Here’s the bad news for prospective fishermen: according to Becker, the Florida lobster industry is declining, “Big time”. It’s not the lobsters, he insists, it’s the cost of living. “Let’s say that my house was worth $200,000 four years ago,” Becker explained. “Today it would be worth $600,000. As far as younger people coming up, the fishery is already expensive to get into, but then, where are they going to live? A young guy can’t afford to come down here, crew, and be able to pay rent.”

When a fisherman does sell, it’s not another fisherman that’s buying the property, even though it’s zoned for commercial fishing. “Anything on the water is going from $600,000 to a million bucks — for an average house,” Becker said. “No start-up fishermen can afford that. I have four sons, and I can tell you that if they don’t save their money by living at home, it’ll be a long time before they can afford to pop for a half-million dollar house. Just a stinking mobile-home, on a dry lot, goes for about $250,000 right now.”

Mitch Gale, 48, also fishes out of Big Pine. He dittos what Becker has said about the lobster industry and the influence that property values are having on the future. “It’s the lobster business that’s not healthy,” Gale says. “It’s the profit margin that’s less every year. The property, rent, fuel costs, price of materials, everything has gone up.”

Gale feels that the price of lobster will have to go up for the industry to survive. “It’s got to be more than four something a pound,” Gale says. “When you look at the price of our lobsters over the last 15 years, it hasn’t gone up with the price of everything else. At the other end, the retail price of our lobster has gone up.”

Gale, who is from New Jersey, says he dropped out of college in upstate New York to move to the Keys, in 1975. He has a medium-sized operation, working 2,500 lobster traps and 2,000 stone crab traps. In addition to his fishing, he’s one of the regional directors for the Monroe County Commercial Fishermen, Inc. (MCCF).

Gale and the other MCCF directors oversee the work of a paid executive director who represents the commercial lobster fishery’s interests. Monroe County, which includes all of the Keys, is home to about half of Florida’s commercial lobster and crab fishermen.

The Florida lobstermen fish three varieties of clawless spiny lobster — Caribbean, smooth and spotted. Their name comes from the forward pointing spines. They mature in about 3 years, when they have a 3 inch carapice. Price per pound and the rising cost of catching a pound is an issue there also. Photo Fishermen's Voice.

An Advocate For The Lobster Industry
Last August, Ralph Boragine moved to the Keys to become the new MCCF executive director. If his name sounds familiar, that’s because he’s been a player within North Atlantic fishery management for well over twenty years, since he ran the Rhode Island Sea Food Council, in the 80’s. “I got down here on a Thursday morning,” Boragine said, “and by Friday morning I had decided that I wanted to stay.”

Boragine agrees with what Gale and Becker say, but adds that it’s really much more complicated. Along with property values skyrocketing, Boragine includes: a tourism-driven economy, a politically super-powerful sportfishing influence, latent effort, a thriving lobster black-market and a quirky list of non-friendly commercial fishing regulations that are all shaping the long-term picture of the lobster fishing industry.

“Because I’ve only been here for a short time, I really haven’t dealt with the state legislature yet,” Boragine said. “But I have worked with the two primary regulative bodies that the lobster industry has to deal with here, the county governments, which are omni-powerful, and the Fish and Wildlife Commission.”

Of Boragine’s dealing so far with the Fish and Wildlife Commission, all he can say is, “Anybody in New England that complains about the fishery management council, you tell ’em to kiss their butts hello and thank you very much for such a wonderful body — because down here, with the Fish and Wildlife Commission, there’s nobody that even remotely smacks of having a commercial interest.” “In fact, when you look at the bios of the Fish and Wildlife Commission on the Internet,” Boragine says, “it’s a who’s-who of trophy fishing. When there’s a potential conflict between recreation and commercial, there’s nobody on our side.”

Boragine said that the staff at the Fish and Wildlife Commission feel as if they should do the right thing, but it doesn’t always happen that way. He described a knee-jerk reaction that almost always turns to reduction in the fishery as the answer. And, there’s a constant pressure from the recreational fishing community. “The recreational industry is unbelievable,” Boragine said. “They have a lot of money and a lot of staff.”

Recreation Community Keeps The Pressure On
Boragine is particularly concerned about the long-term effect of a recent article titled “Lobster Crisis Unfolds,” which ran in the most popular of Florida’s Sportsmen’s magazines. The story painted a bleak picture for the future of the Florida lobster fishery, with the commercial industry holding the smoking gun.

