By Dan Volker
Intro –Overview of the problem facing the social system, and the political imperatives which result.
Thirty years ago South Florida had an enormous bio-diversity and volume of fish life, including a huge snapper grouper fishery, managed by the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission.
It contained such dense schools of grouper that a diver could enter the water of a 60 foot reef system during a winter migration, and see grouper as far as the eye could see, in visibility ranges of 100 feet in any direction. Today, as a result of too many commercial fishing licenses, far too efficient fish harvesting (or fish mining techniques) and insufficient, we (or you) could enter these same reefs today and not see a single gray grouper during what should be the high traffic migration period. Worse still, new exotic species have already moved in to displace the few remaining gray grouper. This coupled with commercial harvesting techniques which will select the indigenous gray grouper (due to his migration patterns) and do far less harm to the exotics (the tiger groupers), threatens to cause permanent damage to the marine eco-system of South Florida.
We will show in this presentation, that commercial overfishing is responsible, but the accountability of today's near commercial collapse of snapper/grouper fisheries does not lie on the shoulders of the individual commercial fisherman, but instead on society as a whole over the last 30 years.
Of the non-commercial users of this marine resource, the following categories must be judged (for regulatory review) in order of their effects on marine life.
This presentation is designed to provide a perspective on actions which can be taken to help solve current problems, and to allow tourism and local recreational users group to have the ability to enjoy our marine resources today and on in to the distant future.
Table of Contents
Threats to Recreational User Groups
Ecological Impact of each User Group
Specifics on Commercial Overfishing and Impact
Proposed Solution to Commercial Overfishing
Threats to Recreational User Groups
The threat of losing the ability to enjoy their chosen form of recreation decreases with the lobbying power of each group. Unfortunately, this bears no relationship what so ever to ecological impact. An ideal example can be seen in the Florida Keys and the Marine Sanctuaries. Recreational line fishing, while not particularly destructive to most fish found in these sanctuary zones, represents thousands of times the ecological impact which would be represented by the user group of freedive spearfisherman----yet the freedive spearfishing was banned along with recreational scuba spearfishing, and commercial spearfishing! This is occurred simply because there is a large recreational fishing and sport fishing lobby, and none have ever existed for freedive spearfishing. The user group of recreational fisherman, which of course wanted to maximize its enjoyment of the sanctuary resource, was in favor of eliminating all other forms of fish taking. This is not fair, and it does not represent the ecology ---the real reason for the sanctuary in the first place. Commercial scuba spearfishing was rightly targeted as a banned activity, as it would have been ecologically harmful, and recreational scuba spearfishing could be seen as an area where impacts probably were not even considered, but emotions of the recreational fishing groups instead dictated its fate.
Ecological Impact of each User Group on shallow coastal reefs.
Recreational Line Fishing represents the far greatest threat, because of the sheer number of fisherman. While its fish removal technique allows far more fish (of the desirable species) to be caught in a day by one fisherman than one freedive spearfisherman, the actual threat to the eco-system of each fisherman is barely measurable. With this in mind, either total number of licenses should be more closely monitored, or a monthly issuing of fishing permits could be used to more closely regulate the actual removal of fish, and to provide more taxable revenue to pay for better regulation.
Sport Fishing represents a much smaller threat than does normal recreational line fishing, due to its heavier relationship to deep coastal areas and pelagic (non-reef ---wide ranging ocean-going fish). Licenses can cost much more, and a much smaller percentage of the population in the state of Florida (or tourists) can afford to engage in this activity with any frequency.
Recreational Scuba Spearfishing represents a much smaller group than does even sport fishing. As a very tiny percentage of all scuba divers, even if this were an effective fish removal system, there are too few of these people in South Florida to even begin an analysis of the effects, except on certain bottom dwelling species such as hogsnapper, which scuba spearfisherman have a special advantage towards over all other recreational user groups. Similarly, fish like amberjack are too easy a prey for scuba spearfisherman, suggesting that these two species either need much tighter catch limits, or scuba exclusion altogether. Species like gray and tiger grouper will recognize and evade a scuba diver on sight, neutralizing any special advantage these divers had over the other user groups.
