Discussions ebb and flow like the tide.
Island crabbers and shore-based anglers met Jan. 21 at Anna Maria City Hall, seeking to resolve complaints about lost crab traps.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy said he was encouraged by the discussions. However, he said, “We’re not close to a solution. We’d feel far more comfortable if we had another two-hour session like this to build some consensus.”
Murphy, along with Commissioners Doug Copeland, Chuck Webb and Dale Woodland, joined Tom Graef and Lt. Grant Burton of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to listen to crabbers and shore-fishers.
Graef, FWC Southwest Regional Commander, led the meeting and invited comments.
“The fishing industry around here is taking big hits,” commercial fisher Mark Coarsey said. “Last year the season was terrible, so you didn’t see many trips out there. This is a crabber’s livelihood.”
Crabbers allege shore-fishers are destroying their stone crab traps by entangling them with fishing line and then either cutting the buoy lines or raiding them of their contents.
Surf-fishers say no such things have happened.
“They’re losing traps to boats, not to shore fishers,” Anna Maria resident and recreational shore-fisher David Garcia said. “I’ve been shark fishing for 50 years and I’ve never entangled a trap.”
The problems presented by crabbers and fishers amounted to when and where they could fish without conflict and what to do if a trap gets entangled.
Sgt. Paul Davis, head of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Anna Maria-substation, said his office could help if a trap is pulled from the water. “A cooperative effort works best here in Anna Maria,” he said.
Davis and the FWC representatives said their offices could help identify who a trap belongs to because each trap has at least three tags.
Plus, buoys have unique color codes. “Everyone here pretty much knows what color belongs to who,” crabber Anthony Manali said of the crabbers.
Davis said leaving the beach with a pulled trap could be considered a felony.
“It’s best to just leave it on the shore or in the water and call us,” Davis said.
The MCSO Anna Maria-substation can be contacted at 941-708-8899.
The FWC can be reached at 863-648-3200.
Copeland offered to post a list of local crabbers on the city website.
But where and when people could crab and fish in peace stalled the discussion. The conversation stopped when suggestions were made to either designate certain sections of the beach for shore fishing or limit crowding the near shore waters with traps.
“We’re only asking for one-third of the year where we don’t have to worry about them,” Manali said. “They get to shark fish all year long.”
Manali and other crabbers place crab traps near the shore October-February, and they say its during that time that their traps are molested by shore-fishers.
Crabbers crowd the shoreline during the first four months of stone crab season to attract and catch the crustaceans where they live. In March, they say the crabs move into deeper waters, and Manali and others said they follow.
“I’ve always seen crab traps near the shore,” fisher Joshua Strahorn said. “How about after January the traps get pushed out further?”
Neither group offered to make changes.
Copeland announced the next public meeting between crabbers and fishers would be held Feb. 17 at city hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.
