Many of my neighbors are small commercial fishermen who were driven out
of business by the so called "Net ban Amendment" that was promulgated
by so-called "Sport Fishermen" The amendment to the FL constitution is
written so badly that it is very difficult to decide if some nets are
legal so that the Marine Patrol simply enforces it against those people
they do not like. The situation became so tense here in N. Fl that a
few yrs ago the Marine patrol refused to rescue some commercial
fishermen on a small boat off Alligator Point. The Marine Patrol says
they never heard the distress call although they were less than 10
miles away on the water writing a net ban ticket at the time. Instead,
the Coast Guard station at Yankeetown 90 miles away did get it and
relayed it to the marine Patrol who refused to act on it for hours.
Later, the Marine Patrol sai9d the wearher was too rough for them to
search in spite of them having a 60' vessel at Carabelle 15 miles away.
Finally, other fishermen decided to search since the Marine Patrol
refused but by this time the vessel had sunk killing two. It is widely
believed in these parts that the Marine Patrol intentionally allowed
these men to die to punish the local fishermen for their opposition to
the net ban.
Meanwhile, it has been found that it is the so-called "Sport Fishermen"
with their mega expensive boats that are depleting grouper stocks
Given a choice of having sympathy for a hard working "commercial
fisherman" with a plywood boat with a 30 yr old Johnson trying to
scrape by vs a spoiled rich transplant driving a $100,000 "fishing"
boat, I'll take the plywood boat.
Because of the extraordinarily foolish idea of putting the net ban in
the Fl constitution, many of us here have protested by voting for the
pregnant pig amendment and the bullet train amendment. Of course, you
can see where the money is as the bullet train amendment ahs been
ignored while we still prosecute poor commercial fishermen and sieze
their property so the rich "Sport Fishermen" can enjoy themselves.