The South Atlantic Fisheries Council has banned fishing in 23,000 sq miles of ocean, including areas off the Florida Keys, in order to protect deep-sea coral colonies. According to the expert, experienced commercial fishermen at the environmental group Oceana “Bottom trawling consumes more fuel than most other types of fishing, and is capable of destroying these ancient coral reefs in a single pass.” The conservationists maintained that bottom damaging gear, including traps and longlines, will be banned in the largest known area of healthy deep-sea coral ecosystems in the world, thus ensuring the productivity of commercial fisheries that depend on them……. Wow! It sounds like those of us in commercial fishing will soon be looking at some serious windfall profits. Let’s see. So far this year, we’ve had a grouper ban, a red snapper ban, a ban outside of 240’, and now a fishing ban for coral. I just hope we can handle the huge increase in productivity that’s about to come.
