From Ron Brooks,
Your Guide to Saltwater Fishing.
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Serious anglers, both commercial and recreational, in every coastal state will be watching the outcome of a Florida court case this month.

Ever since Florida voters approved a state constitutional amendment limiting the use, size and type of nets that can be used by commercial fishermen, a huge divide between recreational anglers and commercial fisherman was created. The amendment, aimed at gill netters in particular, forced commercial fishermen, many of whom have a family history completely surrounded by fishing, to change methods or pursue other occupations. Fishermen in the business for their entire lives were left stranded without viable incomes.

Recreational anglers, on the other hand jumped for joy at the thought of fewer fish being taken by nets, leaving more for them to catch. Interestingly, of the seventy plus percent of Florida voters who voted for the constitutional amendment, a much smaller percentage of these voters were actually recreational anglers.

Legal challenges and debates have raged over the past eight years, causing the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to have to define the term “gill net”. By their definition, which went into effect in July of this year, the mesh on nets cannot be larger that one inch square (two inches stretched). This rule change has been seen by commercial and other fishermen as a violation of the state constitution, and is currently being challenged.

On December 12th, at the Leon County, Florida, Courthouse, Judge Janet Ferris will hear the challenges of Florida fishermen as to whether or not the FWC has the right to promulgate rules that violate the intent of the state constitution. The issue arose when the FWC decided to make all nets, except cast nets, use a maximum of one-inch square openings in their webbing.

For eight years fishermen – mostly commercial - have been complaining that nets with one-inch square openings "unnecessarily kill and waste" 95% of what they capture. These fishermen point out that in order to catch enough fish to take to market they not only have to waste thousands of juvenile fish, but also hours of their time removing the juvenile fish from the nets.

In June of this year, the FWC decided to put the fishermen's claims to the test against the claims of their net expert's 1997 testimony. In the 1997 case, the state's net expert, Brent Winner of the Florida Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), claimed that one square inch nets would catch fish at a 95% marketable rate. Because Mr. Winner's testimony was accepted factual, and the fishermen's testimony was accepted as only "anecdotal" evidence, the Administrative Law Judge ruled in favor of Mr. Winner's testimony. June's net tests, which were supervised by the original FWRI net expert, Mr. Winner, proved that the commercial fishing community were 100% right all along.