In a lifetime of living with fishery regulation, the 2 day lobster mini-season is the most unjustifiable rule I have ever seen put in place. Recreational divers are given a special interest favor and allowed to harvest lobster before the commercial industry gets a shot at them. In the minds of commercial lobster fishermen, the favoritism that is shown towards this one user group, is completely inconsistent with the purported guidelines for fishery management espoused by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
The mini-season, which was started in 1975 when there were but a handful of recreational divers, has grown into a monster which has dramatically impacted the commercial lobstermen. Opening day of the lobster season used to be the biggest production day of the season. With a 10 day soak period, and an August 1 opening date, fishermen depended on their shallow water traps for a big opening day haul after a long summer of no income.
Today, few fishermen bother with shallow water traps, since virtually all lobsters in less than 20’ of water are harvested by the estimated 50,000+ recreational divers. To add insult to injury, the State of Florida has also reduced the soak period for traps from 10 days to 5. A newly placed lobster trap will not start catching until it stops bubbling, and marine growth and sediment acclimate it to the bottom. Since the process takes about a week, fishermen who put their traps in the water on August 1, do not even bother pulling them until August 10. With an August 6 season opening, recreational divers have several additional days to capture lobster before the traps even start catching.
Most commercial fishermen have given up the mini-season battle, and adjusted both their trapping methods and their lives, to accommodate the pleasure seekers. With dozens of threatening restrictions in the regulatory pipeline of commercial fishing, it makes little sense to fight a useless political and public relations battle against the far more powerful recreational interests.
Though polls show local residents firmly oppose the 2 day ‘sport’ season, I came to fully understand the futility of trying to eliminate the mini-season after serving on the Lobster Advisory Board for the FWC. As a board with access to all records and science, we studied the mini-season issue for 2.5 years. Though we could find little scientific, economic, or regulatory justification, the mini-season was never in danger of elimination. Its proponents support it with an emotional fervor that is completely out of proportion to its importance, and no one on the board or FWC staff was willing to do battle with them.
All on our LAB were agreed that elimination of the mini-season would not restrict recreational access to the fishery. All were agreed that duplication of enforcement effort with 2 separate lobster seasons was very costly, and extremely inefficient. All were agreed that the economic impact would be minimal with a single opening date of August 6 for all user groups. All were agreed that with lobster traps in the water for only 5 days by August 6, trappers would catch little of the available shallow water lobster by opening day. And even the FWC staff agreed that the mini-season made little sense from a regulatory standpoint. Yet no one was willing to pull the plug on the so called ‘sportsmen’s season’
When we talk of fishery management becoming politicized, there is hardly a clearer example than the mini-season. The State of Florida fishing bureaucracy will not touch it. Federal fishery managers, who stick their nose into everything else, maintain it’s a state issue, and not within their regulatory purview. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which finds environmental reasons to oppose everything, remains deathly silent on the issue. Even the Key West Chamber of Commerce, which once passed a unanimous resolution opposing the mini-season, has apparently tempered their position.
It really serves little purpose to go over the issues once again. They have been beaten to death, and no argument is going to have any impact on the future of the mini-season. Unfortunately, I am given to beating on dead horses, so here in a nutshell, is my version of the major issues.
The FWC maintains the mini-season was instituted after public hearings determined divers would be safer without the possibility of wild-eyed commercial fishermen running them over as they dropped their traps. In reality, there were no public hearings. The law was passed directly through the legislature in a political ‘deal’, and commercial fishermen only found out about it when it was published in the newspaper.
As to the supposed user conflict; when the mini-season was instituted, fishermen had a 10 day soak period, and all traps were already in the water by the time the season opened. Today fishermen only have 5 days to soak their traps prior to the season opening, and few boats have all their traps in the water by opening day. Since the August 6 opening finds as many divers in the water as the mini-season, the supposed risk from trap droppers is actually worse than it was before the sport season was instituted. Incidentally, I recall no instance of a commercial boat ever running over a diver, but I know of 2 cases where the Florida Marine Patrol did.
Enforcement is also a major issue. FWC admits that truly effective enforcement during mini-season is virtually impossible, and the cost in dollars and man hours is prohibitive. The FWC brings in officers from all around the State to help, and they are still overwhelmed. According to the FWC, about 2,500 inspections are made, but that barely scratches the surface, and means that only 1 boat in 10 actually gets checked.
