I was at the Marine Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting last night, and spoke up twice about the importance of letting the recreational fisher/diver with small boats have the opportunity to be able to have areas in State waters that is closer than the LAARS East and West sites that are available for private reef deployment. Also I was sitting right next to Cliff Payne of the ACOE and publicly pleaded with him to keep letting us build rebar artificial reefs for private deployment that was a manageable weight for me to do it in my boat without having to hire someone else to deploy them because it is considerably more money to do so.  A few of the underwater videos that Capt Robert Turpin showed of the rebar reefs were not the most positive impressions for the reefs. One showed a completely collapsed reef ( which still had juvenile red snapper all over it and burrowed under the collapsed bars), and another showed a basic pyramid reef with absolutely no fish on it at all!!! I'm sure that he could have shown or had footage of rebar reefs loaded with snappers or other reef fish but he did not elect to show them. My impression is that rebar reefs are not going to be allowed unless the weight limit is increased to 500lbs.  Cliff Payne said that if we could duplicate or mold certain types of artificial reefs that meet "his idea" of what an artificial reef needs to be, approval of those reefs would be a lot quicker.

I personally can't understand why they are having problems keeping the permit for LAARS West open for private deployment of artificial reefs.  If they allow us to put our 150 lbs rebar reefs out then it is going to provide some sort of habitat for sealife, if it is closed then there is nothing for sealife to create habitat on. Robert Turpin pretty much said that the rebar reefs were staying put in the sand and were not moving all over the place even after this last hurricane season.  If I make a small rebar reef and it doesn't perform and load up with reef fish or other sealife, than who cares?  It was something that I made and it was shown in the videos that the rebar is not damaging or hurting the environment. If I make 10 small rebar reefs, and none of them attract sealife, than that would be enough feedback to me that I need to change the design or add more structure to it or whatever. Let me cultivate or grow or manage my personal private reefs that are deployed.

I was happy to hear about the approval for a couple of the public artificial reef sites that were applied for our State water.  I believe Capt. Paul Redman offered to donate 100 of the concrete pyramid modules to the county for deployment in these approved areas. It sounds like we will need to pressure our county commissioners into helping fund the efforts to deploy these modules.

The more involved I get with attending these public meetings, MAC,FWCC,or Gulf Council, it becomes more apparent that the officials that make the decisions for the people, have their own personal agendas. It is also apparent that we need to have lots more public support when these meetings occur.  There was maybe 7 people in attendance that was not part of the MAC committee,
ACOE or FWCC. In my opinion it was a poor turnout for the uphill battle that is occurring to keep the recreational sport of fishing/diving and eco tourism viable for our waters.  I understand people are busy and have lives outside of fishing and diving, but so do I!!!!  I am busy every single day, I rearrange my schedules when I can to try to attend these important meetings, and I'm pleading for everyone to try to do the same.  Our opportunities to make a difference are getting smaller and smaller, and I know everyone will cry after they are gone.  The people that make the rules would like to make the GOM a big aquarium.  I am really scared that when my 5 y/o son is an adult that he will not be able to have the opportunities to fish like I have. I'm sure if you asked your father or grandfather if they ever thought fishing would be the way it is right now (with closed seasons and small bag limits) they would never had dreamed it could get this bad. The problem is, it is going to get a lot worse if we don't unite as recreational fishers and stand up to those officials that make OUR decisions!!!!

"GONE FISHIN' TOO" 

_{^{(Recreational Fisherman)}}

_{2001 19' Cape Horn                                                                                                                    200 HPDI Yamaha                                                                                                 
Pensacola,FL                                                                                                                             
kniejac@hotmail.com}

_{><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>  Christopher Knieja ><((((º>`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·..¸><(((º>}         

                                                        _850-261-9409

_{Board Member of the PRFA http://www.fishpensacola.net} 

_{Member of the RFRA  http://www.reeffishra.com}        

scot

        

member PRFA        http://www.fishpensacola.net