need to test the lobster, shellfish and finfish in Biscayne Bay,” Kelly said. “We need to know if there’s any concern about public consumption of any of those products collected in that area.” Read the rest here 09:20
Cortez fisherman’s case to Supreme Court next month
Sandy Yates was walking past her front door with a laundry basket that day in 2010 when she noticed something a little peculiar: Federal agents in bulletproof vests were standing on her porch. “Is your husband home, Ma’am?” one of them asked. “No,” she said. “He’s on a crab boat.” So the agents drove down to the docks of Cortez and waited for John Yates, an amiable grandfather in his late 50s with the same craggy face that all fishing captains seem to have. Read the rest here 23:45
How Destroying Fish Is Not Like Destroying Financial Records – Click Here
Overcriminalization is a significant problem in the United States, particularly federal overcriminalization. There are a variety of reasons for this, but one is that federal prosecutors consistently stretch laws to encompass conduct that the law was never meant to cover. Normal people who committed minor infractions will often find themselves facing long prison sentences that are entirely disproportionate to the wrongness of the act. Such is the case in an upcoming Supreme Court case, Yates v. United States. While commercial fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, John Yates Read more here 20:25
Appeal panel hears debate over mesh size in Florida fishing net rules
TALLAHASSEE _ A long-running legal battle that sits at the odd intersection of politics and commercial fishing took another step forward Thursday in a Tallahassee appeal court hearing. Read more here 11:52
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officers seized 2 tons of illegal Apalachicola oysters
Law enforcement officials seized 4,000 pounds of illegally harvested oysters earlier this week in Apalachicola and stopped the haul from heading to seafood markets. The oysters were harvested from bars closed until summer and are an example of the recent wave of abuse on a resource that state agencies, oystermen and the Gulf community have been scrambling to bring back to healthy levels. Read [email protected] 16:06
Crews in Florida count scallops to determine water quality
SANIBEL ISLAND, FL – Hundreds of volunteers spent their Saturday morning counting scallops. It sounds silly, but the scallop population has plummeted in recent years because of red tide and freshwater releases. [email protected]
