Robin's Reports

SNAPPER/GROUPER DECISION
by Robin

All this week SAFMC is meeting to discuss certain closures on different species each day. Yesterday was the day for Snapper/Grouper talks. Talks went late and today, the news is that the decision was 9-4 vote to close Snapper & Grouper fishing. They were still hammering out exactly where fishing was closed off. They have a box, but the sides of the box keep changing. If you catch the fish outside the box, it is rumored that the Coast Guard (your tax dollars at work) are going to watch you on radar to make sure you don't stop in that boxed area while coming in to port.

This is so crazy. What if you catch snapper outside the box and then find a school of mahi and stop to get one of them?? What if spearfishing is allowed in this area but you still have a rod & reel on your boat? How do they enforce that? Will it end up looking a bit like our open borders? Will they get lax and eventually 12 million red snapper will enter the country illegally?

I have no answers to any of my questions. Infact, the more I try to get informed on the issue, the more questions I have.

Happy Fishing, if they let us.......