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It has been a rough year on the waterfront. Boat ramps are crowded. Marinas are shutting down to make room for condominiums. A lingering red tide has all but shut down inshore fishing. And the federal government says recreational anglers must stop catching so many grouper so the stocks can rebound.
It's enough to make you trade in your boat and head to the mountains.
But before you start feeling sorry for yourself, read on. Times are tough all over.
The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy's long-anticipated report issued last year determined that all of America's oceans are in trouble, not just the Gulf of Mexico.
One reason is overfishing. The commercial industry blames the recreational sector. The recreational sector blames the commercial industry.
The Tampa-based Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, one of eight regional fishery management councils established in 1976 by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, has the unenviable task of dealing with these two competing user groups.
Eleven "at-large" members of the 17-member council are appointed by the governors of their respective states. It is this group that last month voted to close the recreational grouper fishery in November and December.
The recreational fishing sector, quite expectedly, is up in arms. Anglers accuse the council, which is supposed to represent both groups, of being biased in favor of commercial interests.
The council, in theory, has appointed representatives from both sectors.
In February, James B. Fensom, an attorney from Panama City who represented recreational interests, gave up his seat on the council. In his resignation letter Fensom told Gov. Jeb Bush "...the current regulatory process is a disservice to marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, and this is particularly true for the state of Florida."
Fensom charged that the council has members with "significant conflicts of interest."
Fensom told Gov. Bush that in his two terms on the Gulf Council he had never seen a member declare a conflict of interest on an issue and decline to vote: "The legal determination of a conflict of interest is so lax that even though a member and a member's relatives may make a living directly from a fishery, votes that have a substantial impact upon that fishery is not considered to be a conflict of interest," Fensom wrote.
Fensom was equally critical of the commercial longline fishery, the majority of which is centered in Pinellas County.
"I am unsympathetic to longline grouper fishermen who ... fight and resist, through threatened litigation, hired experts, and the intimidation of those who speak against them, changes in the longline fishery that would easily protect red grouper, gag grouper, and deep water grouper."
A more sensible alternative to longlining, an industry that relies on boats using miles of fishing line and thousands of hooks, would be a year-round "vertical line" commercial fishing fleet, which would result in lower mortality for undersized fish and lower bycatch, Fensom suggested.
"Bottom longlines destroy the bottom, have a higher mortality, are indiscriminate in their catch, and if lost, continue to kill," Fensom told Gov. Bush. "The single most important regulation that should be implemented in the Gulf of Mexico is to completely eliminate bottom longlines or move bottom longlines out to water 50 fathoms or deeper for the entire Gulf."
Fensom also told Gov. Bush that Florida, a state with more than 700 miles of Gulf coastline, is under-represented on the council. The combined coast of Alabama and Mississippi is no more than 100 miles. But when it came to a vote on red grouper, those two states had five votes between them, compared to Florida's four, even though 99 percent of red grouper are caught off Florida's coast.
In closing, Fensom said, "In the Gulf of Mexico, the current federal fishery management program is a mass of overlapping and conflicting regulations, confusing policies, and conflicts of interest. These problems, coupled with the philosophy of the National Marine Fisheries Service, has resulted in a system that is inherently and irreparably flawed."
Fensom told Gov. Bush the state would be better served if the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission managed Florida's ocean stocks.
What happens next is anybody's guess. One thing is for sure: The sporting public - anglers and spearfishermen - are boiling mad. Not since the move to ban gill nets from inshore waters has an issue generated such controversy.
It reminds me of the closing minutes of the 1970 film Tora, Tora, Tora. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, said: "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."
Recreational fishermen might be the next waking giant.