Tag Archives: gill net ban
20 years after gill net ban, poaching persists along west coast
It was just after midnight Monday when two commercial fisherman saw the blue lights of law enforcement and made a break for it near the mouth of the Manatee River. The water chase was brief, wildlife officers say, because in the end the fisherman got tangled up in their own illegal net. It’s been 20 years since Florida voters, 72 percent of the vote, approved a constitutional amendment banning the use of gill nets within nine miles of Florida’s Gulf Coast and three miles of the Atlantic Coast. The ban was hotly contested and ultimately put out of business about 1,500 commercial fishermen whose livelihood depended on the practice. Read the article here 20:34
Florida Supreme Court Upholds Net Ban
Florida’s Supreme Court this week denied a petition by commercial fishermen to overturn the state’s Constitutional amendment banning gillnets. The ruling from the state’s highest court puts an end to the latest challenge brought by commercial fishermen who won a sympathetic circuit court ruling in 2013 allowing them to briefly reintroduce gill nets into Florida waters. Read the rest here 14:53
Guest column: Follow the Will of the Voters – Keep the Net Limitation
On May 15, the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee heard yet another legal challenge to the net limitation placed into the state Constitution in 1994 by 72 percent of Florida’s voters. This critical conservation issue was placed on the ballot 20 years ago after many years of short-sighted management of public marine resources that allowed huge nets to be used in our state’s salt waters. These nets, which catch fish by entangling them by their gills,,, Read more here 10:02
