Florida Snook Re-Opening Worries Many

A two-year Florida ban on harvesting snook is set to be lifted on August 31, 2012 and many are worried that doing so will have a detrimental effect on Florida’s snook recovery.  Numerous boat captains, wildlife lovers, and concerned Floridians created an online petition to fight the ban.  Opponents of lifting the ban are worried that the population has not recovered from the 2010 freeze.

“We lost the whole middle size of fish — the 22- to 28-inchers. They used to be a dime a dozen,” says Randall Marsh, a fishing guide in Florida.  There are those in favor of lifting the ban—including, surprisingly, the editor of Florida Sportsman magazine, Karl Wickstrom, who feels that a bag limit will be inconsequential to a stock that is doing “extremely well.”