Needless to say, I was a bit surprised when I saw the final FWC Commission’s decision to change the Redfish rules to one fish per angler in the NE Florida Region. For months FWC staff have been reporting and promoting and disseminating that their recommendation for NE Florida would be to keep the two fish per angler, but change the boat limit down to four, from eight. Also slated to change was to remove Captains from counting in the “take”.
I've had no issue with these proposed changes and, truth be
told, I have no issue with even a one fish per angler and dropping the boat limit
down to four, and removing the captains as counting. In past comments I’ve stated just that. What
I do have a problem with is that FWC Staff studied this over the last couple of
years, began taking input a year ago, kicking off with a day-long Redfish
Summit down in Ocala, hosted numerous regional workshops, and then made their recommendations
to the Commissioners based on the data and science and that year long input. When the final decision was
made at the Commission meeting in Jacksonville in July, after a number of
passionate testimonies from anglers at the final meeting, four of the commissioners
(the other three were absent), threw all of that year long effort out the
window and while they were at it, threw the FWC Staff under the bus.
Has anyone
in the last two years not heard the term, “Trust the Science”? I don’t know how many researchers and scientists
and data crunchers that the FWC employ but I have to assume that they all put
their heads together studying the data. Then we all went thru what turned out
to be a charade of the Redfish Summit, then a multitude of regional presentations
and workshops, and on-line request for input from we “Stakeholders”. They had a full year
of input from those stakeholders across the region. And finally, FWC Staff settled on and
published the recommendations that they were going to present to the
Commissioners. At the July Commission meeting FWC Staff made these recommendations
for NE Florida:
- Keep the bag limit of 2 fish per angler
- Reduce the off-the-water transport limit from 6 to 4 fish per person
- Prohibit Captain and crew from retaining a bag limit of redfish when on a for-hire trip
The new rules will go into effect September 1, 2022:
- 1 fish per angler
- 4 fish per boat
- 4 fish while in transient
- Captains don’t count in the “take”
The FWC supposedly plans to take data, do research and study the Redfish population over the coming year and annually make their recommendations. There was some talk about including other species – Seatrout, Flounder and Snook in the new studies.
My questions are these:
- If the FWC Staff wants our input, and we give it, does it really matter?
- Are Commissioners going to “follow the science” and staff recommendations or be swayed by passionate speakers at the final meeting?
- If FWC Staff publishes their findings and recommendations and present them right up to that final meeting, do you ever trust the Commissioners to follow those recommendations?
- Do you not have to be present at that final meeting for it to actually count?
- Can you trust them?
REWARD: To the first
person who watches the entire FWC July Meeting video, I’ll pay .25 per time anyone
mentions or says the word “Stakeholder(s)”!