'THEY'RE KILLING US': Captains, politicians react and Rodeo reshuffles as feds lock down amberjack (UPDATED)

DESTIN — News that a federal agency had slammed the door on this year’s amberjack season without notice didn’t sit well Tuesday with charter fishermen.

They believe Big Brother is out to take their livelihood from them.

“They’re killing us,” said boat captain Thomas Swanson. “They’re flat killing us.”

Read the press release from the NOAA Fisheries Service »

A morning announcement that no greater amberjack could be caught after midnight Saturday swept across the docks at Destin Harbor. It didn’t take long for an angry group of fishermen to gather to vent.

It also didn’t take long for the fishermen’s frustrations to reach the ears of state Sen. Don Gaetz and, eventually, Gov. Charlie Crist.

Crist said he’d do what he could to help.

“We’ll do all we can as quickly as we can,” he said.

Fishermen said the last week of October is crucial a time when they need to make money.

There are 11 days left in the Destin Fishing Rodeo and, with a ban already in place on snapper, amberjack is the last large fish charter captains know they can find for their customers.

“I’ve been amberjack fishing since they closed the snapper Aug. 15 and now they’re closing the amberjack on us,” captain Greg Marler said. “People are going to quit coming to Destin to fish if they can’t catch anything.”

The announcement that a “recreational quota” of 1.368 million pounds of greater amberjack had been reached went out over the Internet on Tuesday along with word that the season would close.

As the news spread, captains and mates assembled on the dock behind the scales where weighmaster Bruce Cheves presides over the day’s catch during the annual fishing rodeo.

“As we sit here, there’s amberjack being caught on short (four-hour) trips. There’s no shortage of them and there’s no shortage of snapper,” Cheves grumbled. “Economically, they’re killing us. Rodeo entries are down about 25 percent.”

On a sun-kissed October day, most of Destin’s 200-plus charter boats were stuck in port.

The ban on red snapper has devastated recreational fishing in Destin, the fishermen say, and eliminating amberjack will only make a bad situation worse.

“You can see how it’s affecting us by the number of boats at the dock. Usually during October the boats are all gone,” Marler said.

The fishermen say the people making the regulations don’t know what they’re doing and use faulty numbers to support their actions. The snapper are so over-populated now, the fishermen say, that they’ve gone through all the available shrimp and are eating the young of other fish and killing those populations.

Roy Crabtree, the regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service, said his agency gathered its information on pounds of amberjack caught by studying “several different sources of data.”

The data is based on “landings” and some of the data is collected through “dock-side surveys and phone calls,” according to Charlene Ponce, an agency spokeswoman.

Crabtree said data collected this year indicates there could be an amberjack catch that exceeds the annual allotted limit. That would mean harsher restrictions on fishing next year.

Crabtree also said that the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council could be persuaded to change the dates that it closes gulf waters to fishing.

“If folks would rather have closures at a different time of year I would have no problem with that,” he said.

He said the council is scheduled to meet in Destin next August.

The sudden decision to close the amberjack season immediately was another sore spot for the assembled charter fishermen. In 11 more days, Marler said, the fishing rodeo will be over and the amberjack fishery would have several months to recover its numbers.

Destin Mayor Craig Barker said federal regulations are crippling and could eventually destroy the charter fishing industry in his city and elsewhere.

“If allowed to go forward, these closures will further devastate the economies of coastal fishing communities all across the Gulf of Mexico and shatter the lives of the men and women who work so hard to earn their living from the sea,” he said in a news release.

Gaetz sent out a call Tuesday to Florida’s U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and George LeMieux and U.S. Reps. Jeff Miller and Allen Boyd.

“I’ve asked them to join me in asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service to reconsider and recall their announcement,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz said he had also asked Crist to “use his influence on behalf of the state of Florida.”

Asked about Gaetz’s call, Crist responded. “We certainly can try.”

Gaetz said he had also, in his role as chairman of the state Senate’s Committee on Florida’s Economy, requested that Workforce Florida “develop and authorize dislocated worker and training services to Northwest Florida fishermen who have no other choice but to seek other ways to make a living.”

“This is not just based on the amberjack decision,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville. “It’s about the national attack on the sport fishing industry.

“Those of us who represent coastal communities have to speak up about insensitive and really dumb decisions like this,” Gaetz said.

To read more about the early snapper lockdown, click here.

Here is a statement on the closure by Mayor Craig Barker, who is running for the District 4 state House of Representatives seat.
 
 
As mayor of the City of Destin I have worked alongside all the fishermen from Apalachicola to Alabama helping to represent their interests before the National Marine Fisheries and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.  During that time the fishermen have held firm to one fundamental position – that the data upon which these fishery management decisions are based is fundamentally flawed and leads to irrational conclusions.
 
Every charter fisherman I know understands the finite nature of the resource and takes it upon him or herself to implement their own management practices in addition to those restrictions imposed by the State and Federal governments.  Yet they remain clear and consistent in their belief that the regulator’s conclusions are wholly inconsistent with their own real-world observations.
 
Nonetheless, based on extrapolations of data the National Marine Fisheries unilaterally announced yesterday the immediate closure of the greater amberjack fishing season and discussed the potential closure of next year’s red snapper season. If allowed to go forward these closures will further devastate the economies of coastal fishing communities all across the Gulf of Mexico and shatter the lives of the men and women who work so hard to earn their living from the sea.
 
A full-blown stock assessment has not been conducted since 1991. Until a new assessment can be completed it is imperative that Congress immediately take action to call for a full-blown stock assessment for each of these fisheries, establish a near real-time data collection system, and update the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act so that faith and accountability can be restored in its scientific and management procedures.

Here is a statement from Sen. Don Gaetz on the topic:

Today, without warning and with apparent disregard for the impact on Northwest Florida’s economy, the National Marine Fisheries Service suddenly announced that it was closing the amberjack season.  This decision combines too much authority with too little science. 
 
I strongly oppose this arbitrary decision and have asked the NMFS to reconsider and recall their announcement.  No valid and reliable scientific evidence has been presented that would justify this action.
 
NMFS is a federal agency outside of the jurisdiction of the State of Florida.  Therefore I am appealing to our two US senators, George LeMieux and Bill Nelson, and Congressmen Allan Boyd and Jeff Miller to join me in a request for reconsideration.
 
It is a measure of the insensitivity of  NMFS that the agency would take this last minute action while the Destin Fishing Rodeo still has a week to go.  Destin is hosting fishermen who have come here from throughout the country.  The amberjack fishery is important to visitors who spend millions of dollars a year supporting our coastal economy.  Though we will feel the sting here, this draconian action affects communities along our entire Gulf coast.
 
It is ironic that a federal government handing out billions of “stimulus dollars” with one hand is, with the other, hurting the entrepreneurs, the small businesspeople who own, operate and work on fishing boats in our area.  For many of our captains and mates trying to hang onto their livelihood, decisions like that made today by NMFS are an anchor rope around their throats. 
 
Unfortunately, it appears we will see a continual attack on our sport fishing industry by federal regulators.  Red snapper, grouper and other fisheries have already been victims of NMFS.  Therefore, in my capacity as Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Florida’s Economy, I have today requested Workforce Florida to develop and offer dislocated worker and training services to Northwest Florida fishermen who may have no choice but to seek other ways to earn a living.