The almighty snapper

DESTIN, FL - Last year at this time, gasoline was about $4 a gallon, but people still came here to enjoy the "The World's Luckiest Fishing Village."

Now that June is here, folks who want to fish in the Gulf of Mexico are back in large numbers. But people in the charter boat business say new red snapper regulations hurt them badly this spring. And they're not happy about what's ahead, when the law ends snapper fishing in the middle of August.

"The shortened red snapper season has been the kiss of death this year to the charter boat and party boat operators who are already fighting an uphill battle to survive this year," said Mary Anne Windes, managing partner of the Destin Fishing Fleet Marina, which operates 39 charter fishing boats.

"We thought last year was bad, but this year most boat bookings are down at least 40 to 50 percent, and this year's numbers are down significantly as compared to last year to date," Windes wrote in an e-mail. "We can reasonably attribute the bulk of the decline in business to the snapper regulations because bookings are very strong during the days that the snapper fishing is open, as opposed to limited bookings during the days that the snapper season has been cut. This was our worst spring ever."

State and federal lawmakers have paid close attention to the snapper season in recent years. Last year, snapper season ran from April 15 until the end of October. This year, the season will be over well before the annual Destin Fishing Rodeo and Seafood Festival, which has caused much chagrin for organizers of those events.

Federal law is the ultimate yardstick. Charter boats need a federal permit to work in federal waters, and that means they must abide by federal law regardless of where they fish.

Destin native Phillip McDonald is executive chef and owner of Table Five Personal Chef Service. He knows where to go get his fish.

"Mostly, I have friends that have boats, so I go with them. But there's no guarantee you'll catch anything," McDonald said. "So when I have a special occasion, we always go charter fishing. They're great. They've got their spots plotted out and you know you're going to come back with something."

McDonald doesn't necessarily see a limited snapper season as a negative.

"I think there's a reason why they do it," he said. "I think lot of species are over-fished ... I go with what's sustainable and available ... giving them a rest might not be good for the guys making a living, but it's good for the ecosystem."

Local boat owners say there are plenty of red snapper in the gulf, with some running well over 20 pounds. The law limits individuals to catching two per trip.

"I'm not against laws or closures, but they need to be reasonable," said 74-year-old Owen Marler, whose family dates back to the early days of Destin. "Maybe we could limit it to one catch per trip instead of two, something like that ... Just stopping it outright, a two-and-a-half-month snapper season, that's ridiculous."

There are lots of other fish available besides snapper, such as amberjack, king mackerel, grouper, amberines, mahi-mahi and trigger fish.

"We're lucky because there's always something out there," Marler said, "There's always something the Good Lord put out there to let you make a trip with."

Marler owns seven boats. Six of them can be chartered for fishing and the seventh is for dolphin cruises.

"I'm lucky myself, because the dolphin cruise business is booming," Marler said. "But people sitting there with one boat - it's very stressful."

Count Scott Robson among them. He is a 35-year charter fishing veteran who runs the charter boat Phoenix and is a mainstay in the local Charter Boat Association.

"It's not as good as past years, but it's better then it was this past spring," Robson said. "Nobody was going fishing, hardly, then."

This summer's customers are not immune from the increased costs of coming to Destin, which means they often spend less when they arrive.

"It used to be everybody went all day," Robson said. "Now we run at least two trips a day, either four or six hours, and we're able to catch snapper. There's still a few who go eight to 12 hours, but not many."

And even though other fish are out there, snapper remains the most popular.

"If I'm going to spend the money, I'm going to catch red snapper," Robson said of his customers' preference.

Mary Ann Windes also noted adjustments in this season.

"In the past, we required a 12-hour minimum on our strongest charter boats and had enough business to book solid," she wrote in an e-mail. "When your season is limited, you have to make the most of the days that you have - which means booking only the longer trips with the most passengers.

"This year, we are ... accepting all bookings, including those that are shorter, except on the weekends," she added. "In addition, many of our repeat customers who used to take several trips per year have cut back to only one trip per year."

The overhead for charter boats can be staggering. Captain Kelly Windes of the charter boat Sunrise said the average boat holds about 500 gallons of fuel at $2.32 per gallon. That comes out to $1,160. He takes additional fuel on the longer trips, or "safaris."

Commercial fishermen also are in the gulf, but Robson says reducing the legal limit to 13 inches has helped more survive so they can be caught by the charter boats.

"It used to be they'd kill 5,000 pounds to catch 2,000 pounds, but now there's no waste," he said. "And the beautiful grade of red snapper we're seeing is just amazing."

But Robson isn't happy at all when it comes to state laws that govern the Accountable Catch Limit. This year, every pound over 2 million that the state estimates is caught comes off next year's limit. And estimating limits by a random sampling of a few boats makes captains such as Robson angry.

"The data system needs to be fixed, but it hasn't been fixed and they're estimating us out of business," Robson said. "We need electronic logbooks and real-time data, and every boat needs to have a vessel monitoring system so it can show where it's been."

Regardless of the challenges, Destin's charter boat veterans are not about to change their business approach too much.

"Our standard policy is to give a great fishing trip at a fair price, and that is proven to work because most of our business is referrals by satisfied customers," Mary Anne Windes wrote. "But then again, we also build a lot of artificial reefs every year to increase our capacity to bring in the bigger fish, and the anglers love catching the bigger fish.

"We've heard that there are some price wars going on at the dock with some of the less-experienced boats, and a lot more people are calling this year inquiring about prices without booking than ever before."