![]() ![]() ![]() 6 boxes of chicken per every angler per day. Meanwhile, Publix is scrambling to procure more poultry in time for the second half of the season, which begins Friday and will be over after Saturday.Ĭonsider this: Our five-man crew brought three boxes of fried chicken on the boat last Sunday. The folks at Anheuser-Busch are still counting their money, and it’s a good time to be a watermelon farmer. The mini season does wonders for local economies, and its juicy trickle-down drips far below bait shops, gas stations, and boat towing companies. Remember beanie babies?Īnd last weekend, countless fools leaned into the sleep deprivation, risked domestic upheaval and endured metric tons of nonsense on the water to catch a one-fish limit of snapper. They wait hours in the freezing cold outside of big-box stores - and in a few sad cases, trample people to death - for the chance to buy a discounted television. They overpay for shiny rocks and soft metals. Last weekend, people crawled out from every corner of the county to go fishing, both diehards and novices alike. In fact, I saw a few vessels that sounded as if the engines hadn't been run since last summer's season - and even more captains who acted like this was their first rodeo.Īccording to the scarcity principle, people make irrational decisions to obtain things they believe to be rare. If I was a gambling man, I’d bet the participation rate in last weekend’s snapper season dwarfed the voter turnout rate in any election in the city's history. “I’m going to be so sick of fishing after this, it will be at least a month before I want to go again.”."Janet won't even notice I'm not at the wedding.".“Lou can't go out if he doesn't have another crew member.".“I have to fish every day of the season. It could be years before the feds re-open it.”.But during snapper season, you might actually have a shot at living out such a selfish fantasy. Under normal circumstances, most of us would need to make a bed on the couch if we tried to pull that off. ![]() ![]() Preposterous.īut hear me out, there’s a silver lining hidden in the red snapper chaos.Īfter you’re done telling people you’re Roy Crabtree, go back home and tell your significant other to plan on being alone for the next three days, because you’re going to be fishing the entire time. In the words of Seinfeld's Jackie Chiles, it was outrageous. This narrow window creates a frenzied, Black-Friday-esque meltdown on the water every time snapper season rolls around. The boat ramp was so crowded last weekend that my buddy had to park my truck nearly a half-mile away from the parking lot, and others had to go farther. This year’s 5-day season, which is spread out over two weekends, is the sixth one in a decade. It’s not uncommon for people to abandon a spot because all they can catch is red snapper.īecause government studies still show snapper are overfished, they remain heavily protected. Time on the water shows that the species is thriving, they say. These days, the government believes red snapper are recovering but remain overfished, although many offshore fisherman believe the data supporting that conclusion is fatally flawed. Hell broke loose in the South, and officials backed away from that proposal and instead banned the harvest of red snapper for a few years. The government considered closing off large areas of the ocean to any bottom fishing to allow red snapper to recover. Don’t believe me? Go down to the Mayport boat ramp this weekend, walk up to the biggest, meanest looking old salt you can find, and tell him your name is Roy Crabtree.Ĭrabtree is the regional director of the National Marine Fishery Services’ southeastern office, which oversees fishing in the federal waters off of Florida and seven other coastal states. In 2010, the office approved strict protections of red snapper that prohibited anglers from harvesting them in the southern Atlantic Ocean's federal waters, where most of the fish are caught, except for a few days a year, if any. Red snapper - more specifically, the federal government’s stance that the species is severely overfished - is easily the most controversial subject in the coastal south’s fishing community. If Paul still poured liquor in Duval County, he’d be exiling patrons to far-off booths as soon as they uttered the words “red snapper.” One of the great bartenders of my life enforced a rule with zero tolerance: nobody discussed religion, politics or any other subject known to trigger bar fights while riding his stools. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |