Gringofish

My name is Stone Hansard.  I joined your forum today, and I wanted to let you know that I am an advocate of spearfishing.

I am not going to spam your your site with my views.  I will pass on information that may be helpful to other spearos because, if we don’t pay attention to the regulations that are being passed, we may not be able to pull the trigger on a fish ever again (I know that sounds extreme, but you should read the “Wildlife 2060” report just published from the FWC).  Here is a link to the PDF file - it is 3mb:  http://myfwc.com/wildlife2060/Docs/FWC2060.pdf.

We (my wife, Candy is the real driving force) are trying to document what is really happening in the Gulf of Mexico.  The Federal Government recently reduced the Red Snapper season to 2 months.  In reality, that equates to about 19 days of fishing (out of an entire year!) for the weekend recreational diver.  Bag limits for Grouper are diminishing and AJ size limits are increasing.  Right now our evidence may be considered anecdotal and not statistical, but we are collecting ever-increasing video footage and fishing reports that show the red snapper population is the best it has been in a decade.

Our website (http://www.ecreef.org) does not compete with Xtreme Spearfishing.  We are primarily concerned with Fishery Issues in the Northern Gulf of Mexico; however, we want to stand by our brothers who may be suffering from the same bad science that affects Grouper rules, or Hogfish rules, or AJ rules.