Turnout at the meeting was Dismal at best. It now seems that spearfishing at Grays will be banned, as well as having any spearfishing on your boat while traveling through the sanctuary. It seems that divers tear up the reef, leave loads of trash behind, & generally do not care one way or the other. Fishing interests, on the other hand, have no impact at all on one of our most valuable coastal resources. The best ledges & live-bottom will be set aside as Research only, which will not matter to anyone locally because no-one here is interested in being allowed to dive there anyway.
There were 8 divers & only one charter fisherman at the meeting. Spearfishermen were made out to be law-breaking meat hogs that could care less about reefs & ledges. Law enforcement is ready to police the area for the dregs of the diving world.
The poor turnout just proved that no-one here cares about Grays, so why wouldn't they just ban diving altogether?
Come on people. Wake up & get involved! With the new SAMFC regulations cutting back on our limits of Gag grouper & red Snapper. it will hardly be worth going out at all. Although commercial interests will see an increase in their IFQ. One Red Snapper per person or three per boat & one gag Grouper per person or three per boat. It will surely not be worth the ride
to the Banks!
Any-one that is interested in the spearfishing debacle should pick up the book "Characterization of the Benthos. Marine Debris & Bottom Fish at Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary" from NOAA or from the council.
Complacency can be a very dangerous thing!
Thanks,
Gene

Another good example of how easy it is to take away our rights anywhere we aren't paying lots of attention...

If this is true, it is is a freaking catastrophe, as important as any other issue that we face!

We had better jump on this with every ounce of energy we have to stop it from happening.

Unless we do, the precedent that spearfishing, the least environmentally invasive fishing method ever known to man, will continue to be prohibited in "sanctuaries".

"Sanctuaries" = the best fishing areas along the coastline of the United States.

Edit: found it.

http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/products/biogeography/GRNMS_Tech_Memo_50.pdf

Good science but bad use of good science - Duh! Amount of debris correlates with boat density. How does that say that spearfishing should be banned? Picture shows a weight belt with underwater writing tablet attached. Low probability that it came from a spearfisher.

What needs to be remedied is the inappropriate use of science.:whip:

We have a fair sized scuba club here & none of them even showed up! I made 300+ calls & thought I had every-one stirred up, but I guess that no-one really cares. The weight belt that was found was from a NOAA fish counter. The catch bag that was found was one that my shop loaned to NOAA for their reef clean-up. The meeting was really just a dog & pony show. They have already made up their minds. What really chaps my a$$ is how divers are such poor stewards of the reef while hook & line people were absolute low impact. One fisherman there said that he fished there for 30 years & had only harvested 1 gag grouper in his life while he had seen divers come away with coolers of fish. DNR said they stopped 41 boats there last year. I asked him how many had dive gear aboard? He said a bunch. The big issue was the use of power-heads on the reef. Well all of the divers I know use a shaft & tether. The only ones that I know that use power heads are the commercial divers that have to maximize their effort(never have they caught a commercial boat there!) The numerous shell casings that were found(6) could have been older than the ban!
No offense intended to H&L fishermen or commercial spear-fishermen!
It seems that we have lost the ability to control our own government of, by, & for the people! Maybe it is time for another Tea Party. Maybe the best thing we can do is to get together all of the boats we can & just go to the Middle grounds or Grays reef or the Flower gardens & just wipe out everything in our path! Can you imagine trying to arrest 30 or 40 boats? What a sight! Maybe with the threat before the closures, they will listen!? I am about ready to give up & take up GOLF!

Thanks,
Pissed off in Georgia

Brail-
We have fought this before and won.
I made a phone call just now and can tell you that the situation is being looked at again. We beat their fairy tales with scientific fact.

That's F'd up. :pissed: