AROUND THE COAST

Gulf & South Atlantic Post-Hurricane Ian: Florida Fishermen Await Funding

By Carli Stewart

Florida shermen all around the state are on the edge of their seats, hoping to gain some good news about the shing industry’s future. ose in Lee County were furious at reports that the federal agency NOAA Fisheries had rejected DeSantis’ shery disaster request.

In late September 2022, Hurricane Ian destroyed nearly all of Lee County, which led to mass destruction of the shing industry within and around Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sanibel Island, and Pine Island Sound. e western side of Florida has been devastated by the damage that Ian had caused. On October 15, 2022, Governor DeSantis was joined by shing captains from southwest Florida to show his support for the shing industry’s road to recovery.

To get the shing industry back on its feet, DeSantis requested the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to issue a federal sheries disaster. e request would have provided federal funding to allow o shore, nearshore, and inshore sheries to rebuild. “Florida’s sheries are vitally important to the State’s economy through their impact on commercial and recreational shing and tourism,” DeSantis stated in his o cial request.

“According to the most recent US Fish and Wildlife Service survey, Florida leads the nation in the number of saltwater shing anglers. Florida’s recreational saltwater shing industry has an economic impact of $9.2 billion, while the value of commercial sheries is estimated at $244 million.”

Are inadequate policies and poorly written federal statutes to blame? Or does it boil down to politics? It all depends on who you ask, but from a commercial sherman’s fearful perspective, things are not looking bright for the seafood that comes fresh from Florida.

Commercial sherman Casey Streeter is struggling to pick up the pieces that Ian left scattered, “ is industry is really on the verge of being gone,” Streeter says. In just 12 hours, the storm destroyed everything including his icehouse, his market, and multiple vessels in his eet. Streeter told ABC Action News, “We are out on our own, and there is no one coming to help us. And with the denial that we just received, you know, I don’t want to call it a death sentence to our progress and move forward, but I mean, it sets us back in a way that’s going to be pretty hard to overcome.”

Streeter and the other shermen in the area have completely lost all infrastructure and have undergone a complete shery failure. Without the support of federal funding, they are not hopeful. According to Allison Garrett, Communications Specialist for NOAA Fisheries/ U.S. Department of Commerce, said they are “conducting a review of the shery disaster request under Section 321(a) of the MSA and the NOAA Fisheries Disaster Policy.”

News update as of June 6, 2023

NOAA Fisheries o cials say the did not reject the shery disaster determination request from the Governor of Florida for impacts from Hurricane Ian, but were still reviewing the state’s request under provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Agency o cials said they “share the concerns about the loss of life, property and income caused by the impact of Hurricane Ian. NOAA is waiting on data from the state in order to assess whether a commercial shery failure due to a shery resource disaster has occurred under the MSA.”

When that information is received, they will work as expeditiously as possible to complete their analysis and provide a recommendation to the Secretary of Commerce.