The St. Pete Times has a special report how Federal regulators may cut gag fishing in the gulf by 45 percent.
Federal regulators took preliminary steps on Jan. 29 to reduce gag grouper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed restrictions would close down recreational grouper fishing for three months in the winter, just when tourists arrive in the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas.
“This will cost the state of Florida $300-million in direct expenditures,'” said Dennis O’Hern, director of a recreational advocacy group called the Fishermen’s Rights Alliance.
With a bag limit of only one gag and only nine months to fish for any kind of grouper, anglers will not sink $20,000 or $30,000 into offshore boats and spend hundreds of dollars in fuel to go bottom fishing, O’Hern said. Tourists will not spend $1,000 to hire a charter boat.