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Outdoors

Felon helps draft grouper rules

Dean A. Pruitt, an organizer of a grouper license buyback, pleaded guilty in 1993 to breaking federal fishery regulations.

By TERRY TOMALIN
Published December 8, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - One of the architects of a $35-million plan to help the embattled grouper fishing industry was once sent to federal prison for his role in a criminal conspiracy involving illegal grouper fishing.

Dean A. Pruitt, 46, of Clearwater admitted to using "deceit, craft, trickery, and dishonesty" to undermine federal enforcement of grouper regulations in the early 1990s.

Pruitt, who spent four months in federal prison, is part of a nine-member committee that helped the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, based in Madeira Beach, draft a plan to "buy back" some federal fishing permits.

The idea is to reduce the number of fishermen and make the industry more profitable for those who remain.

"To have individuals like that on the committee certainly undermines the credibility of the proposed buyout," said Ted Forsgren, executive director for the Florida Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association.

"I hope our elected officials reject this plan outright," he said. "It will do nothing for conservation."

Pruitt, contacted Wednesday, admitted he made a mistake and said he was sorry for his actions.

"I was kind of wild back then," he said, "but I've since gotten married to a wonderful woman and have grown up. I'm not a perfect citizen, but every day I try to be."

Opponents of the taxpayer-financed buyback will meet in Madeira Beach next week to present an alternative plan they say will preserve grouper stocks and the livelihoods of small, independent fishermen.

Florida's commercial longline fleet, which relies on boats that lay miles of fishing line rigged with thousands of hooks on the sea floor, has been the subject of controversy for more than a decade.

Environmentalists and recreational anglers believe longlines kill indiscriminately, without regard for size, sex or species.

It was a series of incidents involving longline fishing that brought Pruitt to the attention of federal authorities in the early 1990s.

He and his brother, Douglas L. Pruitt, 40, ultimately pleaded guilty in 1993 to fishing in areas they knew were closed to longlines, federal records show.

When the Coast Guard approached, the Pruitts would warn each other with a system of whistles broadcast over their VHF radios, according to federal records.

The Pruitts also instructed their crew to paint buoys marking the long lines a dark color so they would not be seen by law enforcement officers, the records say.

The crew also was told if federal officials approached, they were to hide longline gear beneath ice in the hold of the vessel to avoid detection, the records show.

If the longlines were in the water, they were to cut the longline gear loose and tell authorities they were fishing for shark, not grouper, the records say.

On Sept. 19, 1990, Douglas L. Pruitt reportedly told his crew to throw overboard a longline baited with illegal undersized grouper to keep the Coast Guard from getting it, federal records show.

Dean and Douglas Pruitt both served four months in federal prison for their crimes.

Dean Pruitt was the subject of a recent series of St. Petersburg Times stories that detailed the saga of one his fishing boats that sank during a recent hurricane.

Bob Spaeth, spokesman for the offshore fishing association, said he saw no problem with Pruitt serving on the buyback committee.

"He made a mistake and did his time," Spaeth said. "He knows a lot about fishing and that is what is important."

The buyout plan also has been criticized by members of the commercial fishing industry.

Fishermen who hold federal reef fish permits were asked to vote on the buyout proposal earlier this fall.

The results of the referendum were 38 percent in favor and 62 percent opposed. But those initial results will not stand.

The marine fisheries service, one of two federal agencies the Pruitts admitted defrauding, will "weight" the votes based on the catch history of the permit holders.

The Times, under the Freedom of Information Act, has asked for documents detailing how the "weighting" process will be determined, but that request so far has been denied.

James Fensom, a former member of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council currently under consideration for a circuit judgeship in Panama City, was highly critical of the longline buyout in a February letter to Gov. Jeb Bush.

"The current push for a partial bottom longline buyout will be of no benefit to the status of the grouper stock," Fensom wrote. "Bottom longline fishermen have resisted regulations for years and have argued that there is not a problem in the fishery. They now acknowledge the over capacity of the longline fishermen and seek a buyout."

"Those who support the partial buyout," Fenson wrote, "have been hoodwinked."

[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:49:13]