ST. PETERSBURG -- In his 13-year career as a light-tackle fishing guide in Tampa Bay, captain Rob Gorta has caught and released redfish up to 42 inches. The 38-year-old former U.S. Coast Guardsman has appeared on several popular outdoors TV shows, helping famous hosts such as Mark Sosin, Shaw Grigsby and Byron Velvick to big catches.

For his entire fishing career, Gorta has operated within sea-grass protection management zones that call for slow/idle speeds and noncombustion engines -- all enforced by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department.

Does he chafe at the regulations?

``They're fantastic,'' Gorta said during a recent redfish outing to Fort DeSoto Park. ``That's why the redfish get in here.''

Pinellas County considers itself a model for other governmental entities on how to protect valuable marine habitat without alienating the boating, fishing, and diving public.

GOOD RULES

Eric Fehrmann, the county's veteran environmental program manager, said it's because federal, state and county government solicited the input of boaters and commercial and recreational fishermen early in the process of developing management zones and once established, made sure they were enforced.

``People knew we couldn't keep going the way we were and screwing things up,'' Fehrmann said. ``There was a big public education factor. We had public meetings and let people say their piece. Now people know the value of sea grass.''

In the 1980s, Tampa Bay's grassy, sandy bottom was crisscrossed by long, deep scars inflicted by boat propellers.

This was a big problem for anglers of the day -- even if they didn't know it -- because habitat and nursery grounds for baitfish, shrimp, crabs, and gamefish were shrinking with every strike.

The Pinellas County Environmental Management Department worked with stakeholders on a plan to divide grass flats into zones. Some prohibited outboard motor use; others called for slow/idle speeds; and still others imposed no restrictions. Marked channels provided navigational corridors through the management areas. Officials promised it would be a seven-year experiment that would end if it didn't work. Fehrmann said no-fishing zones never were contemplated.

Further streamlining the process was a fortunate anomaly: Pinellas County -- not the state -- owned most of the submerged lands in the affected areas, thereby eliminating the need for layers of legal and bureaucratic approvals.

By 1992, the county had adopted an ordinance, posted signs, published maps and brochures, and tasked its sheriff's department with enforcement.

HEALTHIER CLIMATE

Fehrmann said it took awhile for the propeller scarring to ease up, but by 1996, there was a measurable decrease. And by 2000, scarring in boating restriction zones was down to 2,195 linear feet -- compared with 52,578 linear feet in 1995. However, in nonrestrictive zones, scarring actually increased.

Fehrmann said the program has worked so well that Pinellas County has taken over management of sea grass beds on large areas of state-owned bottomlands in Tampa Bay. Today, more than 3,500 acres is under protection.

``We're making good headway,'' he said. ``Some of the areas that didn't work so well, we changed them. People said, `Why not open up this area?' We're here to protect the resource, but if we can do it and make people happy.''

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