and so it begins,............sharks

[onethatcares]

lately the charter fishing captains have determined that sharks in the coastal waters are detrimental to their livelihood. Seems the bull sharks have discovered a good meal on the end of the lines tossed by tourists and residents alike and like a grouper sandwich without the bread to be great; so in the captains eyes' the sharks gotta be eliminated.

The past four evening news casts have featured the problem and the captains solution. KILL THE FUCKING SHARKS!!!! No one has looked at the bay and mentioned that overfishing of the shark food supply, mullet, has caused the shark to switch menus. Nope, only thing to do is eliminate the sharks, over and over again Nope, no one has said over development and warming water is a problem for mullet reproduction, or that the death of seagrass beds are a part of this mess. No, only that the sharks are causing economic havoc with one industry.

I've been a transplant to the west central coast since 77 and their used to be schools of mullet everywhere. Now? No such thing.

[MOMFUDSKI]

1. The dolphins also eat

mullet.

[onethatcares]

3. the dolphin

have become very wise as to the sound of charter boat motors and when they stop to fish. They've, the bottlenose, have also become very wise as to where to bite that fish that's going topside. They don't get hooked very often.

Charter captains would have a very hard time convincing the public they have to kill flipper to support the commercial fishing industry so I think the dolphin will be ok for a while yet.

[lpbk2713]

2. The Skyway used to be a good place to catch mullet.

Don't know how it is now though. Haven't been there in years.

[onethatcares]

4. gotta pay

to fish the Skyway any more. pRicksnott decided the public parks are subject to user fees and I think it's now 5.00 a person and 12.00 a vehicle.

It was the land place to fish for big sharks/tarpon and grouper back in the day. Now it's just another cow to be milked instead of milking the wealthy here.

[lpbk2713]

5. Never fails.

If they can find a way to make a buck they will. Do you need a fishing license now?

[onethatcares]

6. yep, and specialty stamps

Instead of giving bad info I got this;

Saltwater Licenses & Permits
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
https://myfwc.com › license › saltwater

Problem being IMO, there are a lot of people, and I mean ALOT OF PEOPLE moving here and they have no clue about how f'd up it was back in the 70s when the bays were dirty, the fish had cancers, and the seagrass was dieing or dead. It took much education to change things and we got over the hump in the early 90s.

Now it's deja vu all over again and the state isn't really interested in much aside from development.

Ya know what? I really love this place. The bays, the gulf of mexico, the freshwater lakes, the fishing, birding, hunting if that's your bag, and the orange groves that used to be here. I just haven't found a political party that stands for all that and I'm getting older every day.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. blame the other preditor and not the main preditor.

[Timeflyer]

8. Florida is a victim of its own success in bringing people here, pushing out wildlife on land and water.

Hate that there's no going back to natural FL, before air-conditioning and mosquito control. Beautiful, wild, but practically uninhabitable much of the year.