Candy
07-18-08, 06:09 PM
Meeting focused on Florida Artificial Reef Issues held in Alabama
Fishermen, Divers and every industry that supports local fishermen or tourism need to pay close attention to what is happening at the ACOE. The latest challenge to our rights as citizens is a proposal from the Army Corps of Engineers that will Kill Private Artificial Reef Building off our shores. It is feared this could cause irreparable harm to the future health of our local fishery and our tourist driven economy. If this happens, fishermen will surely be hit with more season closures and smaller bag limits to meet the requirements of the Magnuson Stevens Act to end overfishing and create a sustainable fishery.
Clif Payne of the Jacksonville District of the Army Corps of Engineers was the main speaker at the LAARS Meeting held August 16th 2008 in Mobile Alabama. Other Speakers were Cmdr. John Arenstam of the U.S. Coast Guard, who gave a briefing on necessary clearances for marine traffic and marking regulations, and Michael Barnette from NOAA, who gave a briefing on Sea Turtle mortalities. The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission hosted the meeting. There were attendees from Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama, but the majority of attendees were from Florida.
Florida’s Artificial Reef Managers traveled to Alabama to attend the LAARS meeting that could have a devastating effect on the future of their respective programs. Jon Dodril from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Artificial Reef Office was in attendance, as well as County Artificial Reef Managers Robert Turpin from Escambia Co., Cindy Halsey from Okaloosa Co. and Tita Sokoloff from Bay Co.
Representing the Charter Industry at the meeting was Bob Zales, President of the National Charter Boat Association, and Mike Eller, President of the Destin Charter Boat Assoc. There were 7 private Florida Fishermen / Reef Builders, as well as Paul Redman, President of The Reef Fish Restoration Association, and Candy Hansard, Reef Deployment Director for The Emerald Coast Reef Association.
The first 2 hours of the meeting were devoted to a slide show presentation given by Clif Payne. His briefing contained a Regulatory Overview and Proposed Regulation changes including the Jacksonville District of the ACOE’s perceived need for standardized conditions throughout the State of Florida.
The last hour of the 4-hour meeting was devoted to a question-and-answer session completely focused on the Jacksonville District of the ACOE’s Artificial Reef Conditions proposal.
Of greatest concern was the proposal to increase the steel thickness of artificial reefs from the current 1/8” to ¼”. This proposal was met with tremendous opposition due to the fact that implementing it would effectively kill the Successful Private Artificial Reef Building programs in the Florida Panhandle.
Clif Payne justified the change in steel-thickness requirement by contending that there was a lack of monitoring. He said that without monitoring, the ACOE had no way of knowing if these small reefs were doing what they wanted. Providing effective, stable habitat and longevity were two of his concerns.
Mike Eller made the observation that the private reef builders were continually building more reefs, every year that replace of any reefs that may get covered in storms or deteriorate over time. He also suggested that when taxpayer money is being used, perhaps they should look at a 50 year lifespan for reefs, but the same requirement should not apply to reefs that are privately funded. This met with unanimous agreement from the other fishermen / reef builders in attendance.
David Walters of Walters Reefs spoke in support of the 1/8” steel reefs, saying that although the new requirement would benefit his concrete reef-building business, not everyone can afford his reefs, and that changing the requirement would take the ability to build reefs away from the little guy.
Candy Hansard showed slides featuring Chicken Transfer Device (CTD) reefs that were photographed by the FWC on a research dive 9 months and 2 days post-deployment. Both reefs were covered with a wide variety of fish, with the most abundant species noted on both reefs being Red Snapper. She also showed a slide with photographic proof of the reefs becoming living-reef systems in less than a year. The reefs have impressive marine growth and a wide variety of recreationally-targeted fish, along with a remarkable variety of tropicals and bait fish, proving that these small reefs are self-sustaining living-reef systems, not just fish attractors.
Another proposal that didn’t sit well with those in attendance was the suggestion that an off-duty police officer accompany deployments to be sure that they are deployed where they are supposed to go. Candy Hansard asked if that was legal and questioned if it was Constitutional: “That is like saying that no one can drive a car unless they have a police officer with them because they might speed.” Mr. Payne then suggested that they could install monitoring devices on all deployment boats. No mention was made of who would finance the cost of police escorts or monitoring devices.
Candy Hansard also made the point that if the Jacksonville district would permit our seafloor like they have done in Alabama that would eliminate the need for deployment monitoring because people could legally deploy their reefs in gigantic areas as opposed to the postage-stamp sized areas we now have.
Alabama’s Mobile district of the ACOE has supported their Artificial Reef Programs by providing impressive permitting, encouraging reef building, and providing Reef Builders a better expectation that their privately financed reefs remain private.
