A Plea for Fairness from the newspapers in Florida

October 1996

Dear Publisher & Editor:

There has been a well planned and highly orchestrated campaign to misinform you about the use of tarpaulin material in commercial fishing nets here in Florida over the past 6 to 8 weeks. Most of the major newspapers in the state have written editorials against the use of this material based on their assumption that these large seines would be used to catch mullet. The harsh, almost mean-spirited words used by some editors against the fishermen have been so vicious that it totally caught us by surprise.

I have tried to cover this very important issue as quickly and as succinctly as I know how in this communication to you. No ranting, no raging, no comeback nasty remarks related to some very strong statements made against us by many editorials. I honestly believe those of you who came down so strong against us were snookered by the folks whose agenda is to categorize our culture as evil and our fishermen as moonshiners or outlaws. The FCA has spread their hatred towards us to you in hopes that you will sway public opinion to do away with us. Can’t we stop this madness for a few moments so that you can find out what is really being done to the "least of our brothers".

We are highly regulated hunters and gatherers. That is our culture. We are not ashamed to be hunters and gatherers. We provide a needed harvest of fishery products and we, more than any other group, pray for sustainable harvests to be gathered forever. We are the folks the masses will look to for part of their basic needs should there come another time in our history where food is more important than fun. We don’t dredge, we don’t fill in wetlands and we don’t pollute. Think about that.

I have talked to some folks in the newspaper profession about sending this information to you. Most have encouraged me to do so even though the chance of getting an apologetic editorial admitting that the information brought to you by the anti-commercial fishing crowd was not completely truthful, is slim. However, you need to know both sides of this issue and you should have in your data base, some semblance of the facts on what’s really happening concerning tarp seines. I’m confident you will balance your future remarks and might even take our side in our struggle to survive If you will look at everything that is out on the table.

Once we saw a copy of the news release sent to the media by the Florida Conservation Association and read about David Gluckman’s letter charging that "death tarps are on their way", we understood what was being done to us. The same people did it to us during the net ban debate with their pictures of porpoises and birds entangled in some material that had nothing to do with the types of gear being used by Florida’s commercial fishermen.

When we saw the picture of a bait fish seine associated with mullet fishing and then read the outrage from the editors that this equipment should be banned by the Marine Fisheries Commission, it dawned on us that the Florida Conservation Association was once again able to peddle a lie to the newspapers. Yes, I know that is strong language, but I am going to prove what I say is true if you will read this letter. Equally as misleading was MFC Commissioner Don Hansen’s statement, "While I’m on the commission, there will be no large-scale gill nets in state waters". The fishermen already know that ALL gillnets are prohibited by the Constitution. The baitfish tarp seines are not gillnets!!!

Following are some facts and information not provided to you by the anti-commercial fishing groups.

1. It is against Florida law to purse seine food fish which includes mullet, mackerel, pompano, whiting, flounder, snappers and all other fish commonly used for food.

2. It is against Florida law to use power assisted nets to catch mullet in inside waters with any kind of gear. The Florida Conservation Association (FCA) knows this is illegal, the MFC knows it is illegal, the industry knows it is illegal so what has been told to you about giant tarps catching food fish is already against the law. All those involved in this charade know it is illegal and harvesting food fish with these tarps is not being done. We assumed everybody knew it and didn’t give it a thought that FCA and the MFC would participate in a campaign to outlaw something that is already prohibited by existing law.

3. At the only workshop held by the MFC on the use of tarps in conjunction with the 500 square feet of open mesh allowed by the Florida Constitution, we asked for a maximum of 600 yards to be used with our BAITFISH nets and a modest amount for the inshore mullet nets.

4. At the hearing on tarp seines held in Islamorada on October 7, 1996, the industry again asked for a maximum of 600 yards for baitfish seines and 200 FEET of tarp to be pulled by hand for mullet fishing.

5. The Executive Director of the MFC wrote a tarp seine report for the Commission. We tried to comment on that document paragraph by paragraph at the MFC meeting 10/7/96 to inform the Commissioners what was really happening.

