"slide" wrote in message
...
Bruce In Bangkok wrote:
On Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:54:40 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:34:07 -0700, slide
wrote:

permanent liveabords who get some wreck of a boat and moor or anchor it
as a solution to cheap rent.
That is the crux of the problem right there. It gets worse.
Eventually the boat becomes abandoned for one reason or another, and
then it sinks, creating a navigational hazard and eyesore.

I wasn't especially talking about live-a-board. Rather a place to keep
a boat that didn't cost an arm and a leg.


The restrictions exist partly due to the 'bum' live aboard' issue but
apply to overnight anchoring as well. Frex, last time I was there, and I
suppose this won't change, Vero Beach's excellent anchorage is forbidden
even for a night unless you pay a fee to the city. As I said in my post,
those who live on the coast objected to me anchoring off their backyards
even for a night.

Vero's restriction was challenged in court on some grounds out of my
knowing. Vero Beach won it. That sort of restriction is rampant today. I
noted it exists only where houses are.

The commercial fleet isn't nearly as large as it was a few years ago.
Frex, the shrimpers have been reduced dramatically by Chinese shrimp
farmers. Other sorts of fishermen are reduced due to species removal or
reductions. AFAIK, the northern fishermen (like Maine) are doing ok except
for cod. The lobster fleet and those *#&#& pots seem darn numerous to me.
Then again, it's not like I ever saw it in 1980 so I can't compare.

I chatted up a few shrimpers who clearly think they are the last of the
shrimp hunters. A business which has gone on for generations (they say) is
now dead or dying.

Yeah, the feds are cutting red snapper fishing as of 4 Jan. Lot's of people
complaining that this is based on "bad science". They take no personal
responsibilty for stock depletions. Just take and take and screw tomorrow.
Not too long ago the state outlawed gill nets. Gill net fishermen
slaughtered tons of mullet and "by-catch" (everything else that gets caught-
almost nothing lives) in the harvest of mullet roe for the Japanese market.
Mullet had been almopst wiped out on Floridas west coast around and north of
Tampa.
We saw an almost immediate increase in food fish and in mullet which are an
important food for all carniverous species.
I felt for the netters when this happened but was happy to see that our
Gov't was doing something before the Japanese lust for anything fishy
screwed Floridans permanently.