Florida fisheries strengthen sport fishing because it is a growing sport and without the help of the Fisheries. With out the Florida fisheries there would not be enough fish for the recreational fishing to take place on such a large scale.
With Florida being is known as “The Fishing Capital of The World” how would it maintaining this status if there were not companies like the Welaka National Fish Hatchery. This hatchery has been in opperation sinceThe Welaka National Fish Hatchery is currently owned and operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Services. They have two pond locations for their hatcheries. The Welaka Unit and the Beecher Unit. Most of the fish that are being spawned at the Welaka Unit and then transported to the Beecher Unit after they reach finglerling size. They are kept there until they become mature enough to be released into the wild.
Some of the fish that are being hatched are the Striped Bass, Sturgeon, Red Drum and Shad. They are all experinaceing a reducing population. These are the same types of fish that the commercial and sport fishermen have been experianceing a decline in.
There is a council in place that is greatly helping make the corrective actions needed threw careful review and study, called SouthEast Data Assessment and Review (SEDAR). SEDAR has been put in place for fishery management since 2002.
SEDAR works closely with the SouthAtlantic Fishery Management and Council to take assessment of all the issues considering the fish population in Florida and other states surrounding the same waters. They gather information dealing with fish losses, gaines and other issues. They then come up with a plan to fix these issues being fish hatcheries adding more fish, or limiting fishing on species. Then they form a panel of experts to go over the data and make management suggestions.
These councils are open to the public and are always open to suggestions.
If we don’t take a stand to strengthen our fish there will be no fish for the sport fishing.