The Mobile District of the Army Corps of Engineers has been extremely successful in permitting almost the entire seafloor off Alabama’s 57 mile coastline. Their permitting has allowed Alabama to build the largest Artificial Reef Program in the United States, even though Alabama only has 5% of the coastline of the entire Gulf of Mexico. Alabama has 1,260 square miles of permitted areas open to Private Artificial Reef Building. They also enjoy the largest and healthiest population of Red Snappers in the Gulf of Mexico.
In contrast, Florida has approximately 1,200 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico and only 464.88 square miles have been permitted to allow private artificial reef building. These areas are not sufficient to meet the needs of Florida’s fishermen and do not provide adequate areas to meet the needs of Florida’s fishery.
Holding meetings out-of-State to address issues that affect Florida’s Fishery and the disparity between 2 districts of the same Federal Agency has created a public relations nightmare for Clif Payne and the Jacksonville District of the ACOE.
It is a scientific fact that fish need habitat to survive. According to the FWC, the seafloor off the Florida Panhandle is 95% barren sandy bottom.** The natural makeup of our coastline will not support a sustainable fishery or our State’s Tourism-Driven Economy.
The Florida Fish & Wildlife has a budget of $261 Million Dollars per year.*** In 2007, the FWC allocated $300 Thousand Dollars to the Artificial Reef Program and the Federal Government donated $400 Thousand dollars to the Florida Artificial Reef Program.**** That $700 Thousand Dollar Budget allocated for Artificial Reefs in the State of Florida was NOT completely spent building much needed reefs. A large portion of that money is given in grants for monitoring and research projects.
While Monitoring and Research are vital to understanding how reefs perform, research does not produce fish, reefs do. It is an undeniable fact that our Local, State and Federal Governments do not allocate sufficient funds to build the reef systems needed in the Florida Panhandle to create a sustainable fishery. This is why it is vital to protect the Private Artificial Reef Building programs in Escambia, Okaloosa and Bay Counties.
According to Kenneth Haddad, the Executive Director of Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission, “Recreational Saltwater fishing generates a staggering amount of consumer spending in this state’s economy- roughly $14.3 million per day…” “That’s close to $10,000 per minute.”* This statistic alone should demand accountability in the management of our ACOE Permitting and Fishery Management decisions.
For years, Private Recreational Fishermen and Charter Boat Captains along the Panhandle have worked diligently and successfully to create a sustainable fishery by providing habitat on an otherwise barren seafloor. The fact that the Red Snapper fishery is so healthy in Northwest Florida can be directly attributed to the tremendous efforts of these private reef builders.
The current proposal to change the Artificial Reef Requirements is on hold until next spring to allow monitoring to take place. No re-evaluation date was given. The Emerald Coast Reef Association has research reefs in place but with the price of gas going from $2.00 per gallon at the dock to over $5.00, their research budget is woefully inadequate to accomplish the monitoring that the ACOE is demanding but unwilling to fund. It would be wise to require government agencies that arbitrarily place mandates to fund those mandates from their respective offices’ budget. If this was done, perhaps unwarranted micromanagement would be curtailed saving the taxpayers untold amount of money and frustration.
If the Private Artificial Reef Programs in the Florida Panhandle are harmed by the ACOE’s actions, someone needs to be held accountable for the damage that will do to our fishery and our economy. If we stop building reefs, our fish population will most definitely suffer and that will create the need for more fish size and bag limit restrictions and season closures to meet the requirements of the Magnuson Stevens Act. Any of those actions will have a devastating effect on our local and State Economy. With saltwater fishing generating $14.3 Million per day in our State*, the damage the ACOE’s Reef Condition proposal will do to our fishery will unnecessarily cause further harm our already suffering economy.
The private artificial reef programs have been extremely successful at their intended purpose, improving the fishery. They have been effectively managed at the County level with oversight of the FWC. The problems cited by Clif Payne are all perceived and no tangible evidence of problems have been offered. Any good manager will tell you that you should always do a cost benefit analysis to determine if an action is wise. The benefits of privately funded reefs to our fishery are indisputable. The cost of micromanagement by the Federal Government, of a program that has not caused any problems that warrant excessive restrictions, is unjustified, costly and unwise.
The citizens of Florida desperately need representation in this matter.
*Directors Message - Florida Wildlife Magazine May/June 2008 page 6 paragraph 1.
