BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

wrote:
Following this incident where the Marine Patrol refused to rescue two
men and left them to die, the marine Patrol found themselves unwelcome
in several communities such as Panacea and St. Marks. On two occasions
they found their boat trailers tires slashed and were even fired on
once when they launched at Panacea.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed over time as the commercial
fishermen found that the waterfornt property that had been in their
familes for generations and was thought to be just worthless salt marsh
escalated in value from roughly $30,000.acre along the New River in
Carabelle to over $500,000/acre. The property was mostly being sold to
transplants from South Florida and various northern hell holes. Many
of the buyers being the "Sport Fishermen". Unfortunately, there isnt a
happy ending. These buyers then filled the salt marshes that produced
all the food for the game fish thus reducing the "sport fish"
population. Even worse, these rich transplants built docks for their
expensive boats and put up illegal fences to keep the locals from the
waterfront that is legally public property. But, you know money talks
so the poor locals who did not have waterfront property to sell can now
no longer even fish from the shore that was supposed to be public.

please post some proof of this episode you claim to know about.
specifically the marine patrol refusal to help and the filling of salt
marshes. or is this simply more urban legend?

if said locals 'sold' the land, they are no longer entitled to use it.
was anything put in the contract? did they simply want the profit and
retain the benefit of still having rights to the land? and how is anyone
personally allowed to privately sell public land?

and in case you havnt paid to much attention to the details, the
commercial netters rarely if ever catch grouper, so why compare them to
the offshore sport fisherman? part of the problem has been that the
commercial netters would take anything and everthing, and the loss of
marine life by way of 'by catch' is what brought about the newer
regulations.