BigBendFishing.Net

News Release
FWC sets April 15-16 meeting in Tallahassee

March 17, 2009
Contacts: (inland issues) Patricia Behnke, 850-251-2130;
(marine issues) Lee Schlesinger, 850-487-0554

Agenda (with links to background reports)
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will meet at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center April 15-16. FWC meetings are open to public participation.

On Wednesday, April 15, the agenda will focus on inland issues. Commissioners will consider draft rules concerning taking and possession of wild freshwater turtles and regulations governing establishment and operation of game farms. The Commission will review and consider a draft rule removing the peregrine falcon from Florida’s list of endangered species. Final action on those proposed rules will take place at a later meeting.

Also on Wednesday, Commissioners plan to take final action on rules to establish hunting season dates and other regulations for the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes Area and the Babcock Ranch Preserve.
Wednesday's agenda also includes consideration of the revised Gopher Tortoise Permitting Guidelines.

In addition, the Commission will consider granting an easement to the City of Punta Gorda for installation of a 1,500-foot wastewater line across the Fred C. Babcock/Cecil M. Webb Wildlife Management Area.

On Thursday, the Commission will address marine fisheries issues. A final public hearing will be held on a proposed rule that would establish administrative penalties for blue crab management program violations.

Commissioners also will consider draft rules for grouper that would be consistent with anticipated federal regulations intended to help reduce fishing pressure so that grouper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico can improve in the future. These proposed rules would decrease the daily recreational aggregate bag limit for grouper from five fish to four per person and include all shallow-water groupers (black, red, yellowfin, scamp, yellowmouth, rock hind and red hind) in the existing Feb. 1 through March 31 closed recreational harvest season for gag grouper in Gulf state waters.

The proposed grouper rules also would reduce the commercial minimum-size limit for Gulf red grouper, and for all importation and sale of red grouper, from 20 inches to 18 inches total length and eliminate the Feb. 15 through March 14 commercial harvest closure for red, gag and black grouper in Gulf state waters. Pending federal rules will reduce the overall commercial harvest of grouper in the Gulf through lower harvest quotas and an important spawning season/area closure.
In other marine fisheries action, the Commission will review and discuss Florida’s permit fishery and various federal marine fisheries management issues.

The meeting will convene at 8:30 a.m. both days. The civic center is at 505 West Pensacola St. in Tallahassee.

Anyone requiring special accommodations to participate in the meeting should advise the FWC at least five days prior to April 15 by contacting the FWC’s Office of Human Resources at 850-488-6411. If you are hearing- or speech-impaired, contact the FWC using the Florida Relay Service at 1-800-955-8771 (TDD) or 1-800-955-8770 (voice).

The full agenda is available online at MyFWC.com/COMMISSION/2009/Comm_09_AgendaApr.htm.

LET'S SEE NOW... REDUCE THE RECREATIONAL BAG LIMIT.... REDUCE THE MINIMUM LEGAL SIZE FOR COMMERICAL... BOTH WILL REDUCE THE FISHING PRESSURE.... I'M A TINY BIT CONFUSED ... CAN SOMEONE PLEASE DO THE MATH FOR ME! .... WILL THE FISHING PRESSURE BE REDUCED BECAUSE....THERE WILL BE FEWER FISH TO PUT PRESSURE ON??

Sir reel wrote:LET'S SEE NOW... REDUCE THE RECREATIONAL BAG LIMIT.... REDUCE THE MINIMUM LEGAL SIZE FOR COMMERICAL... BOTH WILL REDUCE THE FISHING PRESSURE.... I'M A TINY BIT CONFUSED ... CAN SOMEONE PLEASE DO THE MATH FOR ME! .... WILL THE FISHING PRESSURE BE REDUCED BECAUSE....THERE WILL BE FEWER FISH TO PUT PRESSURE ON??

Sounds that way to me.

GUB-ER-MENT + FISHING = LOTS OF AND AND NOT SO MUCH

Somebody's got greasy pockets!

That really pisses me off, but maybe it could help the population in the long run.

By allowing the dirtbag commercial guys to keep smaller fish non-breeder fish and reducing there overall quota, the bigger breeders may have more chance of increasing the population.

But its probably due to good lobbying from the commercial douchebags.

Coastal Conservation Association is a sportfisherman's voice. They are always present and provide input to the Commission. All of their issues may not be decided in our favor (do you think decisions are made before some meetings?) but at least there is representation and they have lobbist at the Legislature too. Go to JOINFCA.org and sign up and support this organization. The resource belongs to all of us.

This will be on no consequence in the near future as far as the commercial regulations are concerned. Grouper are going to be IFQ just like the red snapper very soon. A pound is a pound for the commercial sector. Does not matter if they catch one 20 lb grouper or four 5 lb grouper. When they use up the pounds, they are done.

I believe the theory behind letting them keep a smaller fish is that the majority of the time the grouper is dead when they are brought to the surface. So why throw back a fish that is already dead. This theory does not really make sense in state waters due to the fact that these fish are not in deep water and are not being caught on bottom long lines, so I think these rules are stupid. I do, however, think the rule would make sense for the commerical sector in deep water/long line applications. No need to feed an 18" grouper to the sharks and flipper when the pounds could count towards the IFQ.

Just my two cents on the subject.