Sad day for Blue Heron Bridge

[The Chairman]

The lobster poaching history has shown that govt lawyers won't pursue confiscation

Eons ago, we had a guy come on SB to complain about the popo in Key Largo. Apparently, they stopped him for speeding and fined him for the illegal lobsters he had. He couldn't believe when we all applauded the LEOs. Kind of epic. I wish I had kept track of that thread.

 

[kelemvor]

So has anyone been back since the critter return that can comment on the condition of the site? I'm curious if the fish survived and stuck around or if the site is as barren as it sounds or what.

 

[Biminibill]

So, do these "professional collectors" have names? So that future prospective employers would know what sort of sh*tstorm they're setting themselves up for by employing these clowns?

Edit: sorry, braino: I meant employers. As in nobody would hire these guys again.

So, do these "professional collectors" have names? So that future prospective employers would know what sort of sh*tstorm they're setting themselves up for by employing these clowns?

Edit: sorry, braino: I meant employers. As in nobody would hire these guys again.

I don't know if the record has been set straight farther down the thread, but I'll do some of that now. These were NOT commercial collectors. They were three arrogant and stupid college grad students from Texas A&M, at least one of whom is employed by Moody. They were stupid because they collected at an extremely popular dive site, something no licensed professional Florida collector would ever do; they were arrogant in that after being confronted on Friday night by a very angry diving public they returned Saturday morning to continue collecting. Someone stated that they didn't return. YES THEY DID! I was there and when they admitted to me that along with other stuff they were holding three angelfish I asked them to make a good faith effort and return them to the water. They ignored me. There are a lot of other inaccuracies in this thread, which is common, but ast least I've made this part clear.

 

[The Chairman]

So, there was no critter return? They just lied?

 

[Biminibill]

That's not a good analogy. It would be closer if that handgun owner used the handgun to wipe out (nearly) the entire population of a neighborhood. The law meant to allow the guy to defend himself. He took advantage of the situation to decimate a local population.

Clearly the aquarium did not intend for the collection company to decimate BHB and they're sending the surviving fish back to BHB. They intended for the collector to collect species from all over the state. The permit issuer also thought the collector was going to collect from "all over". The collector then instead collected from only one location. Technically it's within the boundaries of the permit, but it is clearly not what the permit intended to allow. It's just a matter of the state and the aquarium not conceiving of the need to explicitly tell the ******* collector to collect from a variety of locations.

In short, the collector is a scumbag who took advantage of an unintended loophole. The State and the Aquarium figured it out, closed the loophole and are trying to make amends.

It's surprising to me that phil foster park wasn't already protected. I assumed it was. Hopefully this will result in it becoming an SPA or similar protected area.

"The Aquarium" did nothing of the kind. It was the FWC, horrified by this abuse of the permit, that amended it so Moody couldn't do this again. Moody did nothing positive. Instead Moody is issuing statements and videos denying the majority of what in fact they did. There is video available online now of an eyewitness as to what they had in just one cooler out of many, on one night out of many days of collecting - describing "a couple hundred" specimens. Moody and Texas A&M are trying to crawl under a rock, deny everything and hope it goes away. This is Palm Beach County, not Hooterville, and this is the Blue Heron Bridge. This isn't going away until Moody admits their mistake, apologizes and offers financial support for the implementation of the Blue Heron Bridge Reserve. It's the least they could do considering the damage they've done both to the area and the local dive businesses it supports.

 

[Wookie]

"The Aquarium" did nothing of the kind. It was the FWC, horrified by this abuse of the permit, that amended it so Moody couldn't do this again. Moody did nothing positive. Instead Moody is issuing statements and videos denying the majority of what in fact they did. There is video available online now of an eyewitness as to what they had in just one cooler out of many, on one night out of many days of collecting - describing "a couple hundred" specimens. Moody and Texas A&M are trying to crawl under a rock, deny everything and hope it goes away. This is Palm Beach County, not Hooterville, and this is the Blue Heron Bridge. This isn't going away until Moody admits their mistake, apologizes and offers financial support for the implementation of the Blue Heron Bridge Reserve. It's the least they could do considering the damage they've done both to the area and the local dive businesses it supports.

I got the Houston Chronicle to pick it up. Moody lied and lied and lied. Sadly, I wasn't much (or at all) of a witness. I told them to talk to Abernathy. I have no idea if they did. But the news article sounded like they had only collected 12 individuals or so. I have experience with them on my boat. I would guess that only 12 fish made it back to Texas alive, not that they only collected 12 fish. They have a hard time transporting fish alive.

 

[Biminibill]

That's not a good analogy. It would be closer if that handgun owner used the handgun to wipe out (nearly) the entire population of a neighborhood. The law meant to allow the guy to defend himself. He took advantage of the situation to decimate a local population.

Clearly the aquarium did not intend for the collection company to decimate BHB and they're sending the surviving fish back to BHB. They intended for the collector to collect species from all over the state. The permit issuer also thought the collector was going to collect from "all over". The collector then instead collected from only one location. Technically it's within the boundaries of the permit, but it is clearly not what the permit intended to allow. It's just a matter of the state and the aquarium not conceiving of the need to explicitly tell the ******* collector to collect from a variety of locations.

In short, the collector is a scumbag who took advantage of an unintended loophole. The State and the Aquarium figured it out, closed the loophole and are trying to make amends.

It's surprising to me that phil foster park wasn't already protected. I assumed it was. Hopefully this will result in it becoming an SPA or similar protected area.

IT WAS NOT A COLLECTION COMPANY! It was three idiot graduate students from Texas A&M sent my Moody to catch fish and invertebrates. Commercial Florida collectors, including me in the thirty years I was in the trade, would NEVER target a popular dive site.

 

[Biminibill]

I got the Houston Chronicle to pick it up. Moody lied and lied and lied.

Thanks, Frank. "Hi" to you and Melanie. Bill Parks

 

[Wookie]

Hi, Bill. How's things?

 

[Biminibill]

Frank, as a very occasional BHB diver (most recently two weeks ago), I appreciate your knowledge and insight about this.

It seems Moody Gardens is getting hammered on their Facebook site comments, with little response from the aquarium aside from a tone-deaf vanilla non-response about their breeding program. What might help is MG telling us who the collectors were, and what action MG took, or will take, against them. Are collectors licensed by anyone?

Plus what if any remediation is possible, or planned, or under consideration.

The biology of all this I know nothing about. Hell, I have a hard enough time determining when high tide is, and not leaving any equipment behind at the beach or shower area. But I do understand why everyone is so torqued off.

They're not licensed, nor have to be under the current Special Activities License (SAL) guidelines but an effort by the commercial collectors association will most likely begin very soon. They/we are as horrified as everyone else by this, both because it's just downright wrong and because it injures what otherwise is a very professional fishery.