6. It was impossible to orally present the contents of my presentation to the MFC on 10/7/96 (copy included in attachments) as I was allowed only 5 minutes to make a statement. I drove from Tallahassee to Islamorada and back just to be able to stand before the Marine Fisheries Commissioners for 5 minutes. Room, board, tolls and wear and tear on my vehicle for over 1,000 miles to get 5 minutes before the Commission on an important fishery issue really doesn’t seem fair, but the fishing industry is used to that kind of treatment.

7. "There will be no large-scale gill nets in my lifetime" statement by Commissioner Hansen gives the false impression the baitfish tarp seines are gillnets and that he will fight them relentlessly. Fish can swim out of the tarps being used but they cannot swim out of gillnets and besides, gillnets are illegal. Frank Sargeant and others are using smoke and mirrors to deceive the public.

8. I have been told that one Commissioner wrote a letter to Senator Crist asking for legislative action on banning tarp seines even before the issue was brought before the MFC. Is this a proper action to take while efforts are being made to address the tarp seine issue?

9. Dewey Destin, a baitfish purse seine operator whose family has been fishing in Destin, Florida, for over 100 years, brought samples of the tarp he wanted to use to the MFC and the Department of Environmental Protection.

10. Dewey Destin was told that the use of the tarp seine would be considered a purse seine and was legal for catching baitfish only. NO FOOD FISH HAS EVER BEEN TAKEN WITH A BAITFISH TARP SEINE. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A REQUEST TO HARVEST FOOD FISH WITH THE BAITFISH GEAR BECAUSE IT IS ALREADY AGAINST THE LAW AND IS ACCEPTED BY THE INDUSTRY AS SUCH. Dewey Destin spoke about the use of tarps for harvesting baitfish at the 1995 MFC meeting in Islamorada and was fairly well received. In March or April of 1996, he met with Marine Patrol Director Mickey Watson and with Russell Nelson and Charles Shelfer to discuss the use of tarps in his operation and was told to proceed. He subsequently was provided with written information from the Florida Marine Patrol, Major Buckston I believe, telling him that his tarp was indeed legal and he has been using it ever since for the harvest of BAITFISH.

• Gene Raffield of Raffield Fisheries in Port St. Joe, met with MFC Commissioner Woodruff several months ago to show him the type of tarp material he was considering purchasing for baitfish production. Commissioner Woodruff carried the material to the staff office in Tallahassee and was informed that the material was legal. Subsequently, Mr. Raffield spoke with Charles Shelfer, staff attorney for the MFC and was informed by Mr. Shelfer that the type of material he was planning to use was legal in that it had no holes in it and was not considered a net. Based on this determination, Mr. Raffield purchased thousands of dollars worth of the tarpaulin material for use in the baitfish fishing operations.

• Captain Jerry Melvin of Panama City, Florida, also met with various Florida Marine Patrol officers before attempting to catch baitfish and was told his net was legal under the Florida Constitution. The Florida Marine Patrol appeared on several television stations telling the public that the gear they see being used to catch bait in Panama City is legal. The fishermen thought they were obeying all laws and regulations and were open and up front with both the Florida Marine Patrol and the Marine Fisheries Commission at all times.

11. MFC staff person Jorge Laguna, was invited on board the M/V Gulf Ranger to observe a baitfish harvesting operation in Port St. Joe and subsequently made a report to the MFC on his observation. He noted that the weather was perfect in that there was no wind, little tidal action and clear waters. The weight of the catch was determined to be about 17,000 pounds of ladyfish, an abundant baitfish species historically harvested in North Florida.

12. Following the submission of this report to the MFC staff director and MFC commissioners, sport fishing writer Frank Sergeant began slamming the tarp seines and quoted Jorge Laguna reporting 50,000 pounds of ladyfish and other species being scooped up. Sargeant also said the nets covered nine acres according to Laguna, which is also false. This is the first time the 50,000 pound lie and the 9 acre figure made the big time. In a follow-up article Sargeant then proceeds to tell his readers that half-mile long tarp nets will be used to catch roe mullet because the commercial fishing industry filed a suit. The commercial fishing industry didn’t file a suit and the baitfish fishermen who are using the large tarps for baitfish harvest had nothing to do with the lawsuit filed by a single fishermen who doesn’t even belong to a fishing organization. An independent fisherman wanted to use a small piece of shade tobacco material with his small beach seine. These are two separate issues, two different fisheries but the baitfish fishermen were now categorized as mullet roe fishermen by Frank Sargeant which he knew to be false from the beginning.

