Cabinet Affairs

(See Attachment A, Pages 1-2)

RECOMMEND: APPROVAL

Item B Spiny Lobster Trap Reduction Rule 46-24.009

Consideration of proposed amendment of Rule 46-24.009, F.A.C., relating to the schedule for reduction of spiny lobster traps.

PURPOSE AND EFFECT: The purpose of this proposed rule amendment effort is to implement an alternating year trap reduction schedule for the commercial spiny lobster fishery. Evidence provided to the Marine Fisheries Commission by Department of Environmental Protection scientists indicates that the trap reduction program initiated in 1993 is bringing down total trap numbers in the fishery while maintaining the economic viability of the commercial fishery. The Commission has determined that additional reductions are appropriate, but that reductions should be implemented every other year to allow full assessment of the impacts of the reductions as total trap numbers approach historical levels. The effect of this rule amendment will be to provide certainty to harvesters as to the trap levels expected in the coming years.

SUMMARY: Subsection (1) of Rule 46-24.009, F.A.C., is amended to specify that the percentage reduction in lobster trap certificates issued by the Department of Environmental Protection will be 0 percent in license year 1997-1998, 10 percent in 1998-1999, 0 percent in 1999-2000, and 10 percent in 2000-2001. Subsection (2) is amended to indicate that extension of the reduction schedule is possible in subsequent years.

Notice of rule development was published in the October 25, 1996 issue of the Florida Administrative Weekly. Notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the November 1, 1996 issue. No public hearing was requested or held on the rule amendment. Notice of this meeting of the Board of Trustees was published in the January 17, 1997 issue of the F.A.W.

(See Attachment B, Pages 1-14)

RECOMMEND: APPROVAL

Item E Mullet Rule Chapter 46-39

Consideration of proposed rule amendments, new rule, and rule repeal for Rule Chapter 46-39, F.A.C., relating to mullet.

PURPOSE AND EFFECT: On November 8, 1994, the electorate of the State of Florida adopted Article X, Section 16 to the State Constitution. The provision prohibits the use of gill or entangling nets to take marine animals and places limitations on other nets in nearshore and inshore Florida waters. The purpose of these rule amendments, new rule, and rule repeal is to conform the Marine Fisheries Commission's rules governing mullet harvest to the new provision and recognize the transition of the commercial fishery to the use of cast nets as primary harvesting gear. The mullet commercial fishery in Florida had been a gill net fishery. With gill nets out of the fishery, there will be no need for gill net specifications, pre-roe season daily vessel limits, and the ten-day late December closed seasons. Area closures, to the extent they involve gill net gear, will be unnecessary, though closed areas relating to the taking of commercial quantities by any gear will be retained. A new rule will be added to the rule chapter to clearly indicate the allowable gears for harvest of mullet and to specify that no beach or haul seine used to harvest mullet can contain more than 500 square feet of total area, including any material, including tarpaulin material, comprising the fishing surface of the net. The rule will also prohibit the possession of a gill or entangling net together with a commercial quantity of mullet aboard a vessel, to further the existing prohibition against harvest of mullet beyond three miles from shore on both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. The effect of this rulemaking will be to clearly indicate that gill nets will no longer be allowed in the mullet fishery and to indicate that many measures designed to increase the abundance of the spawning population of mullet are no longer appropriate. These rule amendments, repeal, and new rule replace the provisions of Emergency Rules 46ER96-3 and 46ER96-4, which implemented key elements of these rules during the 1996-97 roe mullet season.

SUMMARY: Subsection (3) of Rule 46-39.002, F.A.C., the definition section for the chapter, is amended to restate the definition of the term "harvest for commercial purposes" to delete reference to nets and seines. Subsections (6) of the rule, the definition of the term "spotter plane" is deleted and remaining subsections are renumbered. Rule 46-39.0035, F.A.C., which establishes a recreational harvest closed season, is repealed. Subsection (1) of new Rule 46-39.0047 prohibits the use of any gear to harvest mullet other than cast nets (no larger than 12 feet 7 inches in radius), beach or haul seines (500 square feet or less in total area), hook and line gear, or gigs, and subsection (2) prohibits simultaneous possession aboard a vessel of commercial quantities of mullet and any gill or entangling net. Subsection (1) of Rule 46-39.005, F.A.C., is amended to delete references to regional gear rules that have been repealed. Subsection (2), which specifies a statewide minimum gill and trammel net minimum mesh size during non-roe harvest periods of the year, is deleted. Subsections (3) and (4) are renumbered. Subsection (5), which establishes a daily commercial vessel limit for mullet, is deleted. Subsection (6), which closes a 10-day period to commercial mullet harvest beginning in late December each year, is deleted. The prohibition on the use of spotter planes to harvest mullet in subsection (7) is deleted. Subsection (2) of Rule 46-39.006, F.A.C., which establishes a gill and trammel net minimum mesh size in the Panhandle Region during roe season, is deleted. Rule 46-39.008, F.A.C., a rule governing commercial mullet harvest in the Pasco-Lee Region, is amended to delete paragraph (2)(a), a gill and trammel net minimum mesh size during roe season, and subsection (3), a prohibition of the use and possession of gill and trammel nets and special bag limit for portions of St. Petersburg in Pinellas County. A special bag limit remains in place for these areas of Pinellas County by virtue of Rule 46-39.0045, F.A.C., which is unaffected by this rulemaking.

Notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the July 5, 1996 issue of the Florida Administrative Weekly. A notice of correction was published in the July 26, 1996 issue. A public rulemaking hearing was held by the Commission on August 6-7, 1996, in Cocoa Beach, Florida. A notices of changes made to the rules as a result of the hearing was published in the August 23, 1996 issue of the Board of Trustees Agenda F.A.W. A rule challenge to the proposed rule amendments, repeal, and new rule was filed on August 30, 1996. That challenge was voluntarily dismissed by order of the Administrative Law Judge, dated December 2, 1996. Portions of the changes made to the rules at the August hearing were withdrawn by notices published on November 27 and December 20, 1996, in the F.A.W. Notice of this meeting of the Board of Trustees was published in the January 17, 1997 issue.

(See Attachment C, Pages 1-69)

RECOMMEND: APPROVAL