Freediving Spearfisherman have such small numbers they can not possibly figure in to any ecological formula. If scuba divers represent about 3 percent of a Florida Population (or U.S) you can safely figure freedivers to represent less than one freediver for every 10,000 scuba divers. Since the largest concentrations of desirable food fish are found on the 40 to 150 foot reefs, it can be safely surmised that the efficiency of a freediver in removing bottom dwelling fish, or free swimming mid water column fish is extraordinarily low. Most freedivers in South Florida are unlikely to bring back more than 4 fish in 4 dive trips. This is because freedivers are highly selective in what fish species they spear, and because in the extreme difficulty in finding, stalking, and getting close enough for a shot.
Freedivers are alone in this association of fish seeking user groups, in that extraordinary training, fitness, understanding of the marine eco-system, and the behavior and interaction of fish is a requirement for them alone. They are elite athletes, involved in a sport that allows the personal harvesting of their own food, utilizing the most ecologically responsible method possible for obtaining fish.
Specifics on Commercial Overfishing and Impact
If we attempt to discuss the current overfishing which has resulted from the enormous tonnage of commercial harvesting, we would want to use the term "biological extinction", as if it were the immediate danger confronting certain important fish stocks in South Florida. Well-respected marine biologists and geneticists would say, "NO, it is only commercial extinction we are threatened with, and we need studies and time to properly determine even this. Since we are right here, and have the visual experience of tens of thousands of dives over a 30-year period, we want to say OK, but look at the mechanism that exists, today. And since this is a visual and actual explanation of the last 20 to 30 years, please excuse the first person method this argument is introduced. It will have to do in the absence of a valid existing study, and since we are in the eleventh hour of a ten-hour timetable.
Let's say you have a snapper grouper population such as the one found in the South Atlantic Fisheries. 20 years ago, when I first began to enjoy diving in the Palm Beach area, snapper and grouper were everywhere on the reefs----they were so thick, they would literally cover the bottom. Many of the old time divers still have photos and videos of the 60's and early 70's, so you could see this for yourself. Back in these days, and for thousands of years (hundreds of thousands) the gray grouper would migrate in enormous schools from the Carolinas, South past Palm Beach, on to Fort Lauderdale, and then out farther in to the Gulf steam than any divers could track them (but I imagine the fisherman knew). These gray grouper would begin their migration each year somewhere around December or January, their movement usually concurrent with the first big cold snap in the Carolinas. Even with fishing crews out around the clock during these spectacular migrations, when the gray grouper got to Palm Beach, it was an amazing sight for a scuba diver. The first one I was able to see, back in '82, was unbelievable. I was on the Jupiter ledge at 120 feet. Visibility would have been 100 feet plus, but I could see little more than 10 feet in any direction because of the swarms of these gray grouper running down the reef tract around me. This was also a neat opportunity to see big ugly sharks following these fish, because believe me, this was a food chain. During the 3-5 days this was occurring, executives all over Palm Beach were calling in sick, and showing up in the water with spearguns. Even some doctors were hard to find (well there were two doctors I know of who would have been hard to find if you were a patient during a run of Grays). All these men would treat the migration as a smorgasbord ---they would shoot every grouper they could, often powerheading them to save time. Most would get enough grouper to last them till the next year. As disgusting as this scuba portion of the slaughter was, it was nothing compared to the round the clock netting, long lining and fish trapping that was set up, round the clock for these fish. The fisherman would make so much money during this migration, that many would take huge vacations after it.
A funny thing happened somewhere along in the late 80's and early 90's. The grays would migrate, but the big clouds of fish were gone. Now you'd see groups of five and six go by. Scuba divers still had interest, but they would not miss work for it. The fisherman had to double and quadruple their efforts, as they still needed the bonanza each migration was supposed to bring them. Traps were strung out over ever-greater distances. Illegal traps were scattered over enormous sections of the bottom in depths of from 130 to 200 feet deep (where few divers would see and report them, but directly in line with the remaining schools of Grays).
