Your Florida Guides Association has recently updated our vision statement and purpose to make it extremely clear that we stand for and will continue fighting for science-based management in all aspects of our outdoor recreational management and conservation.
Here’s that purpose statement for 2023 and beyond for reference -
We are an association of professional guides advocating for conservation, best practices, and science-based management, while still maintaining our rights for proper recreational use of Florida's natural resources.
We have unfortunately seen more and more frequently a move by many in multiple facets of conservation to being more subjective or opinion-based management approaches. We are seeing that with the manatees, pelicans, goliath grouper, and now a huge blow to federal waters for hire fishermen.
We must stand up for science-based approaches and make it clear that we do not want to see our natural resources managed by feelings and opinions rather than cold hard science that can stand up to a third-party peer review.
We are currently amid a potential complete closure of fishing access around certain artificial reef sites that a fishing club actually fundraised and placed off Palm Beach because a few dive charters are claiming that catch-and-release fishing is hurting the goliath grouper spawning aggregation sites!
There’s no science and no consideration of what the hordes of divers down there all the time are doing to the aggregations. Simply some knee-jerk reactions to propose the closure of 1,000 yards to all fishing practices! That is the current proposal and it’s sickening. This sort of slippery slope and precedent that some feel-good opinion-based suppositions can be enough to completely close fishing access to a resource is extremely scary. This sets a dangerous precedent.
Then look at the current fiasco with pelicans and you get even more of an idea of what we are facing! Certain bird groups are calling for complete closures of a large portion of the largest and most popular fishing pier in the southeast and gear restrictions to the remaining portions based on some strong opinions.
We have luckily been able to make some huge strides in this issue and really have been successful in making some positive change. However, we are still seeing too much opinion and feelings being interjected on this issue.
During the recent FWC meeting, you can even hear someone in leadership essentially insinuate that they are hearing what fishermen are saying but they just love the pelicans more—Are you serious? So because pelicans are somehow more cute and cuddly they are somehow getting more consideration than logical, time-based, and scientific approaches being proffered by the fishing advocacy groups like FGA at these stakeholder meetings.
I won’t even get started on how this state is wasting nearly 30 million dollars annually feeding the manatees because we can’t keep seagrass alive due to water quality issues and instead of looking at manatee populations and the real issue of seagrass loss we are literally shipping in trucks of lettuce and employing hordes of staff to go feed these manatees.
We see this in other facets of life too, just purely a lack of personal responsibility and more of a ‘what makes you feel better’ or what is ‘popular based on who screams the loudest’. As a group, we have to continue to set the proper example showing extreme personal responsibility and dedication to science-based management.
We take personal responsibility to mean that we are doing what is right for the right reasons. That is our goal stated clearly in our purpose statement, “We are an association of professional guides advocating for conservation, best practices, and science-based management, while still maintaining our rights for proper recreational use of Florida's natural resources.”
Best practices also come down to personal responsibility. Right? Let’s all keep grinding this year and pushing for science-based management and a renewed sense of personal responsibility to do the right thing.
Thank you for being a part of our Florida Guides Association, Get out there and crush it this spring break ya'll. I’m hoping everyone has a killer spring rush! Tight lines.
Capt Dylan Hubbard
President, FGA
NOTE: Please check out the website occasionally. If you notice any issues please contact our website
team or me anytime!
Website Help – 727-495-1288
Admin team – 228-219-5613
My personal Cell is 727-420-9485
Team’s email - info@florida-guides.com
My personal email is CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com
