Captains struggle with unknown for upcoming season

The unknown hurts.

After a 48-day red snapper season last year, area charter boat captains may be looking at the shortest season ever, but who knows?

“I feel confident we’ll have a shorter snapper season,” said Capt. George Eller of the Checkmate 2. “The feds have got us under their thumb.”

In recent years, federal regulators have chipped away at the red snapper season because they maintain that the snapper fishery is overfished and that it needs to be rebuilt.

At a recent Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council meeting in Mobile, there was talk of shortening this year’s season to just 40 days. However, no decisions were made.

Nevertheless, captains are starting to get calls for bookings and they need answers.

“I’m starting to book trips,” Eller said. “The sad thing is we can’t tell them when the season is.

“The thing we need is consistency,” Eller said. “We just don’t know.”

Capt. Jim Westbrook of the New Florida Girl and Suzie Q says, “Destin is going to be a bustling community,” this year.  “I’ve got a good vibe.”

However, his thoughts about what the federal regulators are doing to the fishing industry are not so good.

With talk of a 40-day season, Westbrook said he expects a 10 percent decrease in business. Last year, for the first time in 21 years, his July was not his biggest month on record.

“Usually it’s the biggest by 30 percent,” Westbrook said. “But it didn’t outperform June and that’s directly because of the red snapper.”

Last year, the red snapper season ran from June 1 to July 18.

“I expect regs to get tighter and tighter this year,” Westbrook said.

“The state needs to develop a backbone and say we’re are going to fish our waters and that the snapper are plentiful,” Westbrook said. “They need to get off our backs.

“They are doing everything they can to eliminate us,” he said. Westbrook said the fishermen are one of the only “mom and pop” businesses that are left.

Westbrook said, “Not knowing is worse than total elimination.”

He said, what if a family was looking to take a summer vacation and come to Destin and catch their son a big red snapper. “I don’t know what the dates are … when’s the season? That’s not right.

“People can’t plan their vacations,” he said, adding that families may just go somewhere else.

Capt. Jim Green of the New Florida Girl’s American Spirit said, “They have to stop putting the main emphasis on this species. The fisheries are at a stable place right now.

“I anticipate a good season,” Green said. “There is not a problem with our product … but what our government will let us do with our product. We’ve got a perfect inventory, but no key to the warehouse.”

Capt. Ken Bolden of the Just-B-Cause agrees the fleet needs more snapper days, but he also expressed concerns that the rising gas prices may play into the picture for the upcoming season.

“I anticipate a good season if the gas prices don’t keep going up,” Bolden said. “That could affect customers coming here and us going out.”

“The tourist season should be strong … robust,” said Capt. Tommy Carter of the Blue Runner II. “But the regulations are the worst ever.”

With a possible shorter snapper season on the horizon, “that’s the biggest hurdle we’re facing,” Carter said.

Capt. Kirk Reynolds of the SS Enterprise said he will just “wait and see and hope for the best.”