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Mr. Wegner inquired what happened to the 1983 licensing bill <br />that went to the state, and Commissioner Scurlock advised that <br />the Board just passed a Resolution urging the Legislature to take <br />action. We do not have the ability to take that action at a <br />local level, ,and this bill was killed at the state level. <br />Mr. Wegner addressed the Anglers Club proposal to have gill <br />netting banned in this county and noted that Volusia County does <br />have gill netting banned in the north half of their county so <br />apparently it is not impossible to accomplish this. Mr. Wegner <br />then spoke of the problem of pollution, which is becoming <br />increasingly bad, especially since Fort Pierce has been dumping <br />raw sewage into the inlet on the out -going tide, and now is <br />dumping it on the in -coming tide with the result that a lot of <br />Fort Pierce netters are coming into our waters and netting at <br />night. Mr. Wegner stressed that during the day the Marine Patrol <br />is on the river and the sport fishermen are stopped to see that <br />they have proper Coast Guard equipment; that they are not <br />speeding in the wrong areas; and that their catch is of legal <br />size, but he emphasized that there is no authority on the river <br />from sundown to sunup and then you can get away with anything you <br />want. This caused quite a reaction from the commercial fishermen <br />in the audience as did Mr. Wegner's claim that the net is not <br />discriminatory, and it will take all the fish. <br />Mr. Wegner then cited the Florida Marine Fisheries <br />Commission as coming to the conclusion that "this resource is <br />more valuable to the state as a recreational fishery." He noted <br />that the Florida Marine Committee is a relatively new committee, <br />and discussed their alternative management packages, such as bag <br />limits, season closures, etc, and continued to emphasize at <br />length the depletion of the river and the Club's conviction that <br />gill netting should be stopped. <br />Charles Sembler, who informed the Board that he is a member <br />of the fifth generation of the Sembler family to operate a <br />commercial fish business on the Sebastian River, came before the <br />49 <br />BOr�K 62 PAGE 339 <br />