www.amisun.com
JANUARY 27, 2021
REEL TIME: A catalyst for change
THE SUN
17
Weather finally cooperates CAPTAIN DAVE WHITE
FROM PAGE 16
Resources, agriculturalist Alan Jones, business groups like the Argus Foundation, and various government officials. These include Sarasota’s Sustainability Manager, Stevie Monte Freeman and John Ryan, Sarasota County’s environmental manager. Thaxton credits Dave Shafer with the concept of the online adaptive format and Suau and the Shafers with researching and writing the playbook. Composed of 10 chapters and 43 recommended activities, the playbook focuses on the ways Sarasota County can address water quality in local bays and estuaries. While written for Sarasota, the playbook was intentionally designed to be customizable and adaptive for use by other municipalities. According to Thaxton, “This Community Playbook for Healthy Waterways focuses, prioritizes, and coordinates critical activities we must undertake to realize our community’s vision for clean and healthy waters.” The importance of addressing the degradation of our waterways cannot be overstated. As I’ve written in this column many times, our waters are at a critical crossroads and time is of the essence. Efforts like this give stakeholders a vital tool and framework for change, but your voice is critical to its success. I encourage everyone to engage local politicians and decision-makers, demanding common-sense actions to assure our coastal waters are clean, clear, healthy and sustainable. Consider joining, donating to and working with local environmental and advocacy nonprofits like Suncoast Waterkeeper and Sarasota Bay Watch. This is an achievable goal but requires the political will of our elected officials. We either address this now or push it down the road as a much larger burden to our children. Our fishing and economic future and that of future generations depends on it. For more information, contact Greg Luberecki at gluberecki@gulfcoastcf.org or 301-466-9594.
The weather this week has been phenomenal! We had to get through some cold and windy ones to get here though. We here at Anna Maria Charters have been both inshore and offshore this week. Offshore, the mangrove snapper have been exceptionally fired up. They are big, and happy to take a bait. The amberjack are pretty easy right now as well. These are out of season. But these fish will always put a client’s ego in check! Red grouper fishing is also good. We were happy to get out there and spend time out of cell range. Inshore, pompano, sheepshead, seatrout, some snook, and an exceptionally strong redfish bite has kept us busy. Sheepshead
CAPTAIN DAVE WHITE | SUBMITTED
Holmes Beach resident J.B. Shuck, and his father-in-law, Bob Cimino, visiting from Omaha, hoist a pair of scrappy redfish. Caught with Captain David White, of Anna Maria Charters. will fill the cooler and redfish will give you a good tug. Hopefully, the water temperatures will keep
climbing and the great fishing continues.
Reef cleanup leaves stone crab trappers steamed BY CINDY LANE SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
HOLMES BEACH - Well-intentioned volunteers who held a cleanup of the Spanish Rocks reef off Anna Maria Island on Monday have Cortez stone crab trappers up in arms after crab traps were removed from the water with the trash. "It's against the law to touch a crab trap that's not yours," Cortez crabber Mark Coarsey said, after seeing wooden traps piled on the beach in a television news report Monday night. "Unbeknownst to local commercial fishermen, divers removed some traps," he said, adding that many crabbers wait until the end of the season in May to remove
their gear from the Gulf of Mexico. Traps can cost the fishermen more than $40 to make with materials including plastic, lead weights, concrete, rope and buoys, plus their time and effort. The removed traps were "retired," said Reid Myers, a spokesman for Pepsi Stronger Together, one of the sponsors of the event along with Force Blue, NFL Green and the Tampa Bay Super Bowl LV Host Committee. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed the traps were ok to remove, Myers said. Storms and stone crabs can remove the serial numbers of active traps, Coarsey said. The crabbers will be able to pick up their traps this week, Myers said. The Dive55 event, named for the
upcoming 55th NFL Super Bowl, was held in conjunction with NFL Green Week. Force Blue Special Operations veterans led 55 volunteer divers from local organizations in the operation to remove marine debris and abandoned fishing gear from Spanish Rocks reef. One diver said in a TV interview that "lobster" traps damage the "coral" reef. The traps are for stone crabs, Coarsey said, and the reef is limestone rock with some soft corals. The cleanup crew included Chris Lucas, of the country music duo Locash, Martín Gramática, former Tampa Bay Bucs placekicker, and Jim Ritterhoff, executive director of Force Blue.
