Following fishing reports and reading fishing-related articles over the last month or so, the weigh of the evidence is giving me a bad sense for where are fish stocks are headed.
On December 7 I wrote a post about the ban on Red Snapper fishing in the southeast. This ban has had commercial and recreational fishermen up in arms but I’m quite certain the Florida Wildlife Commission and other state entities had good reason for this and we’ll likely benefit down the road from this ban.
Then I just read that Grouper fishing has also been banned, effective February 1st and reopening on April 1st. That makes this the last weekend to fish for Grouper until April; and the fishing has been lousy as cold has whacked the southeast. The article appeared today in the Tallahassee Democrat
WESH in Orlando reported that the Florida Wildlife Commission had closed the upcoming Snook season and issued a temporary ban on fishing for Bonefish and Tarpon. All are in effect until April.
This quote from fisherman-scholar Ted Ames appeared in the Bangor Daily News and sums up the situation up north. “It’s not a secret, there aren’t too many fishermen here anymore. There aren’t too many fish, either. About 5,000 square miles off the Maine coast no longer produces fish. Gone are the haddock, cod, white hake and halibut.”
