At their April 6 meeting, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously to put in place new regulations that will make bonefish a catch and release species in Florida. The new regulations take effect July 1, 2011.

via Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

Yeah, I didn’t miss this, but I didn’t really post about it either.  This is good news and the folks at the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust are the folks who you should thank.

Awesome.

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A solid congrats needs to be sent out to the folks at the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust for their work to preserve and protect Bonefish in Florida (and other places, but for this post, Florida) with a boatload of irrefutable science (see, that’s what they do).

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decided Wednesday to move forward on a new rule that would declare bonefish a catch-and-release species, with no harvest of them allowed.

via Bonefish getting permanent protection.

Love it.  Gotta get over there… have not fished in Florida, which seems a little silly now.  Well, thinking about it, I actually did fish Florida… but it was a long, long, long time ago.  I was 10.  There was spin fishing off some beach… I caught a crab.

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No, really… it isn’t.  Bonefishing isn’t a political thing and conservation isn’t a political thing.  I hope you all send a little bit of that little bit of money you have floating around at the end of the month to help the folks who are working to make sure there are bonefish left for us to play with.

These days, for the 2/3 of readers who are from the US, conservation is a political hot button issue… which, I’m going to say, is stupid.  The fish aren’t red or blue (ya know, unless they are actually red or blue).  The Endangers Species Act and the Clean Water Act were signed by… get ready for it… Richard Nixon.  Yeah… that Richard Nixon.  Tricky Dick could see the value of conservation.  So, be a Dick and embrace conservation.

The best way you can do that, if you want to protect Bonefish, is to give to the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

There are other groups… the Turneffe Atoll Trust is new and promising.  Down there in Belize is also Green Reef.

yeah... what he said.

Just saw this over at Chi Wulff and it was timely, as I just got the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Journal and have been reading it as well.  Good stuff… I mean, really, really good.  It’s glossy, but I think that gloss is ad-supported.

While perhaps overly laden with advertising, BTT’s Bonefish and Tarpon Journal 2011 is worth a look today, if just to read Chico’s Looking for Bonefish:  A Beginner’s Guide.

via Chi Wulff — Lying About Fly Fishing Since 2007.

Something they pointed out that I didn’t know is that the journal is available on-line!  Go to their post to get the link.

I’m kind of sad it is available for free… you should support BTT to get to see this thing.  It is pure bonefishy goodness.

I’ll be headed to Andros South here in, oh about 2 months and I BTT is going to send me with a dozen copies of the Jornal to hopefully entice future guests into becoming members.

If you love bonefish, you should join BTT.

“The present social and political climate in Belize offers a very promising window of opportunity. For the first time, all relevant stakeholder groups are at the table and have expressed interest in facilitating a Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve. Equally as important, permitting agencies in Belize have unofficially indicated their support” said Craig Hayes, owner of Turneffe Flats Resort and founder of TAT.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?  A Marine Reserve for Turneffe… I like it.  It’s a great idea. Ideas are the currency of the activist world, but money is oxygen. This stuff just doesn’t happen because you sign an on-line petition. No one reads on-line petitions… ever.  To have folks in the meetings and plotting a course toward success, it takes people who think about it all the time… it takes organization and it takes money.

The Turneffe Atoll Trust is asking for your support. Do it.

Got an email from Chris Goldmark over/down in Puerto Rico about recent good news for bonefish and bonefish lovers.

Great news!  Puerto Rico has officially passed into law protection for Bonefish, Tarpon, Permit and Palometa. It is now a minimum of a $100 per fish penalty and possible seizure of boat and nets or other gear if found guilty of violation of this new law. Lots of credit should be given to Fernando Monnlor and Capt Pochy Rosario as well as our “guiding light”, Craig Lillistrom for all their hard work in getting protection for these valuable marine resources. I myself have been involved in this fight from the beginning and hope now with legal protection we can begin to rebuild the stocks of these fish that have been abused for so many years. Good things do happen!

That sounds like good news to me, alright. Good job guys!

Chris down in Culebra, Puerto Rico

The trick, of course… will be enforcement.  A fine is all well and good and the intention is great, but if there is never a fine given and no nets ever confiscated or checked, well… like I said… enforcement is the key.

If you love Belize, show some love to this org.

With 450 cayes and two lagoons spanning 250 square miles, Turneffe Atoll is one of the most productive marine ecosystems on earth and the best preserved portion of the Mesoamerican Reef.

via Turneffe Atoll Trust.

The Turneffe Atoll Trust is doing some good work.  They are trying to figure out a way to preserve the flats and the mangroves in the Turneffe Atoll, a place they see as the next probable target of over-development when the world economy recovers.  They are trying to get all the stakeholders together… the commercial fisherman, the community leaders, the government leaders, the anglers and other interested parties.  Everyone has to be on the same page if this place is going to be spared and that’s exactly what they are trying to do.  Check it out.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.  Mine was lovely.  Here’s some lovely news about Dr. Adams doing some writing for Florida Fly Fishing Magazine.

Awesome.

Marine biologist Dr. Aaron Adams, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Operations Director and Senior Scientist for Mote Marine Laboratory, joins Florida Fly Fishing Magazine with a focus on marine conservation and environmental issues.

via Florida Fly Fishing Magazine Welcomes Dr. Aaron Adams (this is the press release).