13. Soon afterward, fiction writer and "journalist/reporter" Carl Hiaasen did one of his standard vitriolic pieces against commercial fishermen that usually is picked up around the state and is copied for distribution to the Florida Legislature and other government officials by several clipping services.

14. The "first blood" had been drawn by the Sargeant/Hiaasen duo and then the feeding frenzy begins in earnest. (It must be understood that all of this was going on while the 6 or 7 fishermen involved in the baitfish industry were working diligently to develop a suitable piece of gear to harvest baitfish in compliance with the Constitution.)

15. This lays out the truth regarding the power operated baitfish seines pictured in various news stories and FCA packets which have absolutely nothing to do with the harvest of mullet or other food fish. Please remember this point.

16. While the baitfish fishermen were developing a piece of legal gear in keeping with the amendment limiting marine net fishing, several mullet fishermen were also trying to figure out how to use a small piece of tarp that could be used in their HAND OPERATED beach or haul seine. It is against the law to use power to assist in haul or beach seine operations for FOODFISH in the inshore waters of the State of Florida.

17. Frank Sargeant said that the seines being used could cover 10 acres. (False) Commissioner Hanson and the MFC staff report says the nets contemplated to be used could cover 9 acres. (False) The POWER ASSISTED BAITFISH NET that Jorge Laguna observed contained about 647 yards which gives a circumference of 1941 feet and it is against the law to use this net for mullet or any other food fish.

18. Michael Browning of the Miami Herald had headlines saying "Fishermen try to beat state with loopholes in net law". The fishermen are complying with the law, not slipping through loopholes. Mr. Browning equates the fishermen to "moonshiners" trying to get around the law when in truth they are complying. Fishermen cannot commercially catch bait without the use of these tarp seines.

19. Edwin Conklin, state bureaucrat with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and an outspoken foe of commercial fishing, said in the Browning article, "When the public sees scams and evasions like this, they just conclude that all commercial fishermen are outlaws, and they aren’t." Conklin acts as judge and jury and echoes FCA’s "scam mentality". This is neither a scam or an evasion and Mr. Conklin shouldn’t be adding to misinforming the general public. Such personal statements on behalf of the Department of Environmental Protection are erroneous and demeaning, particularly for a public servant.

As far as the use of 10 acres or 9 acres by the anti-commercial fishing people is concerned, if an acre is 210 ft times 210 ft, then a net 1941 feet in length would not even be able to surround 4 acres much less the 10 acres stated by Frank Sergeant and the 9 acres stated by Commissioner Hanson and others. A 600 yard baitfish seine has only 1800 feet of corkline. Four acres laying side by side would have a measurement of 210 + 210+ 210+ 210 +210 + 210 + 210 + 210 + 210 + 210 which would equal 2100 feet. The full extension of a 600 yard (1800 foot) net could only be attained if one wrap-around the baitfish school was made and the net worked 100% effective, which they never do.

Regardless of the mathematical formulas used to determine the area of a circle, does anyone who knows anything about beach and haul seine fishing truly believe that 1 man, 5 men or 20 exceptionally strong men could handle a piece of tarp that was 1941 feet in length? The misleading picture Mr. Forsgren, Mr. Gluckman, Mr. Sargeant and Mr. Hiaasen painted for their editors and readers of large, power assisted nets being used to harvest mullet and other food fish is totally false as such activity is absolutely and unequivocally already against Florida law. This is a faked and false issue designed to inflame and influence public opinion.

As an addendum, I enclose a copy of the fact sheets on the tarp seines distributed to the MFC in Islamorada. Please examine them for accuracy as well as content.

This letter and backup material has been assembled by a very small staff (1) and has been put into a spiral book with loving care. The ability to send this through the mail and make the necessary copies was only possible through a $500 donation by several of the fishermen who are affected. I wish we could afford a PR firm or PR person and could mail more information to you regularly but such are the vagaries of life.

Respectfully submitted,

Bob Jones, Executive Director.
Southeastern Fisheries Association.
Phone 904/224-0612 Fax 904/222-3663.
bobfish@aol.com.