Budget may send tropical fish belly-up

Gov. Jeb Bush's cuts may mean the return of the uncertain days when multiple agencies governed the industry.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 28, 2003

GIBSONTON -- After more than 20 years in the tropical fish farm business, the Hennessy family isn't easily rattled.

They have survived fish-threatening overnight freezes. They've scraped together money to grow their business, EkkWill Waterlife Resources, only to see the industry falter amid consumers' sinking interest in tropical fish.

Now, a frugal budget proposal from Gov. Jeb Bush could be what Tim Hennessy calls "the straw that finally breaks this camel's back."

Faced with a sluggish economy and a multibillion-dollar voter mandate to reduce class sizes, Bush recommends dissolving the state agency that regulates tropical fish farming. Farmers say the move would crush their struggling industry, by creating uncertainty and returning them to an inconsistent regulatory system governed by multiple agencies.

"The industry is so bad right now," said Hennessy, whose 1,500-pond business is the world's largest producer of tropical fish. "We can't afford this uncertainty."

In his $54-billion budget plan for 2003-04, Bush recommends cutting 51 of 54 employees from the Florida Division of Aquaculture, which regulates the tropical fish industry under the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The division's budget would plummet from nearly $4 million to $120,000.

Division officials and farmers say that would essentially eliminate the division created to make things easier for the state's tropical fish farmers.

Hillsborough County's 100 or so tropical fish farms account for 80 percent of the nation's production, and tropical fish are the most voluminous cargo item passing through Tampa International Airport.

"The farmers' fear is that if you take away 51 people from this division, it will ultimately require them to go back to the way things were," said Sherman Wilhelm, director of the aquaculture division.

Before the division was created in 1999, tropical fish farmers had to deal with several agencies, many of whose rules and requirements conflicted or overlapped.

The state Department of Environmental Protection would set one standard, and the local water management district might have another.

"To get anything done was just a nightmare," Hennessy recalls. "You would literally have to decide which agency to do battle with, because they were telling you different things."

Farmers had to get permits from all the regulating agencies, and pay each one's permit fees.

"In all, a fish farmer would have to obtain as many as 19 permits," Wilhelm said. "With the aquaculture division, they just have to get one, and it costs them a flat $50 a year."

"If the division were to go away," he warned, "I would certainly say that people who thought about expanding or growing would think twice, because of the unknown costs that lay ahead."

Agency wasn't consulted

The proposed cut is one of many from Gov. Bush, who is trying to reconcile a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall with a faltering state economy and the expensive voter mandate to reduce class sizes in public schools.

Agriculture leaders insist there are better ways to save money than to gut the aquaculture division.

"We understand that times are tight," said Terence McElroy, spokesman for Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson. "But in previous years where budgets were cut, our agency was frequently consulted. The governor's office would say, 'Give us your insider's perspective so that we can cut dollars without threatening any crucial services.' "

If consulted, the division would maintain its current budget of nearly $4 million, McElroy said.

Besides doing annual inspections of the state's approximately 180 tropical fish farms, the division monitors and tests 1.4-million acres of marine water for shellfish harvesting. It also inspects the state's more than 120 shellfish processing plants, and restores oyster reefs.

Of all the aquaculture areas monitored by the division -- shellfish, alligator and catfish farms -- tropical fish generates the most money.

Florida aquaculture producers reported $99-million in sales in 2002, and $42.4-million of that came from tropical fish.

The area's warm weather and high water table are ideal for raising tropical fish, and the airport provides a convenient way to transport them. Tropical fish farming started in Hillsborough County in the 1930s, with the Wolff family farm south of Gibsonton. In the seven decades since, Hillsborough has become headquarters for the industry.

The House and Senate will undoubtedly consider that when looking at the governor's and the division's budget proposals. During the legislative session that begins Tuesday, the two chambers will come up with a single budget between them, and bring it to the governor.

Already, industry leaders have testified before House and Senate budget committees, urging legislators to keep the division alive.

"The House and Senate so far seem very sympathetic to us," said David Boozer, executive director of the Florida Tropical Fish Farms Association. "But the governor has that power of line-item veto. That's what worries us, because then the game's over."

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