| 09 September 2009
The FWC is considering eliminating exemption permits for professional fishing guides in Manatee speed zones. Currently There are 176 permits issued. Florida Fishing Guides have 77 and commercial fishermen have 96. If you want to see the breakdown by county visit the PDF Version.
View [ PDF Version ]
Applicable to FWC Manatee Protection Zones
Background Information
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is authorized to issue permits that allow recipients to perform activities that are otherwise prohibited by the FWC manatee protection rules. The permit process and criteria are set forth in Rule 68C-22.003, Florida Administrative Code (FAC) – applicable sections attached. The permits do not authorize taking or harming manatees in any way and apply only to FWC manatee protection zones.
One type of exemption permit issued pursuant to 68C-22.003 allows qualified commercial fishers or professional fishing guides to operate at speeds up to 20 MPH in some Slow Speed zones while engaging in commercial fishing or guiding activities. (Guiding permits allow higher speed travel only when paying customers are onboard while commercial fishing permits can allow for a variety of activities including searching for fish, setting nets, and/or running crab traps; none of these permits applies on weekends or holidays.) These permits can only be issued for activities and zones identified as eligible in the rules that establish the specific manatee protection zones. Currently these permits are available in portions of the following counties: Brevard, Citrus, Collier, Indian River, Lee, Manatee, Martin, St. Lucie, Sarasota, and Volusia. In recent rule actions (Manatee County in 2004 and Lee County in 2005), the FWC narrowed the permit to only allow higher speeds for commercial fishers while setting nets to encircle fish, with no permits available for any other commercial fishing activity or any guiding activities. Using the same rationale as these recent rule actions, the Manatee Management Plan (MMP) approved by the FWC in December 2007 recommends amending the rules to eliminate all commercial fishing and professional guiding permits except for commercial fishing permits that allow higher speeds while setting nets.
Elimination of all or some of the permits for commercial fishers and guides would directly reduce the risks faced by manatees by requiring the affected activities to be performed at slower speeds. It would also indirectly enhance protection by increasing overall compliance and removing a common source of confusion and contention. Enforcement of manatee zones in areas where exemption permits are issued can be more difficult because some boaters choose to disregard the posted regulations when they see permitted vessels traveling at faster speeds. In most cases, boaters with permits cannot be visibly distinguished from other boaters and this can easily result in other boaters believing that higher speeds are allowed. This is especially true for guiding since the vessels used by guides are often identical to recreational vessels being operated in the same areas for the same purpose. Multiple boating studies have noted that boaters seem to be more likely to violate a zone if they see other boaters operating at higher speeds (i.e., non-compliance breeds more non-compliance). The United States Fish and Wildlife Service does not support commercial fishing or guiding permits and federal manatee regulations do not allow similar authorizations. Therefore, no permits can be used in locations that have both state and federal manatee protection zones, such as in most of Lee County. Some stakeholders have said FWC should continue to issue these permits because the permits reduce the impacts of the zones on people who make a living on the water and because they believe the increased risks to manatees are small. On the other hand, other stakeholders (including some guides who benefit from the permits) have supported the elimination of these permits, with the reasoning being mostly an issue of fairness (i.e., where there are zones, they should apply equally to all boaters).
Historically, more permits were issued for commercial fishing than for professional guiding; however, the numbers starting shifting after passage of the 1994 constitutional amendment limiting the use of nets. After passage of the amendment, requests for guiding permits as well as commercial fishing permits for crabbing increased. Table 1 shows the breakdown of active permits as of December 2008: there were 176 permits statewide, held by 129 permittees (permits are county-specific and some permit holders have a permit in more than one county). Seventy-seven (77) of the permits were for professional guiding exclusively while 96 were for commercial fishing only (3 covered a combination of guiding and commercial fishing activities). Of the commercial fishing permits, 21 were for only crabbing activities, 27 were for a combination of crabbing and other commercial fishing activities (e.g., net-setting, looking for fish, etc.), and 48 covered only commercial fishing activities other than crabbing.
Alternatives
The alternative recommended in the MMP (“Alternative 1”) is to eliminate all commercial fishing and professional guiding permits except for commercial fishing net-setting permits. The rationale for continuing to allow net-setting permits is that setting a net to encircle fish is often not possible at Slow Speed, whereas all other currently permitted activities can be performed at Slow Speed – they just take longer to complete.
A second alternative would be to eliminate only professional guiding permits. This would avoid impacts on commercial fishers while still addressing the most prevalent source of contention and confusion since it is guiding vessels that are the most difficult to distinguish from typical recreational vessels. The downside is it would do less than the MMP-recommended option at reducing the negative consequences of permits in general. A slightly more restrictive variation (“Alternative 3”) would be to eliminate guiding permits and the general commercial fishing permits but still allow permits for crabbing as well as net-setting. The rationale for continuing permits for running between crab traps (but not between trap lines) is that crabbing vessels are normally only operated at relatively low speeds (but faster than Slow Speed) for short distances between traps, plus most crabbing vessels can be easily distinguished from typical recreational vessels.
A fourth alternative would be to eliminate all commercial fishing and guiding permits. This would increase the impact of the change by also eliminating net-setting permits but it would do more than the MMP-recommended option at reducing the negative consequences of permits in general. The biggest downside is it would mean most net-setting activities would only be able to be performed outside of Slow Speed zones, but this impact might not be too significant given that only 78 active permits cover net-setting activities. Additional investigations would be needed to determine how much impact this change might have. For instance, we would need information on how much non-permitted net-setting is currently taking place, either outside of existing Slow Speed zones (which is allowed) or within the zones but without a permit (which is not allowed).
Implementing a Change
Because components of the permit process are set forth in Rule 68C-22.003, FAC, as well as in the individual rules that establish zones in specific counties, multiple rules will need to be amended to fully implement any changes. The current plan is to amend 68C-22.003 first, with changes made to individual county rules as each rule is reviewed following the process laid out in the MMP. Because the permit language in each of the affected individual county rules refers back to the procedures in 68C-22.003, changes to the permit process could be implemented as soon as this rule is amended; changes to the county rules would be essentially after-the-fact housekeeping measures to conform each rule to the changes already made to 68C-22.003. All permits in effect at the time Rule 68C-22.003 is amended would remain in effect through the expiration date given in the individual permits; any permits issued or amended after the rule is amended would have to conform to the amended rule.