**Creating Marine Habitat, The Artificial Reef – FWC DVD 2003
***www.myfwc.com
****Artificial Reef Program Summary Overview September 2007 by: Jon Dodrill FWC
In an effort to raise the money necessary to conduct research and monitoring, The Emerald Coast Reef Association is hosting a Fishing Tournament August 2nd. The entry fee is in the reach of all fishermen and the Grand Prize is a deployed Private Reef. Please help us save Artificial Reef Building and have fun at the same time. For more information go to www.ecreef.org
Fishermen, Divers and every industry that supports local fishermen or tourism need to pay close attention to what is happening at the ACOE. The latest challenge to our rights as citizens is a proposal from the Army Corps of Engineers that will Kill Private Artificial Reef Building off our shores. It is feared this could cause irreparable harm to the future health of our local fishery and our tourist driven economy. If this happens, fishermen will surely be hit with more season closures and smaller bag limits to meet the requirements of the Magnuson Stevens Act to end overfishing and create a sustainable fishery.
Clif Payne of the Jacksonville District of the Army Corps of Engineers was the main speaker at the LAARS Meeting held August 16th 2008 in Mobile Alabama. Other Speakers were Cmdr. John Arenstam of the U.S. Coast Guard, who gave a briefing on necessary clearances for marine traffic and marking regulations, and Michael Barnette from NOAA, who gave a briefing on Sea Turtle mortalities. The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission hosted the meeting. There were attendees from Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama, but the majority of attendees were from Florida.
Florida’s Artificial Reef Managers traveled to Alabama to attend the LAARS meeting that could have a devastating effect on the future of their respective programs. Jon Dodril from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Artificial Reef Office was in attendance, as well as County Artificial Reef Managers Robert Turpin from Escambia Co., Cindy Halsey from Okaloosa Co. and Tita Sokoloff from Bay Co.
Representing the Charter Industry at the meeting was Bob Zales, President of the National Charter Boat Association, and Mike Eller, President of the Destin Charter Boat Assoc. There were 7 private Florida Fishermen / Reef Builders, as well as Paul Redman, President of The Reef Fish Restoration Association, and Candy Hansard, Reef Deployment Director for The Emerald Coast Reef Association.
The first 2 hours of the meeting were devoted to a slide show presentation given by Clif Payne. His briefing contained a Regulatory Overview and Proposed Regulation changes including the Jacksonville District of the ACOE’s perceived need for standardized conditions throughout the State of Florida.
The last hour of the 4-hour meeting was devoted to a question-and-answer session completely focused on the Jacksonville District of the ACOE’s Artificial Reef Conditions proposal.
Of greatest concern was the proposal to increase the steel thickness of artificial reefs from the current 1/8” to ¼”. This proposal was met with tremendous opposition due to the fact that implementing it would effectively kill the Successful Private Artificial Reef Building programs in the Florida Panhandle.
Clif Payne justified the change in steel-thickness requirement by contending that there was a lack of monitoring. He said that without monitoring, the ACOE had no way of knowing if these small reefs were doing what they wanted. Providing effective, stable habitat and longevity were two of his concerns.
Mike Eller made the observation that the private reef builders were continually building more reefs, every year that replace of any reefs that may get covered in storms or deteriorate over time. He also suggested that when taxpayer money is being used, perhaps they should look at a 50 year lifespan for reefs, but the same requirement should not apply to reefs that are privately funded. This met with unanimous agreement from the other fishermen / reef builders in attendance.
David Walters of Walters Reefs spoke in support of the 1/8” steel reefs, saying that although the new requirement would benefit his concrete reef-building business, not everyone can afford his reefs, and that changing the requirement would take the ability to build reefs away from the little guy.
Candy Hansard showed slides featuring Chicken Transfer Device (CTD) reefs that were photographed by the FWC on a research dive 9 months and 2 days post-deployment. Both reefs were covered with a wide variety of fish, with the most abundant species noted on both reefs being Red Snapper. She also showed a slide with photographic proof of the reefs becoming living-reef systems in less than a year. The reefs have impressive marine growth and a wide variety of recreationally-targeted fish, along with a remarkable variety of tropicals and bait fish, proving that these small reefs are self-sustaining living-reef systems, not just fish attractors.
Another proposal that didn’t sit well with those in attendance was the suggestion that an off-duty police officer accompany deployments to be sure that they are deployed where they are supposed to go. Candy Hansard asked if that was legal and questioned if it was Constitutional: “That is like saying that no one can drive a car unless they have a police officer with them because they might speed.” Mr. Payne then suggested that they could install monitoring devices on all deployment boats. No mention was made of who would finance the cost of police escorts or monitoring devices.
Candy Hansard also made the point that if the Jacksonville district would permit our seafloor like they have done in Alabama that would eliminate the need for deployment monitoring because people could legally deploy their reefs in gigantic areas as opposed to the postage-stamp sized areas we now have.
Alabama’s Mobile district of the ACOE has supported their Artificial Reef Programs by providing impressive permitting, encouraging reef building, and providing Reef Builders a better expectation that their privately financed reefs remain private.
