Crab traps may sit in open waters, but they are private property.
And it now appears Anna Maria officials are getting serious about an age-old issue for crabbers: lost and stolen traps.
When stone crabber Anthony Manali asked the city commission for help Dec. 17, commissioners were quick to react.
The commission’s response has gone from drafting an ordinance creating an Oct. 1-March 1 ban to opening discussions between crabbers and fishers.
However, regulating shore fishing apparently does not fall in the city’s purview. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission claims legal authority over Florida’s waters and fishing regulations.
Commission Chair Doug Copeland said, the city commission and an FWC representative would hold discussion and hear from all sides of the argument at a special meeting Jan. 14 at city hall and begin working on a solution to the dispute.
“We want to try and encourage as many people as possible to come together and get invested in the problem,” Copeland said.
After Manali went before the commission to complain that amateur late-night fishers were stealing from him and destroying his stone crab traps, the city began drafting the ordinance to resolve his problem.
Manali says the issue arises from fishers looking to catch a shark or other big fish from Anna Maria’s beach, who carry their baited hooks out in rafts, paddleboards or kayaks to reach the deeper waters, and return to wait for the bite along the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico in Anna Maria.
When the shark bites, it fights to get free. The heavy line and tackle used by the fishers can sometimes get tangled around the crab traps, which sit on the bottom, or the rope attached to the trap and a buoy marker.
Manali said he suspects the fishers sometimes cut the trap line to free their tackle or pull the trap ashore and take the crabs.
Other crabbers also say they suspect some of their catch may be stolen, based on empty traps found in peak harvest periods. But bad weather, rough seas and high winds can shift and move the traps and bury them, along with the line and buoy marker, and they are lost.
The city, with its ordinance, did not intend to halt to shoreline fishing, but rather to prohibit shoreline fishers from using small crafts to drop bait farther from shore than normal casting would achieve.
“It’s my belief the FWC is the best organization to handle this,” Copeland said. “My only goal right now is to keep this issue from escalating further. This is an important issue and we need to handle it correctly.”
Jurisdiction: FWC
Who can regulate fishing or the use of a small watercraft to accomplish setting the bait and hook?
Sgt. Paul Davis, head of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office substation in Anna Maria, said deputies routinely patrol the beaches.
Davis also said in his three years stationed in Anna Maria, he’s never heard or seen a complaint about people losing crab traps to shoreline fishers.
“When Manali spoke Dec. 17, that was the first I had heard of it,” Davis said.
Manali has no documented complaints. He resides with wife Joann in Holmes Beach and maintains a retail fish market at his parent’s home on Pine Avenue in Anna Maria.
Gary Morse, media representative for the FWC’s enforcement division, said the FWC is the only legal authority in Florida’s waters.
“We’re the only agency that can pass regulations on fishing and boating,” Morse said. “Stone crab trap molestation falls in our area of jurisdiction and it’s something we’ll handle.”
Tempers flair
On Jan. 2, MCSO deputies arrested Joann Manali, 51, Anthony’s wife. She faces a battery charge after she allegedly attacked a man who was fishing on the beach in Anna Maria.
According to the MCSO report, Joann Manali confronted three shark fishers, accusing them of cutting crab-trap lines. She allegedly grabbed a fishing rod from a man and slammed it into his chest, pushing him back several feet.
She declined to comment.
The commission will discuss fishers versus crabbers at their meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, at Anna Maria City Hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.
Another case of Ready, Fire, Aim!