deep thoughts

I really don’t consider myself an overly superstitious person, or at least I didn’t till my first camping experience in the Everglades backcountry nearly a decade ago. It was February, prime time for camping on chickees deep in the backcountry that are only accessible by boat.

A dramatic rise in water temperature along the continental shelf of the mid-Atlantic and northeast coastlines has created a demonstrable shift northward in the distribution of several fish and mollusk species.

The forthcoming Everglades National Park General Management Plan includes incorporating extensive “poll-and-troll” areas that, if approved under the park’s preferred alternative, would prohibit boaters from using internal combustion motors in approximately 30 percent of the park.

Fisheries management is an inherently difficult process. Obtaining timely and accurate biological and catch data can be challenging enough. Then there’s dealing with the major stakeholder groups that oftentimes have differing opinions on how a fishery should be managed.

You’d have to have been living under a rock to not know that Atlantic bluefin tuna have been in serious trouble for some time now — regardless of what you may see on Wicked Tuna.

Most of you anglers know that collecting good recreational catch data has been problematic on both the state and federal level. But things are changing.

Unlike my last several blogs, this one will not focus on billfish or even IGFA conservation business, for that matter. Nope, this one’s all about fishing or, in this case, potentially the lack thereof.