I’m all for environmental protection, but it should be done intelligently. This is a hard ask when scientist, bureaucrats, sportsman and business’s, are all in the same room together. Often it is the one with the biggest check book that ends up with the favorable decision. Just look at recent news with Captains for Clean Water vs big sugar and the county commissioners.
I’ll try to give a brief example below of either side. But with that said government involvement in just about anything, especially with scientific data, always becomes a mess and integrity is lost on all fronts.
On one side: (we wanna fish)
A long closure will put more pressure on fish in other areas. As fisherman will no longer fish in this section of the park, they will be congested into others areas. Putting more pressure on the fish in those areas.
I understand a closure of few weeks before the spawning season and a few weeks after, this gives fish a chance to be healthy leading up to spawning season and then recover after.
Seven months will potentially put undo hardship on the captains/guides making a living on the water.
A seven months closure with a five month open, is awkward to fish. They don’t know what months are and this would just create an irregularity in their movement.
Bonefish are not being harvested here (at least not legally) so this is more about putting less pressure on fish when they are most vulnerable. So given the data we have, what is the relation of a 7 month closure to that data?
On the other side. (protect the resouce at all cost)
If it is going to be closed for seven months just close it good and close off the entire area to any all boat traffic. Make it a shallow water sanctuary or all aquatic animals. Move to making the entirety Biscayne Bay a no take zone. With certain sections closed to the public entirely.
Treat all fish in the park similar to lobster. It’s just flat out a no harvest area and no fishing area. Surely this would be the quiquest way to improve the marine environment.
Bonefish are not even harvested in Florida, and if they’re population is depleting, then all the fish that are harvested must be depleting at a greater rate.
If certain sections of the water are closed off for good, it will allow that area to breed healthy fish that can move out to other areas.
With the closure of more areas of the park, it will be easier to police those areas and park management and Marine patrol can spend more time and enforcing laws and other areas.
Just my 2 cents: (i like to think it’s somewhere in the middle)
As in other cases when the government starts limiting owners rights, they never stop, so if we start with a seven month closure, then we go to a year round closure and then the closed area is expanded. I dont want this. The public should be able to enjoy our natural resources, but the resources need to be managed and protected appropriately. I do not think our state has done a quality job growing and protecting our native animals, especially in south Florida.
We should not only look within our own state, but into other states where natural game species were on the brink of collapse and with proper management that species has been brought back to sustainable levels.
Potentially this is a good start to have these public discussions, assuming that the individuals contributing their opinion are listen to. I would think the individuals that show up to these discussions have the highest degree of interest in bonefish. Possessive vastly more information on bonefish than the bureaucrats and would like to have that resource protected but also to continue fishing for it.
I don’t know the exact location, but I believe it was off of the West Coast of Mexico a heavily fished areas became protected marine sanctuary. That area then grew the fish populated that spilled over into unprotected areas. there by increasing all the fishermans harvest. It may also be the case that this areas was also somewhat of a crop rotation. So an area could be closed for a year and then reopened and another area closed.
So with the data that we have on bonefish could certain areas be permanently closed off as sanctuaries to all Boat traffic? Other areas could then be open and closed on a yearly basis.
… leaving this a bit short and in need of a edit or two but its late and I’m done for now.