Now we are in the late 90's. A frequent diver may have seen perhaps 6 or seven gray grouper on the Jupiter ledge in the last two years, and this includes those out enough to have been there whenever migration is supposed to occur. But we do see another species of grouper on the Palm Beach reefs that was never here before----they are called tiger groupers, they are smart, they get quite large, and they are often in groups of 3 to 6, seeming to hang out in heavily fissured areas of the reefs throughout most of the year. The tiger grouper do not have any obvious migratory pattern, as did the grays. So where we once would have seen gray grouper, now for all practical purposes, we only see a few tiger grouper----although it appears as though the tiger grouper population is beginning to grow into a much larger population.
Today, we see an exotic species has effectively replaced the gray grouper in South Florida waters. Grays may not be "biologically extinct" yet, but as close as they are, they will certainly be displaced by the new exotics (the tigers). When a native species is nearly destroyed by the actions of mankind, and then competitive pressure from exotic species functions to complete the elimination process, than it can be reasonably stated that we have caused a biological extinction or serious endangerment to occur. This will have predator/prey implications to many other species the fish will interact with, and represents a dangerous potential change in our coastal eco-system.
We could call this a societally based commercial extinction, which will continue to the point of biological extinction---the tigers are already pushing the few remaining grays out. They are more aggressive and smarter, and they don't migrate in mass---meaning they are harder for fisherman to target.
South Florida is important to me, and I am watching it in its early death throes right now. There IS NO scientific body that will come in here and do a thorough analysis of the South Atlantic Fishery including the South Florida Waters. Any group that could be brought in would be operating in the eleventh hour, in a ten-hour timetable.
As the grouper and snapper stocks drop even more than today, the prices will rise. The fisherman will have an incentive to increase their harvesting efforts even more, since these higher prices will help bail them out of the severe financial straights that the last several years of poor harvests has put them in. They are men who are "scared" for their families, and they are men who know they must find "some way" to bring more money in, or their family will lose the house, the kids won't have a chance at life, their wives will leave them----these men are driven to find every last grouper, and to sell it for as much money as they can.
Proposed Solution to Commercial Overfishing
I know for a fact that many commercial fishermen are good people, and that they are just trying to feed their families. But they are destroying a natural resource that does not belong to them in the process----it belongs to the world, and to the future.
It is far simpler to blame our current problem of overfishing on commercial fishing---this is the bottom line. But in fact, there is more to the story. Our educational institutions were teaching students about how the oceans were an inexhaustible resource all the way up into the early 1970's. This helped foster life plans for many families, where feeding the people of the world would be their life's work. Men would become commercial fishermen, they would teach this life and trade to their sons, and they to their sons. A culture and tradition of the sea would be established for these men and families, and today this tradition has created a terrible split between a life's ambition, and what's best for the future of the world. So who is really at fault. We could say it's our great Grandparents for not being more astute in their understanding of the marine ecosystem. This of course will take us no where.
Today, I like to tell people the "act" of commercial fishing is a terrible crime against the future of the world. It's techniques (longlining, netting, trapping, etc) are far too efficient for the reproductive rates of the targeted (and non-targeted species - bycatch) to keep up with their removal. And there are simply too many commercial fishermen. But the "Criminal" is really not the commercial fisherman themselves; it is the society that nurtured the industry which has now become harmful.
Solutions:
Governments of the world, particularly the USA, must decide to create some sort of entitlement program and re-training for families who have been in commercial fishing for the better part of at least one generation. These people must receive income of a similar scale to what they received as commercial fisherman, during their re-training process. They can pick computers, engineering, bricklaying---whatever they want, and they should be subsidized for a fair period of re-education and training. After all, if the government had not allowed so many commercial licenses, and had not allowed the harvesting techniques used today, we would not have today's problems. Since American society wanted the ease of acquiring fish at the grocery stores and restaurants for relatively little cost, this society was never interested in the damage their buying habits could create in the ocean. And so it is really NOT government which is directly to blame, but rather, an American public which has placed the ease of obtaining a seafood meal over the future (and even present) health of our coastal and oceanic resources. But now this threat to today and tomorrow must be faced, and a radical shut down of commercial fishing harvests MUST occur. If we are to do this, than we have no other moral choice than to create these re-education and temporary entitlement programs for the commercial fishing families who have found their livelihood and traditions at odds with what's good for the future.
