Read the original article on KeysNet.com
By KEVIN WADLOW
kwadlow@keynoter.com February 27, 2016
Barracuda deserve even more protection, speakers said at a Wednesday workshop in Islamorada.
“I’d like to see a zero bag limit” on barracuda, charter captain and avid diver Steve Leopold told Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff.
“We’ve seen a huge decline in the size and quantity of barracuda, mostly around dive sites where they have been targeted,” Leopold said. “Before, you could see the same fish daily.”
The meeting at Founders Park drew 10 people after a Monday session in Key West attracted 18 people.
Key West guides and Lower Keys guides endorsed a slot-size limit for barracuda Monday but differed slightly on whether proposed rules should allow keeping a trophy fish over 36 inches for use as a mount.
In Islamorada, Brooke Black of the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust said a suggested slot size of 15 to 36 inches should be narrowed to 20 to 30 inches “to protect sexually mature group.”
Barracuda larger than 30 inches produce significantly more eggs per spawn than smaller barracuda, FWC scientists said.
“We do not support the trophy-fish exception,” Black said. “We don’t see any reason to keep a barracuda for a mount.”
Elizabeth Jolin, an eco-guide captain, agreed, “I don’t know what the big issue is with trophy fish. Call the size into [the mount shop] and they’ll make you one.”
Jolin also said the current six-barracuda boat limit should be lowered.
Bill Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association, said most of the commercial barracuda catch comes as bycatch from boats seeking snapper species.
Kelly said a previously recommended boat limit of 20 barracuda for commercial boats that sell the fish as bait or to Caribbean clientele should be allowed. “Very few” commercial boats target barracuda, he said.
Last September, the FWC board rejected a slot limit and 20-fish boat limit for barracuda to adopt current rules of two barracuda person with a boat limit of six barracuda.
Current rules are expected to reduce the harvest of barracuda by 40 percent, FWC scientist Mason Smith said.
Results from three barracuda workshops will help FWC staff prepare a proposal on barracuda rules that could reach the agency board in April.
“Obviously, different fishers have different desires,” Smith said while noting a small market for barracuda as a food fish.
Reports of barracuda harvests do show a steady drop in the average size of landed fish, Smith said. “Divers like to see big barracuda on the reef,” he added.
Recommendations are likely to go the FWC board in April.
