Efforts to extend the amberjack season sink as clock ticks

DESTIN — A congressmen and a mayor were working hard Friday afternoon to find a way to extend the amberjack fishing season beyond midnight.

But it appeared likely that when Destin Fishing Rodeo weighmaster Bruce Cheves closed down the scales at 7 p.m., he’d weigh no more greater amberjack this year.

Destin’s charter fishermen were caught off guard earlier this week when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service announced that the amberjack season would close at 12:01 a.m. today.

A recreational quota of 1.368 million pounds of greater amberjack had been reached, the fisheries service said.

Already prohibited from bringing in red snapper, the area’s most popular fish, charter boat captains were beside themselves when they heard another popular game fish had been crossed off their catch list.

The announcement was particularly hard to take with 11 days remaining in the annual Fishing Rodeo, which brings in an estimated 30,000 anglers annually.

Boat captains accused federal authorities of trying to ruin their livelihoods.

“We’re just fishermen trying to make a living. They need to let us work,” boat captain Greg Marler said. “They’re going to put me on the welfare line.”

There was talk of a protest of some kind today, but the Charter Boat Fisherman’s Association at Destin Harbor decided Thursday to take no immediate action.

The decision angered association co-president Mike Eller.

“There was a lot of hot air, but we didn’t do jack,” he said.

The fishermen did decide to try to organize a bigger protest Nov. 7, according to Destin Mayor Craig Barker.

Barker said the plan was to call on boat captains from as far away as Texas to gather at the mouth of the Destin Harbor to show for the charter fishing industry.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller was trying Friday to persuade the National Marine Fisheries Service to push back the amberjack season’s closure.

However, that would require an emergency meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council, according to Dan McFaul, Miller’s chief of staff.

It did not appear late Friday that the council would meet.

Barker said he was working behind the scenes Friday to see what he could do to extend the amberjack season through Nov. 1, end of the fishing rodeo. It appeared at press time Friday that his efforts would also be in vain.

A smaller protest, organized by a residents’ group not associated with the fisherman’s association, was scheduled to get together on the docks on Destin Harbor behind AJ’s Seafood & Oyster Bar at noon today.

The group, led by local activist Geoff Ross, wanted to show its support for the fishing fleet, Ross said.