Florida proposal to ban feeding sharks in Federal waters

I know you fish down there. Let's face it, there are just too many sharks around. Every single trip, we get sharked. Next, they got to start thinning out those Goliath groupers.
 
george said:
I know you fish down there. Let's face it, there are just too many sharks around. Every single trip, we get sharked. Next, they got to start thinning out those Goliath groupers.
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I don’t think this ban will do anything to help fisherman from paying the taxman. It doesn’t make any difference how far you go there’s no getting away from them. We go 30, 40, 50, + etc miles offshore and while bottom fishing get sharked.. Heck, I hook them up on metal jigs. These dive with the shark guys aren’t going that far out. There’s no need to. The sharks are everywhere.

Now the Goliath’s are a different story. I don’t know the health of that fishery I can only give my observations, which is purely anecdotal. But based on that I think they should open that fishery more. They are all over any sizable piece of structure be it a wreck or bridge, etc.
 
There are too many Goliaths. They ruin the day. And don't worry about the shark problem. Noah is spending millions on figuring out how to stop sharks from going after our live hooked fish.
 

Red Snapper Season Was Supposed to Open. Instead, It Was Shut Down Overnight.​

For many South Atlantic anglers, May 22 was supposed to feel like a long-awaited victory.

After years of short red snapper openings, tight federal controls, and frustration over what fishermen say they see every time they drop a bait to the bottom, Florida’s Atlantic recreational red snapper season was finally scheduled to open. Boats were fueled. Charters were booked. Tackle shops had stocked rigs, bait, ice, and optimism. Families had planned trips around the chance to legally bring home one of the most prized fish in Southern waters.

Then, just before the starting gun, the season was stopped.

On May 21, a federal court injunction halted the exempted fishing permits that had allowed Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina to run expanded recreational red snapper seasons in the South Atlantic. NOAA quickly announced that no recreational red snapper fishing was authorized under those permits, including Florida’s opening day the very next morning.

That is not management. That is a gut punch.

The damage was immediate. Charter captains who had sold trips based on an announced season had to explain to customers why the fishery was closed before it even opened. Anglers who had taken time off from work, booked hotels, bought fuel, and loaded coolers were left holding receipts instead of fish. Marinas, bait shops, restaurants, hotels, and waterfront communities lost business that had already been set in motion.

The people hit hardest were not politicians, lawyers, or agency staff. They were the working captains, mates, tackle shop owners, dockhands, and everyday fishermen who build their lives around short windows of opportunity.

The fight is bigger than one opening day. Recreational anglers argue that red snapper are abundant on the reefs and wrecks, and that federal management has created a broken cycle: tiny seasons, rushed effort, high discard mortality, bad data, and more tiny seasons. Many believe state led management could collect better information and spread fishing pressure over time.

Commercial fishermen and conservation groups see it differently. They warned that a long recreational season could push harvest far beyond sustainable limits, especially in a fishery still officially rebuilding. They argue that seeing plenty of fish on a reef does not always mean the stock has enough older, highly productive breeders to support a major expansion.

Both sides claim to be defending the future of the fishery. But the way this happened damaged something that is harder to rebuild than a quota: trust.

When a season is announced, businesses prepare. Families make plans. Captains take deposits. Anglers believe the rules are real. Shutting it down the day before it begins sends a brutal message to fishing communities: even when you follow the process, the rug can still be pulled out from under you.

Red snapper management in the South Atlantic needs science, accountability, and conservation. No serious fisherman should argue otherwise. But it also needs common sense and respect for the people who live with these decisions.

Because for the folks on the dock that morning, this was not an abstract court fight. It was a canceled trip, an empty fish box, a lost payday, and another reminder that fisheries management too often forgets the people it is supposed to serve.
 
To make such a last minute change is really F’d up. They need to do better than that.

That change didn’t apply to the Gulf as Red Snapper opening remained as originally planned.
 
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george said:

Red Snapper Season Was Supposed to Open. Instead, It Was Shut Down Overnight.​

For many South Atlantic anglers, May 22 was supposed to feel like a long-awaited victory.

After years of short red snapper openings, tight federal controls, and frustration over what fishermen say they see every time they drop a bait to the bottom, Florida’s Atlantic recreational red snapper season was finally scheduled to open. Boats were fueled. Charters were booked. Tackle shops had stocked rigs, bait, ice, and optimism. Families had planned trips around the chance to legally bring home one of the most prized fish in Southern waters.

Then, just before the starting gun, the season was stopped.

On May 21, a federal court injunction halted the exempted fishing permits that had allowed Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina to run expanded recreational red snapper seasons in the South Atlantic. NOAA quickly announced that no recreational red snapper fishing was authorized under those permits, including Florida’s opening day the very next morning.

That is not management. That is a gut punch.

The damage was immediate. Charter captains who had sold trips based on an announced season had to explain to customers why the fishery was closed before it even opened. Anglers who had taken time off from work, booked hotels, bought fuel, and loaded coolers were left holding receipts instead of fish. Marinas, bait shops, restaurants, hotels, and waterfront communities lost business that had already been set in motion.

The people hit hardest were not politicians, lawyers, or agency staff. They were the working captains, mates, tackle shop owners, dockhands, and everyday fishermen who build their lives around short windows of opportunity.

The fight is bigger than one opening day. Recreational anglers argue that red snapper are abundant on the reefs and wrecks, and that federal management has created a broken cycle: tiny seasons, rushed effort, high discard mortality, bad data, and more tiny seasons. Many believe state led management could collect better information and spread fishing pressure over time.

Commercial fishermen and conservation groups see it differently. They warned that a long recreational season could push harvest far beyond sustainable limits, especially in a fishery still officially rebuilding. They argue that seeing plenty of fish on a reef does not always mean the stock has enough older, highly productive breeders to support a major expansion.

Both sides claim to be defending the future of the fishery. But the way this happened damaged something that is harder to rebuild than a quota: trust.

When a season is announced, businesses prepare. Families make plans. Captains take deposits. Anglers believe the rules are real. Shutting it down the day before it begins sends a brutal message to fishing communities: even when you follow the process, the rug can still be pulled out from under you.

Red snapper management in the South Atlantic needs science, accountability, and conservation. No serious fisherman should argue otherwise. But it also needs common sense and respect for the people who live with these decisions.

Because for the folks on the dock that morning, this was not an abstract court fight. It was a canceled trip, an empty fish box, a lost payday, and another reminder that fisheries management too often forgets the people it is supposed to serve.
Click to expand...
"Both sides claim to be defending the future of the fishery. But the way this happened damaged something that is harder to rebuild than a quota: trust"

Sadly, you summed it up best with the last word. How can you ever restore the trust of the public after a screw up like that. Seems almost criminal to me.:mad::devilish:.
 
From a different angle; occasionally I have some dive channels pop up in my YouBoob feed. For a while they dealt with divers spearing invasive Lionfish. A couple of them were then presenting the speared fish to sharks in an effort to train the sharks to eat Lionfish.

Seems like a great idea, with the best of intentions....

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it turns out that divers feeding sharks teaches the pea-brained critters to associate divers with food. Now the Lionfish population continues unabated, and sharks stalk divers whether they're spearfishing or not. So maybe this ban isn't such a bad idea after all.
 

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