Fish are disappearing from Biscayne National Park. Is state doing enough to stop decline?
Martin Arostegui scans the ocean floor as he snorkels above a patch reef just east of the Ragged Keys. Spear gun in hand — just in case; he had a close encounter with a bull shark here once — the retired doctor looks for fish. Any fish.
A small black grouper swims by, its olive gray skin and dark blotches standing out against the gray backdrop of a rocky reef bottom covered with dead coral. After snorkeling for 15 minutes, the lone grouper and a few small grunts were the only fish in sight.
Arostegui, a record-holding angler who has been fishing and diving in Biscayne National Park for nearly four decades, remembers the days when he would find mutton and yellowtail snapper and groupers of all varieties. He says he would catch grunt by the bucketfuls and conch, which he and his father would use as bait.
Now, he has two words for those who worry about the future of the underwater park in Miami’s backyard: marine reserves, also known as no-fishing zones.
“For the last 20 years we have documented a major decline in fish populations,’” said Arostegui. “There is more than enough data and science showing that traditional fishery-management techniques aren’t working and won’t guarantee a healthy future for the park.”
For more than a decade, Arostegui and other conservationists have been pushing for closing off small parts of Biscayne National Park to fishing by establishing the same sort of zones that have protected reefs and their denizens along the Florida Keys for years.
But many recreational anglers and state wildlife managers have never endorsed controversial marine reserves in the heavily used waters off Miami, calling them an extreme measure that infringes on fishing rights.
Instead, when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission takes up proposed new fishing rules for Biscayne Bay waters this week, the focus will be on traditional size and catch limits to improve the park’s declining fishery — not on marine reserves.
The proposed FWC plan would raise size limits for a number of species. Red grouper would increase to 24 inches from 20 inches, for example, while yellowtail snapper would rise to 14 inches from 12 inches. There would also be a daily limit of 10 food and sport fish per person, the establishment of inshore and offshore no-trawl zones and coral reef protection areas where traps and lobstering would be prohibited. Park waters could be off limits during lobster mini-season and spearfishing could be regulated with the prohibition of trigger mechanisms and air supply.
Waters with many users
With so many different parties using the park, it has been hard to find consensus on how big the problem is or how to tackle fishery and conservation issues.
“Everyone wants something different from the park. Some love to go lobstering, others are divers who spearfish. There are anglers who commercially harvest fish inside the park, and a lot of people who just enjoy boating or snorkeling,” said Vanessa McDonough, a biologist at Biscayne National Park in charge of fishery management. “We are working with FWC to find the best alternatives to achieve our goal to increase abundance and fish size, and to give users a great park experience.”
There are some things that everyone agrees on, starting with the dramatic decline in fish stock and size — particularly for the snapper and grouper species that are popular table fare.
A healthy ecosystem and marine fishery also have economic benefits. According to a National Park Service report, more than 450,000 visitors to BNP in 2018 spent nearly $30.5 million, supporting nearly 400 local jobs and generating more than $42 million for the local economy. Statewide, saltwater recreational fishing pumps $7.6 billion a year into Florida’s economy, the largest total in the country, according to FWC estimates.
But Miami’s backyard marine park, which covers almost 174,000 acres of Biscayne Bay waters and small islands, has suffered from its proximity to a sprawling urban area: deteriorating water quality, marine debris, increased boat groundings, and rising fishing pressure due to population growth. Heavy boat traffic, trap lines, and anchors have damaged corals, seagrass meadows, and mangroves along the shoreline.
The fish have come under pressure not only from the fast-growing population but also because GPS devices and other gear make finding and catching fish a lot easier than 20 years ago, when fishing-management restrictions were first being discussed.
Pollution has also worsened inside the park and in Biscayne Bay in general. A recent study by NOAA looking at water quality between 1995 and 2014 showed that the bay could be facing a “regime shift” as its lush seagrass beds are gradually being smothered by thick algae that are being fed by rising nutrient levels in the water. Fish species that are valued by recreational fishermen and commercial groups, and crustaceans such as crab, lobster, and shrimp spend a portion of their lives in those seagrass beds in Biscayne National Park.
Over the past few years, coral reefs also have been ravaged by a mysterious disease that started just off Virginia Key in 2014 and has affected a large portion of the Florida reef tract. It continues to spread south and west into the Dry Tortugas National Park, decimating entire colonies. Coral reefs are crucial for the survival of most fish species as nearly all of them spend a part of their lives on a reef.
Given the staggering decline, boat captains and scientists have argued that marine reserves are needed to better protect coral reefs and boost fish sizes and abundance.
“The park is overfished and overused. We need to adopt traditional fisheries techniques like increased size limits and lower bag limits, but we also need no-fishing marine reserves, as a way to address multiple issues,” said Caroline McLaughlin, Sun Coast associate director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “The rules are simple, they are the same for everyone: no fishing. Period. It’s an equitable way to improve the ecosystem and restore fish populations.”
McLaughlin said FWC’s proposed regulations are insufficient to achieve sustainable populations for most species, including some “literally on the verge of collapse.” A National Park Service study found the average size of fish landed was near the minimum harvest size for the past 25 years, suggesting that a majority of large fish have been removed from the population. For example, the average size of black grouper is now 40% of what it was in 1940.
Some want more enforcement
Commercial-fishing captains disagree with closing off parts of the park. And they say that a lack of enforcement is the main threat to fish populations at the park, not a lack of regulation.
“We have had great yields over the past few years, and all sought-after species are doing fine,” said Bill Kelly, executive director of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association. Kelly is also concerned about the negative impacts that a no-take zone in Biscayne National Park could have on Keys fisheries. “I think education and enforcement of current rules could go a long way in improving fish stocks.”
The FWC’s executive director, Eric Sutton, said that targeting bigger problems makes more sense than significantly restricting fishing in the park. Water-quality and pollution issues in Biscayne Bay should be tackled as a way to improve the overall health of ecosystems inside the park. He also said there is a cultural factor at play: locals and visitors who come to Biscayne Bay to fish don’t want the federal government to tell them what to do.
But advocates point to no-fishing zones in the Keys, including a massive one in the far-off Dry Tortugas west of Key West, established with approval from the FWC after contentious debate. They also say there also are plenty of no-take zones at other national parks, just not on water. Hunting is prohibited inside Everglades National Park, for instance.
Arostegui believes there is plenty of science to support modest no-fishing zones and help reverse the decline in park fishing.
“In many areas where marine reserves have been created, seeding and populations increased inside these no-take zones but also outside, in what is known as spillover effect,” he said. “The fish grow to a certain size inside the reserve and then go out to open areas in the park, where they can be legally harvested.”
Follow Adriana Brasileiro on Twitter @AdriBras
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
.jpg)