The author has worked as a consultant for SOFA for the past 7 years and is a member of various advisory panels for the gulf council.


Where have the Fish Houses Gone?

Used to be years ago, if your boat was out of Madeira Beach, Appalach, Cortez, and you liked to fish in Tortugas, you could always find a port to go into around Ft Myers if you had troubles. Need to get your boat hauled, need a problem crew member off your boat, illegally sell some fish from your company boat, whatever. Pull right in to Ft Myers.

Ft. Myers was once one of the 3 largest shrimp ports in the Gulf of Mexico. Ft Myers is now a shell of what it once was. Its history is shattered. Shrimping always dominated the port, but at it's height there were close to 40 grouper fishing boats moored in the area in the late 1970's to early 1980's.

Ft. Myers has now succumbed to what has happened in every other coastal town up and down the west coast. Bonita Fish Company, gone. Dixie Fish Company, under new owners in the last year that have no idea about the fish business and sell ice at $28.00 a bar. Villers Shrimp Company, sold, will now become a terminal for a ferry boat to take tourists to Key West. All the Vilco boats will be gone in the next year. Snug Harbor Seafood, gone. The Ice plant, Matanzas Ice and fuel, is closed. It was damaged in Hurricane Charlie but the ice plant never reopened. Gulf Marine Ways and Compass Rose Marina, two places where you could work on your own boat are no longer.

The loss of this infrastructure is the quickest way to the death of this industry. When qualified mechanics no longer have access to work on our vessels, their companies dry up as well. Welding shops have dried up all around the Ft Myers area and affordable marine mechanics are just about impossible to find.

This isn't unique. Naples has the same situation. Gasparilla fisheries is gone. Jug Creek Fisheries is barely hanging on. So many of these fish houses relied on diversification and regulations simply don't allow that anymore. Fishermen used to be able to go mullet fishing during run season, go grouper fishing when it was good, go crabbing during its peak seasons, and in that cycle everything got left alone for a while. Professional fishermen who have been in this business for many years if not decades know how to manage fisheries, and when to target what species.

Many of these fish houses also relied heavily on many net fish which used to be landed by local fishermen until the net ban in 1994. But management has been put in the hands of individuals which understand how government works and not how nature works.

So, as property values rise, commercial access to the water continues to be lost. As regulations continue to be thrust upon us, such as the bogus tilefish and deepwater grouper quota, the shark quota and a potential 40% reduction in gag grouper harvest, we will continue to see these fish houses continue to disappear as they are unable to conduct business until we have no place left for bait ice and sell our fish.

Tight Lines and Full Boxes
ER

Written and contributed by Eric Schmidt

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