After four years of dormancy, the highly controversial issue of no-fishing zones has been reawakened in the general management planning process for Biscayne National Park.

The public comment period closed earlier this week, but I still would like to offer my 2 ½ cents.

Instead of cordoning off certain areas where divers and snorkelers may go -- but anglers may not -- I would offer a simpler solution to the problem of steeply declining reef fisheries in the park.

If it were up to me, I would ban the taking and possession of all grouper-snapper species by any means -- hook-and-line; handline; spear gun; pole spear; or Hawaiian sling -- year-round in park waters. Yes, such a policy would require greater law enforcement presence, but the same could be said for creating marine protected areas. My proposal would enhance compliance and enforcement because it would avoid the need for special charts and signs that confuse boaters so much that they tend to ignore them anyway.

For those new to this issue who perhaps are just now getting involved, a little background is in order as to what led the park down the path to no-fishing zones.

In the summer of 2001, officials got a report from Jerry Ault, fisheries scientist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School, showing reef fish in Biscayne Bay -- particularly grouper and snapper -- were in bad shape because of overfishing. A few weeks after that report was released, park rangers stopped two boats four days apart with hundreds of undersized snapper and grouper on board. Five Miami men were charged with federal fisheries violations in those two stops. Photos of the illegal catch were published in The Miami Herald, enraging concerned citizens who demanded action.

Park officials -- then in the beginning stages of developing a long-term general management plan to guide the park over 15 to 20 years -- soon began discussing the establishment of marine protected areas, or no-fishing zones.

Public meetings were held; the process of developing the general management plan and a fisheries management plan were bifurcated. A working group composed of anglers, guides, scientists, divers and conservationists could not reach consensus on establishment of marine protected areas. Meanwhile, grouper and snapper stocks in park waters continued to plummet.

The planning process, which had proceeded steadily from 2001 to '05, went inactive because of staffing turnovers and an unfavorable political climate in Washington. It has only been revived in the past few months. Grouper and snapper stocks still are in bad shape and not likely to rebuild without drastic action.

Bag and size limits are not working. If they were, the average angler would be able to reel in a legal-sized red grouper -- a rare feat right now. What good will it do to increase the minimum size for a fish if no fish that size are available to catch?

The park has set up conservation zones in varying degrees for years; the sea grass meadows of the Featherbeds and the Biscayne Bay-Card Sound Lobster Sanctuary leap immediately to mind.

But still boaters run aground on the Featherbeds and every lobster miniseason, law enforcement officers write tickets for divers and snorkelers illegally taking bugs out of the sanctuary. What makes anyone think that marine protected areas will be any more successful?

Instead of alienating the angling public while placating divers, it is far easier to protect the fisheries that need protection and leave the others alone. For example, the waters of Biscayne National Park teem with bonefish, permit and tarpon -- an economically valuable sport fishery that almost is entirely catch-and-release. What happens to the guide and angler who hook a giant permit near Soldier Key and end up chasing it -- unwittingly -- into a no-fishing zone?

On the issue of anchor damage to coral reefs and sea grass beds, what good is a no-fishing zone if a dive boat still would be allowed to throw the hook? The solution is to install additional mooring buoys -- something the park now is considering.

I believe there are less heavy-handed ways to shore up reef fish stocks than to create confusing zoning maps that few will understand or follow.

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