For those who don't keep up with this, they just had a September 2016 town counsel meeting in Palm Beach County where Benjamin Alma, county code enforcement manager, pointed out to the counsel that those organizations representing land based shark fishing had been notified of the county meeting yet no one showed up! Now they are getting closer to passing an ordinance in the October 2016 meeting, banning shark fishing on both north and south beaches in Palm Beach County, all without opposing representation. Only saying.
This ordinance, if passed, will ban ALL baited shark fishing from public access points. "Baited" in their language means bloody baits or chum casted out or yaked out. They also mentioned "leaders", what kind of leaders to look for. They also mentioned a warning database to be put in place, which means that even though warned, the offending person(s) name shall be stored in a database for future reference, ie future fines if caught again (they mentioned a year later, as example).
They had as exhibit (A,B and so forth) a four framed photo of various dead fish parts on the beach with someones foot as a reference point (to show size of). Can't say it was even shark bait. There was a tail, some big heads and some other weird looking stuff. They also had as exhibit some old photo of a blacktip shark being landed during one of the BTC tournaments with bikini clad chics huddled around. That's their exhibited evidence. Haha.
So what do we do about this? Any ideas? As far as I'm concerned, I'll be attending the October meeting to do what I can. One voice is, well, better than no voice. I have no idea on the politics involved in this but it seems to me that the counsel was taken aback by the absence of opposing representation. The counsel also appeared to me as two-sided, willing to listen and take note on any opposing arguments. In other words, they don't want to pass this ordinance in a vacuum, so to speak. They'd rather hear both sides of the story and then go from there.
My two pennies, thank you.
Super frustrating,definitely need some representatives there to prevent that from passing. I put this in a facebook group to draw some attention. People in that area are extremely unknowledgeable. Would be a shame to see another great beach get banned. A stupid ban won't stop me though.
Super frustrating,definitely need some representatives there to prevent that from passing. I put this in a facebook group to draw some attention. People in that area are extremely unknowledgeable. Would be a shame to see another great beach get banned. A stupid ban won't stop me though.
+!
There's a passivity about this that frustrates me. Sure, no blacktip challenge next year, but not having that may or may not influence their ruling(s). I suppose not having the tournament sends out a message, one way or the other, in a hopeful sort of way. There's a lot of "strong" opposing voices out there from land based shark fishing organizations when these ordinances are passed yet nothing in form of representation preventing them from happening in the first place. Kinda weird and kinda backwards, if you ask me. I'll do my part, that's all I can say about it...at least to attend and object...probably meaning nothing.
Where and when is the meeting?
TEAM GETCHA GETCHA SHARKON
Where and when is the meeting?
Looks like the ordinance meeting is October 6th, 9:30am
Address:
360 S. County Road
Palm Beach, FL 33480
Ph: 561-838-5414 to call and make sure.