As all residents are aware, the biggest enforcement issue is not undersized lobster, or even a boat having over the limit. The major problem comes from boats that catch more than the limit by making multiple trips. Unless a boat is stopped and his license punched by the officer to show that he has caught his day limit, the diver is free to unload his catch on shore, and then head back out again. All local residents hear stories of boats with 5 divers making 6 or 8 trips a day. While it’s true that one must be knowledgeable and experienced to find so many lobsters, it’s also true that there are many knowledgeable and experienced divers in the Florida Keys.
In defense of its mini-season support, the FWC maintains that their science indicates multiple trips and over-catching, are not major problems. Their science on this issue, consists of a mail out questionnaire. It is their contention, that since people are not identified by name in the poll, all answers are truthful, and the poll results prove that few people are guilty of multiple trips or catching over the limit. Well, what do I know? Not being an expert in polling science, I would have thought that no one would admit to over-catching, lest it draw more attention as a major enforcement problem.
In truth, having a single opening day for all users will not solve most of the enforcement issues. From an enforcement standpoint, it will only allow the FWC to concentrate all of its efforts on a single opening, instead of having to gear up for 2 seasons in a 10 day span. From a practical standpoint, most of the enforcement problems with divers are simply not solvable, and since the lobster population is strong enough to support the current effort, it makes little sense to place further restrictions on the law abiding majority. A single opening day only allows enforcement of current rules to be more effective and efficient.
The environmental impact of mini-season always draws the opportunistic attention of the anti-everything crowd and bureaucrats who love to tinker with the rules. Does diving for lobster impact the marine environment? Of course! Everything humans do has some impact, but I am not convinced that divers do any permanent damage nor that any further dive restrictions are warranted to protect the marine environment. Everyone has a story of a coral head being overturned by someone to get at the lobster, but I think the bone-heads are few and far between, and no rule can protect us from fools.
The economic impact of eliminating mini-season is far harder to judge. The hotel and dive industries maintain that it would be disastrous. Some in the attractions industry though, believe the loss in business would be minimal, and still others involved in tourism believe the mini-season is an overall negative for their industry.
One can hardly blame the dive and hotel people for wanting to double-dip on the exploitation of our lobster resource. It seems without question that they are the prime beneficiaries of a double season. The real economic issue however, is how big of a loss would there be by consolidating effort into one season? It would seem a given that virtually all of the mini-season divers would still show up for the regular season. The only apparent loss would be from out of town divers who participate in both seasons, and some of that would be offset by ‘mini-season only’ divers staying longer for the regular season.
It is also worth remembering that while tourism is certainly vital to our economy, it is not the only source of revenue for our county. Elimination of the mini-season would undoubtedly divert some of the dive catch to trappers, but that revenue would still be here to benefit our local economy. A strong commercial fishery not only benefits the economy directly, but also continuously promotes the Florida Keys image of fresh seafood and clean waters.
Saved taxpayer money is also an economic benefit. A single lobster season would not only make enforcement more effective and efficient, but the economy of effort would save hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. While we would expect that a single season would produce a larger crowd, there is little doubt that gearing up only one time would save money and be a blessing for law enforcement.
In discussing the issue, it quickly becomes apparent that net economic gain or loss is far too complex to ever be determined exactly. It is only reasonable to say that some will lose, and some will gain. No one that I know in commercial fishing wants to hurt the tourist industry. We all have family and friends who depend on it for a living, and our own industry is undoubtedly helped by a vibrant tourist economy.
On the other hand, few in the tourist industry appear to be concerned over the loss to commercial fishing from the mini-season. The FWC makes a straight faced estimate that about 500,000 pounds of lobster are taken during the sport season – again based on their trusty questionnaire. The more realistic number is closer to 1,000,000 pounds. With a single season opening, a percentage of these would be caught by trappers, and provide a shot in the arm for an industry that is currently being regulated to death.
The over-riding issue for commercial fishermen however, is one of fairness. The FWC has cut our trap numbers by more than 50% in the past 15 years, and industry production has fallen proportionately. To commercial fishermen, the mini-season is essentially in place to allow non-residents of Monroe County a free shot at our only true wealth producing resource. As we lose boats, jobs, and income, it is particularly galling to sit back and watch as a special group is given preferential treatment under the law.
Commercial fishermen live year round in Monroe County, and most were either born here or have resided in the Keys for the best part of their lives. We own property, we pay taxes, we vote in local elections, our kids go to school here, and we care deeply about our environment and marine resources. And no, it’s not just commercial fishermen who fit in this category. Most people who actually live out their lives in the Keys have the same distaste for the mini-season. By and large, citizens of the Florida Keys do not wish to stop tourists and non-residents from taking lobsters, but it is hard to understand why they should be given such preferential treatment.
