Walt Stearns
Contributor
Whats it worth to you to see BIG FISH on the reef? While many of us will be glued to the set watching Discovery Channels Shark Week, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) meeting will gear up in St. Pete, Florida, August 6, 2007 focusing on yet another large reef predator, the goliath grouper.
This meeting will determine the feasibility of permitting a select group of fishermen to kill 800 adult size goliath groupers in Florida waters. Some of you might say so what? Others (hopefully) will respond with How can the State of Florida do that? Goliath grouper (Epinephelus striatus) are still Federally protected - since 1990!
Obviously they think they can do that, largely due to pressure from Floridas fishing community. This small group, in general, consider themselves the primarily user and therefore should be granted the most rights to these waters. NOT.
The tabled discussion will focus on a research proposal, backed by the Cooperative Goliath Grouper Research Program (CGGRP). This so called research is to be conducted with the assistance of commercial and/or recreational fishers (e.g. for the collection of specimens). Their intent is to obtain biological samples (otoliths, gonad tissue, etc.) collected through a limited harvest program that program would be the 800 adult breeding sized fish. The research would be used to augment information on goliath grouper age, growth, and reproduction, as well as supplement ongoing studies on feeding habits, according to the proposal. For those fishers participating in the program, the FWC would supposedly issue 800 numbered, plastic harvest tags.
Another point in the proposal not covered was how the collected goliath grouper specimens will be handled or delivered to scientists facilitating this research with the CGGRP. On closer examination, seeing no plan had even been worked out, one might conclude that this collection plan is nothing more than a loophole to allow commercial fishermen the rights to kill 800 ever-so-important goliaths under the guise of science.
Everyone I have interviewed in the scientific community (most from Florida State University and NOAAs National Marine Fisheries Service) connected to goliath grouper studies see this program as nothing more than an appeasement to specific fishing groups. And, the notion of the FWC even entertaining this research is a really, bad idea.
It has taken the goliath grouper 16 years to make a positive return to Florida waters. Furthermore, concerned scientists see these fish as being anything but out of the woods. Especially when you consider that this species of grouper, under the World Conservation Union (IUCN) (http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/7857/summ) is listed as critically endangered throughout its range in the rest of the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean.
At the rate these fish are being hunted in Latin America and the Caribbean waters, two to three years from now, Florida will be the only place left to find them and see them. Provided we learn the right form of protective management.
As a member of our underwater community for years, Ive been concerned about this fish since 1990, when they were put into protection. Ive addressed the plight of our oceans great fish in Underwater Journal. Big Fish, Going, Going, Gone? (Issue 2) and Uncertain Future (Issue 3). Please join me and take action (Im going to this meeting). Time is running out. Voice your comments to the following:
Luiz Barbieri (email: Luiz.Barbieri@myfwc.com)
Researcher
Department for Marine Fisheries Research
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
St. Petersburg, FL
Alex Chester (email: Alex.Chester@noaa.gov),
Science and Research Director
Southeast Fisheries Science Center
75 Virginia Beach Drive
Miami, Florida 33149
This meeting will determine the feasibility of permitting a select group of fishermen to kill 800 adult size goliath groupers in Florida waters. Some of you might say so what? Others (hopefully) will respond with How can the State of Florida do that? Goliath grouper (Epinephelus striatus) are still Federally protected - since 1990!
Obviously they think they can do that, largely due to pressure from Floridas fishing community. This small group, in general, consider themselves the primarily user and therefore should be granted the most rights to these waters. NOT.
The tabled discussion will focus on a research proposal, backed by the Cooperative Goliath Grouper Research Program (CGGRP). This so called research is to be conducted with the assistance of commercial and/or recreational fishers (e.g. for the collection of specimens). Their intent is to obtain biological samples (otoliths, gonad tissue, etc.) collected through a limited harvest program that program would be the 800 adult breeding sized fish. The research would be used to augment information on goliath grouper age, growth, and reproduction, as well as supplement ongoing studies on feeding habits, according to the proposal. For those fishers participating in the program, the FWC would supposedly issue 800 numbered, plastic harvest tags.
Another point in the proposal not covered was how the collected goliath grouper specimens will be handled or delivered to scientists facilitating this research with the CGGRP. On closer examination, seeing no plan had even been worked out, one might conclude that this collection plan is nothing more than a loophole to allow commercial fishermen the rights to kill 800 ever-so-important goliaths under the guise of science.
Everyone I have interviewed in the scientific community (most from Florida State University and NOAAs National Marine Fisheries Service) connected to goliath grouper studies see this program as nothing more than an appeasement to specific fishing groups. And, the notion of the FWC even entertaining this research is a really, bad idea.
It has taken the goliath grouper 16 years to make a positive return to Florida waters. Furthermore, concerned scientists see these fish as being anything but out of the woods. Especially when you consider that this species of grouper, under the World Conservation Union (IUCN) (http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/7857/summ) is listed as critically endangered throughout its range in the rest of the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean.
At the rate these fish are being hunted in Latin America and the Caribbean waters, two to three years from now, Florida will be the only place left to find them and see them. Provided we learn the right form of protective management.
As a member of our underwater community for years, Ive been concerned about this fish since 1990, when they were put into protection. Ive addressed the plight of our oceans great fish in Underwater Journal. Big Fish, Going, Going, Gone? (Issue 2) and Uncertain Future (Issue 3). Please join me and take action (Im going to this meeting). Time is running out. Voice your comments to the following:
Luiz Barbieri (email: Luiz.Barbieri@myfwc.com)
Researcher
Department for Marine Fisheries Research
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
St. Petersburg, FL
Alex Chester (email: Alex.Chester@noaa.gov),
Science and Research Director
Southeast Fisheries Science Center
75 Virginia Beach Drive
Miami, Florida 33149