Dewey Destin Still Looking at Snapper Study

By Patrick Donohue, Destin Log, Fla.

Jun. 2–Destin’s charter fi shermen are concerned that new data on red snapper bycatch mortality could come back to bite them.

Earlier this year, Dewey Destin, Destin city councilor, restaurateur and former net fi sherman, proposed funding a private study of red snapper bycatch mortality.

The belief shared by Destin and countless others on the Gulf Coast was that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, the agency tasked with managing all federal fisheries in Gulf, was basing new regulations on faulty data that inaccurately classified the snapper fishery as being overfi shed and didn’t take into account the amount of snapper being killed while anglers were fishing for “keepers” as well as for other reef fi sh.

Destin’s concept was to fund a private study, in conjunction with marine researchers and Destin charter captains, to provide the fishery council with the best available data on which to base their management plans.

Since Destin introduced the idea at a City Council meeting, he said the fi sherman have shown reticence to help fund or endorse the study, afraid new data showing a high mortality bycatch could lead to amped-up restrictions.

“There are some concerns from the fishermen that the data may be used against what they would like to see and that’s always a possibility, but I don’t think that managing the fi shery without proper science is a better alternative,” Destin said. “They’re just concerned that a study on bycatch mortality that shows that they’re killing more fish than we think may cause the regulators to clamp down even tighter. They’ve seen the regulators come forward with a pretty heavy-handed management plan and they’re gun-shy.”

Last week, representatives from the council were in South Walton to collect public comment on a proposed permanent management plan for the snapper fi shery. The fishery council is expected to take fi nal action on the management plan at its meeting later this month in New Orleans. The plan could include a reduction in the recreational bag limit, total allowable catch and a shorter snapper season.

Mayor Craig Barker has been trying to act as a conduit between the Destin fi shing fleet and research scientists to discuss the study. But attempts to try to set up a meeting between the two parties has been, as of yet, unsuccessful, he said.

“My direction, as given by the City Council, was to proceed forward and arrange funding for such a study and I am still attempting to facilitate that direction,” he said. “So I proposed to set up a meeting between the captains and Dr. Will Patterson (a research biologist at the University of West Florida). The meeting I envision will put them together so that they can discuss these issues openly and candidly and hopefully reach a consensus to move forward with the study.”

“Obviously the captains are either too busy or too wary to even meet right now, and absent such a meeting I don’t foresee them fi nding consensus on their own to support it,” the mayor said.

Barker said he had been told that the captains were leery of what the results of the study could mean for their business.

“The captains notifi ed me a month or so ago that they had met informally amongst themselves and defi nitively opposed the strategy proposed by Dewey a couple of months ago,” he said.

Nonetheless, Destin said he would continue contacting snapper stakeholders to try to conduct a study to provide the fishery council will the best available science to base their management on.

“I’m going to continue to talk to the stakeholders, the charter fleet and the restaurant people to try to get a consensus to get better science,” Destin said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Destin Log, Fla.

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