Grouper

Well Known Key West Local Sentenced for Illegal Sales of Black Grouper

David Paul Horan Jr. was sentenced to two years’ probation and 200 hours of community service Wednesday for illegally selling black grouper in 2008 to the Rusty Anchor fish house on Stock Island.

Horan Jr., 42, of Key West, pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in August in which he will testify in other such cases in exchange for them not recommending the maximum sentence of five years’ prison, three years’ probation and a $250,000 fine, court documents say.

He was sentenced at the federal courthouse in Key West before U.S. District Judge Michael K. Moore, who had already approved the plea deal. Horan Jr., who is not a commercial fisherman, had a state license that allowed him to sell fish commercially, but not a federal license to harvest federally protected grouper.

Suit to Halt Deepwater Grouper Fishing Ban

A recreational-fishing group sued this week in a bid to overturn new federal rules on bottom fishing for deepwater grouper.

The suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service, filed in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, will do nothing to halt the new rules — Amendment 17-B to the Snapper Grouper Plan of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council — from taking effect Jan. 31.

Does this seem dumb?

“It’s very difficult to get an injunction [under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act] unless you can show permanent, irreparable harm,” David Heil, a Winter Park attorney said. “It’s hard to do that in regard to recreational fishing.”

Amendment 17-B bans the harvest of six deepwater snapper and grouper species in depths beyond 240 feet, and reduces the recreational and commercial bag limits of snowy grouper to one fish per vessel per day. This is intended primarily to protect speckled hind and Warsaw grouper, “the rule also prohibits the deepwater harvest of snowy grouper, blueline tilefish, yellowedge grouper, misty grouper, queen snapper, and silk snapper in depths beyond 240 feet,” according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“Speckled hind and Warsaw grouper can be caught as bycatch when fishermen are targeting these other deepwater species, and typically do not survive being reeled up from such great depths,” the agency says. A draft version of the rule would have halted all deepwater bottom fishing in the depths below 240 feet, but was modified to ban harvest of the designated species.

“It’s not as bad as it was but this rule still will have a major impact on those commercial fishermen who go out for snowy grouper and tilefish,” said Bill Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association.

“This is intended to protect Warsaw grouper and speckled hind, but the chances of a Keys fishermen actually hooking one of those is so remote that it’s not funny,” he said.

Heil contended federal law requires that only species that have been scientifically identified as overfished can be placed off limits to harvesting.

“The rules say you cannot close down the whole bottom to protect one or two species,” he said. “Preventing bycatch is not enough reason to close bottom fishing for everything else.”

Fishery managers “don’t know anything about” the status of most species covered by Amendment 17-B, he said.

The lawsuit also alleges that federal managers rely too much on a dubious survey process, the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistical Survey, to assess fish population stocks. Fishery regulators have admitted the system is flawed, the suit says, but have not completed a mandated upgrade, the suit says.

Heil said the government has a lengthy period to review and respond to this type of suit, so any court action likely is several months away.

“Little bit by little bit, they’re taking away our rights to fish,” Heil said. “Today it’s this fish, tomorrow it’s another. We can’t tolerate this, and we’re going to right it to the end.”

The Pew Environmental Group hailed the new rules in Amendment 17-B.

“This conservation plan is an important first step toward saving fish species in need of protection. Two of these species — Warsaw grouper and speckled hind — are critically imperiled,” said project manager Holly Binns. “It is urgent that we act now to save them.” The ban also protects other species “and is putting us on the right track toward a much healthier ocean ecosystem,” she said.

Grouper Ban Has Florida Keys’ Fishermen Reeling

Florida Keys fisherman who barely survived the awful 2009 season won’t be getting any relief for the first few months of the new year.

On January 1st , a new four-month ban on grouper fishing goes into effect to protect the species during its primary spawning season. Fishery managers and ocean conservancy groups say several types of grouper have been overfished for decades and need protection.

The ban, which will run through April 30 prohibits commercial and recreational fishermen from keeping shallow-water grouper; including gag, black, red and yellowfin that is caught in federal and state Atlantic waters from North Carolina to Key West. The ban also extends into state waters on the Gulf of Mexico side of Monroe County.

“It’s a bitter choice between sustaining the fishery or sustaining someone’s livelihood,” said Andy McDonald, the wholesale manager at the Islamorada Fish Co. “But if you don’t sustain the fishery, there will be no livelihood.”

Commercial and charter boat captains are crying foul over the ban which comes during the island chain’s peak tourist season.

“This couldn’t come at a worse time,” said Andy Griffiths, who owns a three-boat charter operation near Key West. “My business already is off 80 percent because of the economy.”

Charter boat captain Bill Kelly agrees. He said he’s been in business 30 years and 2009 was his worst season.

The ban couldn’t come at a worse time for Keys’ commercial fishermen who are struggling to survive after prices and demand for their two big ticket items, spiny lobster and stone crabs, took sharp downturns in the last couple of years. Many commercial boats had been supplementing their dwindling incomes by catching grouper to stay afloat.

But fishermen won’t be the only ones affected. The price of grouper, already $17.99 per pound at several grocery chain stores in the Keys, could go higher when the supply goes down.