When I was much younger, fishing Florida Bay with my Dad, catching a sawfish, while not an every day occurrence was not uncommon. They patrolled the flats around Flamingo and it seems to me we caught several of them in any given year. This was a time before creel or size limits.
The one I unfortunately killed for his bill was only about 28 inches in total length. The bill I broke off and kept measured about nine inches long. I released the fish, and it swam off; but without that bill, I am sure it did not survive very long.
I saw a picture in a local fishing magazine recently of another sawfish. This one was huge by any measure. The article went on the talk about the scarcity of these unusual fish. While I can’t find them on an endangered species list, I also am having a hard time finding any in the water. They seem to have simply disappeared.
Whether it’s my imagination or reality, the fact is, we don’t see many sawfish any more. That bothers me - more now than it did at an earlier age. Did I contribute to this problem with my souvenir?
I think back on the things we did – all perfectly legal – as I was growing up. We caught fish until our arms hurt, often just for bragging rights. Then I think about what is going on today. Are we doing enough to save and perpetuate the resource for future generations?
I read extensively on all the efforts being made to limit the size and number of fish we can take. I think to myself that we must be doing some good. And, in fact, the numbers indicate that we are doing quite well managing the resource, thank you.
But then I see the areas that are proposed as “no fishing zones” or Marine Protection Areas, and I wonder then – have we gone too far? In the name of preservation, have we allowed the leftist radicals to unnecessarily shut down prime fishing habitat, just to satisfy their hidden agenda? And as I read more, I find myself seeing through this leftist agenda.
I hope each of you reading this is doing your part to help preserve the resource. I know I certainly want my grandchildren to be able to enjoy fishing as much as their parents and I have. I’m sure you feel the same way.
So, I urge you to get involved at the local level in exposing what I call “bad science” – actually no science. Legislating and codifying fishing rules and regulations without scientific evidence that would indicate a need is wrong, and our legislators need to know that it is wrong. Ask them to leave emotion out of their decisions and to rely on the scientific data. I think you may find that they have no data, or that the data they do have is flawed or tainted.
And while we are working at watching the political horizon, we all need to save a fish to catch a fish – if you can understand the meaning there! The fish we release today not only can be caught again, but also can reproduce several times over for all of us to share.