So with the creation of these programs, the majority of commercial fisherman should be paid into these re-education systems in return for their commercial fishing licenses. Once this is accomplished, future levels of licensing would never come close to even 15% of what it is today, and the harvesting techniques will be far more eco-friendly, and far less efficient in their ability to capture large numbers of fish. While they will have nothing close to there former mass tonnage of fish catches (now becoming closer to the catch of a large sport fishing boat), the price of fish will skyrocket, and this will allow a living to be made without large catches of fish. Strict limits as to total catch and gear would need to be enforced (with criminal penalties if broken).
Prices of fish will have to come up sooner or later, even if the ideas I mention here are ignored. Fish populations will decline rapidly in the next few years, and fish prices will rise just as quickly, causing fisherman to try all the harder to catch every last fish they can (sensing the end is near, they will need a nest egg for their families). Ultimately this will destroy the commercial seafood industry, whether you want to believe it will happen 3 years from now, 10 years or maybe 15. At some point soon, irreversible damage to the oceans will occur. In South Florida, the problem is upon us today.
This destruction of fish stocks today is actually quite similar to the destruction of the Rainforests of the world, such as found in the Amazon region. Every day, huge permanent destruction occurs to the rain forest, just as it does to fish populations. When the rain forests are gone, we will never have their genetic diversity again, or even a close proximity to what once was. New tree replanting offers no solution what-so-ever to the loss of species this deforestation is causing. So to the extermination of fish populations---many will never recover, even today. Many others still have a chance, but only if something is done VERY SOON.
With the single stroke of eliminating most commercial fishing and outlawing its over-efficient harvesting techniques, our Florida fish populations will rebound vigorously. The effects of recreational line fishing, sport fishing and freedive spearfishing will be far below the reproductive capabilities of the targeted fish species. Any concerns over individual species can be met with stiffer regulations and limits for those species, and more expensive licenses.
And as a last request on behalf of fair regulations for each user group, please consider the drastic differences between freedive spearfishing and all other forms of fishing. Since freediving is clearly the least destructive and most selective form of fishing, please do not allow it to be rendered as a "banned activity", in places where hook and line fishermen have successfully lobbied to be allowed to engage in their form of fishing. As surely as sanctuaries will be coming to many areas throughout Florida, without thoughtful consideration by ecologically sincere Governmental Offices like your own, Freedive Spearfishing will suffer an unjustly association with the real threats like commercial netting, dynamiting fish, and trapping. We [ freedivers] have powerful ecologically significant contributions we can make as a user group. We have plans and organizations like the IUSA, ready to implement these contributions to Florida, and just as we are on the verge of the capability to bring a better understanding of our place in the marine eco-system to the rest of the world, we are also on the verge of having Freedivive Spearfishing banned by a governing body with terribly wrong understanding about what we are and what we represent. Please contact us if you would like to know more about what our group represents, or if there is anything at all you feel we could contribute to the ecological issue we find Florida is confronted with.
The issue we are faced with should not be whether or not any of us can eat fish, or whether we should be able to enjoy fishing or freedive spearfishing as a form of recreational food harvesting….we should be able to. The question is, given the reproductive capabilities of the fish species we want, what harvesting techniques are ecologically sound enough to be allowed, and how many people should be allowed to harvest them---both commercially and recreationally. Obviously, we must make fish more expensive if we are successful in this endeavor. And we should desire this over the alternative, of destroying our future by commercial mining of fish populations. Many user groups can continue to enjoy recreation within the coastal waters of Florida, if the real causes of ecological destruction are eliminated. The big solution is the end of commercial fishing in its present form.
Please contact Dan Volker, for more information.