Warning of the dramatic economic and ecological impacts that any decline in the lobster fishery could have on the region, the sports community compiled a long “wish list” of managerial guidelines they think will help to rein-in the commercial fishery.

But, a reoccurring theme from the sports community and a small number of Florida lobster biologists is the practice of using “short” lobsters as live bait in Florida’s commercial traps.

The sports community claims that about 2.5 million undersize lobsters are sacrificed every year in Florida through the short lobster-baiting practice.

Gale explains that in Florida, like Maine, based on personal preference, everyone uses different baits or bait styles. “A lot of people use a little cowhide,” he said. “Some use fish heads. But, everyone also baits their traps with undersized lobster as an attractant. That’s our main style of fishing. We try to keep two or three shorts in every trap.”

Only wooden traps are allowed in Florida state waters. The standard is 16" high, 24 " wide and 32" inches long. With concrete in the bottom the traps weigh about 80 pounds. Baiting varies, but most use live short lobster as bait. Others come in the trap to congregate rather than feed.”Photo Fishermen's Vocie.

What about escape gaps (vents)?
“It is proposed for our fishery,” Gale said, “but, we’re trying to shoot that down. We’re not in favor of it. Our lobsters are totally communal. The more lobsters in the traps, the more that will want to climb down into it. You can pull a trap with 25 lobsters in it. That’s why some guys go on a longer dunk time, because it attracts more.”

Traps are set anywhere from 100 yards off-shore, all the way out past the reef, in 135 feet of water. Most fishermen split their traps between both the Atlantic and the Gulf side; if a hurricane comes, they’ll only lose half of their traps.

Most sternmen are paid between $125 - $150 per day. A first mate, who stays the whole season with the boat and helps prepare the traps, will get a day wage plus a percentage. If it’s a good season, he’ll also get a bonus. Most of the crew are transient, or migrant workers. It’s not uncommon to go through several crewmen in one season.

Early in the season, on a good year, a two-pound average per trap is good. If a Florida fishermen can average a pound a trap, throughout the season, through good times and bad times, there’s nothing to complain about.

Black-market Sales
In the meantime, recreational divers continue to have a huge impact on the fishery. One diver with a few buddies, after their first trip to Key West, described taking “90 bugs” in one weekend, and another 67 lobsters over a two-day mini-season at Key Largo. That’s a lot of lobster for one family or a few friends to eat — enough to get more than one commercial fisherman wondering if the recreational divers are really eating all they catch.

Boragine suggests that there’s so much money made through back-door sales from recreational interests that it blurs the line between the advancement of Florida’s recreational potential and the growth of black-market fish sales. “I was over on Duval Street on Sunday,” Boragine said. “A guy drove up in a pickup truck, parked right out in front of a restaurant, opened the back and pulled two 25-pound bags full of fillets out of a cooler. The guy walked right in the front door of that fancy restaurant in broad daylight. If it was back at home, that guy never would have gotten away with that. He would have had the wholesale company’s name on the side of the truck, DOT (Department of Transportation) numbers on the truck, and it wouldn’t have been out of an ice cooler, it would have been out of the back of a refrigerated container. It’s like the Wild West down here. And that’s part of the problem.”

You Take The Bad With The Good
“It’s hard down here,” Gale said. “You can’t find crew, the prices are killing you, hurricanes, high winds — but, I also happen to love it here. I love my house and the ocean. I’ll try to keep my hand in as long as I can. I’ll slowly reduce my effort and do just enough so it’s not like work.”
Boragine is optimistic for the fishery and says that it was real easy to get used to not shoveling snow. He sees a better future for the commercial fishery. “The lack of representation and the way the sports industry works will take some getting used to,” Boragine said. “Up in Maine, you’ve got third-and fourth-generation fishermen in the legislature keeping an eye out for you. You don’t have that here.”

If you do decide to check out the Key West area as a potential future home, keep your eye out for this guy, Jimmy Buffet, and his lost shaker of salt. It must be pretty valuable, because it seems like half the people in the Keys are stumbling around looking for it. And watch out while you’re on the water. About one out of every 150 Monroe County-registered recreational boats crashes each year. Welcome to Margaritaville.