Florida Fly Fishing Magazine – this is the actual website.

Spending a few days as the guest of Ali down at her lodge, El Pescador Lodge (you can follow them on Facebook too), on Ambergris Caye in Belize, you have to admire the beauty of the surroundings.  You also get the sense that it all is very precarious.  El Pescador, years ago, was not book-ended by other condos/resorts, but now it is.  Now, the string of docks and buildings continues about 5 miles beyond EP.  Until the US economy took a header, the area around Ambergris was seeing more and more plans to develop fringe “land” that would need to be bulldozed, dredged and filled… ya know… the kinds of places bonefish feed… the kinds of places bait lives.  Now, there is a pause in that development and there is a chance to get things back to more sanity… more sustainability.  One of the strongest voices for this re-visioning of future of Ambergris is none other than Ali from El Pescador.   I wanted to give Ali a chance to get some of her thoughts out there about the future of Ambergris.

A nice place to be.

You’ve been on Ambergris for a while now, what are some of the changes you’ve seen for better and worse?

Sustainable development is a delicate balancing act.  As a foreigner investor in Belize, I believe that our relationship must be mutually beneficial.  My business must benefit the community through a variety of means – jobs, taxes, support and activism in exchange for giving me the opportunity to operate my business in this paradise.  Over the years I have seen many benefits from development including higher quality of life for San Pedranos, access to better education, access to better medical care as well as more (but not yet sufficient) infrastructure such as electricity, water, sewage, cell phones, cable, internet, trash collection and fire trucks.  As foreigners we come to Belize for a better and simpler quality of life.  But for Belizeans, they have the same American dream our parents and grandparents had – a better life for their children with access to what we consider “basic services.”  But, those “basic services” are very hard to attain in a 3rd world country.

I have also seen more of a community environmental consciousness with the advent of development.  For a long time, we assumed investors would “do the right thing.”  Now, we are learning that laws need to be put in place to protect the very thing that attracts the investors – but for some reason they are intent upon destroying.  It seems painfully obvious to me that the only reason a hotel, condominium or real estate project would be successful in Belize is because of our natural beauty (the reef, the fishery, the jungle, etc).  Yet – large scale developments that are only interested in short term profits are willing to ruin the environment through dredging the sea grass beds and cutting of mangroves which will in turn kill the reef. They are willing to destroy the very thing that is making them money – because they are only interested in the short term profit.

We need a way to make all developers have a long term stake in their project and we need politicians with a long term plan and goal for the country.  One way to make a developer have a vested interest in the future of the country is to only allow them to sell 49% of the development.  If they have to maintain 51% ownership then it will be in their best interest to conserve the environment, build with quality materials, provide on-going maintenance and put a marketing plan in effect, among other things.

In the booming days of the US economy it seems development was running at a break-neck pace in Ambergris.  What has the US recession meant for Ambergris and what do you see happening in the next couple of years?

The silver lining to the world wide economic break down has been that development has all but stopped for 2 years on Ambergris.  Some projects have gone out of business.  Others will continue once access to money starts to flow again.  This has given us additional time to work on developing a master plan for both the island as well as a tourism master plan.  Both of these will guide the future of development on the island and in the country.  Then we will not have to fight individual properties like South Beach; instead we should have a master plan that says it is illegal to build it because it is on 100% mangroves and not on real “land” which is a no build zone (for example).

As more and more of the actual “land” gets bought up, more and more fringe land is getting sold and developed.  Talk about that?

It is a significant problem that mimics every beach community in the USA.  Once all the beach front is gone then they fill in the bay side as the next “water front” property.  I am hopeful that the master plan will address this and it will not be allowed to be developed for commercial purposes.  One little private beach shack with some solar panels for electricity is not a problem – but someone who fills in the property by dredging our fishery and then builds 100 condos is a problem.

While there is a no-kill law on the books in Belize for bonefish, permit and tarpon, I noticed a large number of fish traps on the west side of Ambergris that seem like just about the perfect bonefish/permit killers around.  Is anything being done to address the by-catch in those traps?

Glad to hear these won't be around forever

The stick fish traps you are talking about are illegal – the ones you saw are grandfathered in.  When the owner dies, the trap will be removed.  Every year there are less and less.

Can you talk a little about the work that Green Reef is doing there?

Not nearly as well as Mito Paz, who is the head of Green Reef.

One thing they are currently working on is a sport fish conservation plan for Belize.  They, along with key stakeholders (such as lodges, guides, commercial fishermen, NGOs) are developing recommendations that will be presented to policy makers for the further development of appropriate conservation and management measures for the protection of critical sport fish habitat.

Thanks Ali.  Keep up the good work.

Sunrise at El Pescador (photo by Shane)

It worked wonders on the ladies… up until my wife found all the old poems I had kept from years past… then they went up in smoke in a mysterious fire.

Now, poetry about fish and rivers and lessons learned in pursuit in beautiful places… that’s some good stuff and largely safe from fire.

The Fishing Poet is rocking some new shirts and, classy guy that he is, Matt is using proceeds from those shirts to support a local nonprofit, The Shenandoah Riverkeeper.

Nice threads.

So, get a shirt, support the cause.