[Broadbill-Pro]

Before everyone becomes excited about being able to sell your weekend swordfish, consider some of the negatives:


1. The General Category Permit has been proposed by 5 or 6 Northeast Recreational fishing groups. These guys are not interested in running 100nm to the Hudson Canyon to catch a swordfish to sell. They are interested in the near coastal fishery we have here. To put it into perspective, the NE General Category Tuna Permit that this proposal is being modeled after now has 1,400 participants. Many of them belong to organizations like Happy World (Rev. Sun Myung Moon). The (Moonies) have hundreds of small vessels that are prepared to enter the fishery over-night. If you think finding a position to deep drop now is difficult, the future will certainly be much more so. These Asian Fisherman will work for much lower wages than you, it all goes to the Church.

2. It is not possible to enforce this proposal. NMFS has a reporting problem now within the PLL, Buoy and Recreational sectors and by adding several hundred vessels it will become impossible. This may not seem like an issue to worry about, but with unregulated fish come lower prices for everyone. Dealers will be make ridiculas offers on fish knowing that if you don’t sell the next guy will. This will cause chaos in the Buoy Fleet who rely on local sales. These Guys are hardly making ends meet now, a General Permit would surely put several of them out of business. Again, that may not sound bad to you but consider that NMFS goal is to “increase production” and losing existing commercial fisherman will not result in an increase in harvest.

3. Current regulations state that any Fisherman who earns in excess of $5000 per year qualifies for a restricted species permit (kingfish). This proposal would allow hundreds of new commercial vessel to participate in the South Florida reef fishery. As you know, this would include interaction with sailfish, tuna, snapper, grouper and cobia.

4. Vessels participating in the new General Category Permit would have to be registered commercial (check your insurance rates). These vessels are subject to USCG safety regulations, including life-raft, Epirbs and submersion suits. The vessel will also need to display 18’’ vessel identification numbers on both sides of the hull and visible from an ariel view. Yes, I know that that existing vessels are not complying.



We have discussed losing a portion of the US Swordfish quota for several years now. I have always considered a General Category Permit to be the last resort. My opinion has now changed in that rather than sacrificing the limited commercial and recreational fishing in the Straits of Florida, I would rather see the area closed to all if and when the reduced quota is filled. Many of you have fought long and hard to keep commercial interests out of this area and now there is a proposal to open it wide to everyone. If this proposal is approved the hypocrites will emerge when the first applications are submitted.