The Mobile District of the Army Corps of Engineers has been extremely successful in permitting almost the entire seafloor off Alabama’s 57 mile coastline. Their permitting has allowed Alabama to build the largest Artificial Reef Program in the United States, even though Alabama only has 5% of the coastline of the entire Gulf of Mexico. Alabama has 1,260 square miles of permitted areas open to Private Artificial Reef Building. They also enjoy the largest and healthiest population of Red Snappers in the Gulf of Mexico.
In contrast, Florida has approximately 1,200 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico and only 464.88 square miles have been permitted to allow private artificial reef building. These areas are not sufficient to meet the needs of Florida’s fishermen and do not provide adequate areas to meet the needs of Florida’s fishery.
Holding meetings out-of-State to address issues that affect Florida’s Fishery and the disparity between 2 districts of the same Federal Agency has created a public relations nightmare for Clif Payne and the Jacksonville District of the ACOE.
It is a scientific fact that fish need habitat to survive. According to the FWC, the seafloor off the Florida Panhandle is 95% barren sandy bottom.** The natural makeup of our coastline will not support a sustainable fishery or our State’s Tourism-Driven Economy.
The Florida Fish & Wildlife has a budget of $261 Million Dollars per year.*** In 2007, the FWC allocated $300 Thousand Dollars to the Artificial Reef Program and the Federal Government donated $400 Thousand dollars to the Florida Artificial Reef Program.**** That $700 Thousand Dollar Budget allocated for Artificial Reefs in the State of Florida was NOT completely spent building much needed reefs. A large portion of that money is given in grants for monitoring and research projects.
While Monitoring and Research are vital to understanding how reefs perform, research does not produce fish, reefs do. It is an undeniable fact that our Local, State and Federal Governments do not allocate sufficient funds to build the reef systems needed in the Florida Panhandle to create a sustainable fishery. This is why it is vital to protect the Private Artificial Reef Building programs in Escambia, Okaloosa and Bay Counties.
According to Kenneth Haddad, the Executive Director of Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission, “Recreational Saltwater fishing generates a staggering amount of consumer spending in this state’s economy- roughly $14.3 million per day…” “That’s close to $10,000 per minute.”* This statistic alone should demand accountability in the management of our ACOE Permitting and Fishery Management decisions.
For years, Private Recreational Fishermen and Charter Boat Captains along the Panhandle have worked diligently and successfully to create a sustainable fishery by providing habitat on an otherwise barren seafloor. The fact that the Red Snapper fishery is so healthy in Northwest Florida can be directly attributed to the tremendous efforts of these private reef builders.
The current proposal to change the Artificial Reef Requirements is on hold until next spring to allow monitoring to take place. No re-evaluation date was given. The Emerald Coast Reef Association has research reefs in place but with the price of gas going from $2.00 per gallon at the dock to over $5.00, their research budget is woefully inadequate to accomplish the monitoring that the ACOE is demanding but unwilling to fund. It would be wise to require government agencies that arbitrarily place mandates to fund those mandates from their respective offices’ budget. If this was done, perhaps unwarranted micromanagement would be curtailed saving the taxpayers untold amount of money and frustration.
If the Private Artificial Reef Programs in the Florida Panhandle are harmed by the ACOE’s actions, someone needs to be held accountable for the damage that will do to our fishery and our economy. If we stop building reefs, our fish population will most definitely suffer and that will create the need for more fish size and bag limit restrictions and season closures to meet the requirements of the Magnuson Stevens Act. Any of those actions will have a devastating effect on our local and State Economy. With saltwater fishing generating $14.3 Million per day in our State*, the damage the ACOE’s Reef Condition proposal will do to our fishery will unnecessarily cause further harm our already suffering economy.
The private artificial reef programs have been extremely successful at their intended purpose, improving the fishery. They have been effectively managed at the County level with oversight of the FWC. The problems cited by Clif Payne are all perceived and no tangible evidence of problems have been offered. Any good manager will tell you that you should always do a cost benefit analysis to determine if an action is wise. The benefits of privately funded reefs to our fishery are indisputable. The cost of micromanagement by the Federal Government, of a program that has not caused any problems that warrant excessive restrictions, is unjustified, costly and unwise.
The citizens of Florida desperately need representation in this matter.
*Directors Message - Florida Wildlife Magazine May/June 2008 page 6 paragraph 1.
**Creating Marine Habitat, The Artificial Reef – FWC DVD 2003
***www.myfwc.com
****Artificial Reef Program Summary Overview September 2007 by: Jon Dodrill FWC
In an effort to raise the money necessary to conduct research and monitoring, The Emerald Coast Reef Association is hosting a Fishing Tournament August 2nd. The entry fee is in the reach of all fishermen and the Grand Prize is a deployed Private Reef. Please help us save Artificial Reef Building and have fun at the same time. For more information go to www.ecreef.org