Tag Archives: Net ban
Judge advances lawsuit over California drift gillnet ban
A federal judge has advanced a lawsuit against a California state law that bans the use of swordfish catching gillnets,,, Two fishermen sued the state two years ago, arguing that because they obtained federal permits to use gillnets, California cannot pass a law that deprives them of those federal rights. The fishermen, Joseph Abad and Austen Brown, asked for a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the state law, but a federal judge denied that request. >click to read< 10:17
Net ban at 25: Still stings, still opposed
Red tide, blue-green algae, global warming, sea rise, sewage spills and oil spills combined don’t antagonize commercial fishermen as much as one single, 25-year-old subject. On election day in 1994, Florida voters passed a state constitutional amendment banning Florida commercial fishermen from using gill nets. The law made any commercial fisherman in the state an outlaw who used a gill net to catch mullet, as fishing families had done for generations. >click to read< 08:30
Opinion: Net ban ensnares your right to Florida fish
My interpretation is the people of the state wanted to make sure they could have access to their fair share of the commonly owned fish, and were convinced it was the commercial fishermen who were harming the resource, so their fishing practices had to be modified. Modified, not banned. When the people voted, they did not give authority to define some fish as “gamefish.” Gamefish status went out the window when this new method of protecting our fish went into force. click here to read the story 15:15
‘Tis the Season, Mullet Season that is!
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and with its passing marks the beginning of the most anticipated season of the year, Mullet Season. The fall run of the spawning roe-filled lowly little mullet is what put the small village of Cortez on the map as the largest mullet fishery in Florida.,,, That annual bonanza at the end of the year has become increasingly difficult in the past 20 some years since Article X Section 16, or the “Net Ban” was passed in a Constitutional Amendment that banned the use of entanglement nets in the inshore and near shore waters of Florida. click here to read the story 08:36
Commercial fishermen: Net ban would destroy N.C. seafood industry
A state House bill first introduced 16 years ago has been resurrected that would ban the use of large trawling nets in state waters, a move that the commercial fishing industry says could destroy the livelihood for most North Carolina fishermen. New Bern native Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, filed a bill that would let voters decide whether to outlaw gill and certain other nets in all state coastal waters. If the N.C. General Assembly supports House Bill 1122, the binding referendum would be on the November election ballot. “It would be the end of North Carolina’s (commercial) fishery,” said Wayne Dunbar, a waterman for nearly 40 years, located in Pamlico County’s Paradise Shores on Lower Broad Creek, leading into the Pamlico Sound. “People that don’t fish wouldn’t get North Carolina seafood.” Read the story here 18:44
Selling out the Fishermen and Consumers in Port Phillip
Nets ban snares fishermen – The lost campaign to continue 
in Port Phillip has had a devastating impact on established participants. One Rye fisherman of long standing was too upset to talk last week with his livelihood – and way of life – coming to an end. Seafood Industry Victoria CEO Johnathon Davey said many bay fishermen, after fighting the impending ban for five or even 10 years, had “developed mental health issues which have not been thought through” by decision-makers. Diabolical. Read the article here 15:25
EDITORIAL: Net ban still galls, 20 years on
Okaloosa County got lucky with the net ban. When, in 1994, Florida voters approved a state constitutional amendment outlawing fishing nets larger than 500 square feet, critics warned it would wallop the fishing industry. It did, but commercial fishermen either persevered or found other ways to make a living. That says more about the resilience of fishermen, though, than it does about the wisdom of the net ban. Read the rest here 11:29
