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F_ <br />OCT 2 1995 <br />On 62 'PAGE 34® <br />Board to speak for the commercial fishermen and refute the <br />statements made in the Anglers Club Resolution. Mr. Sembler was <br />glad that the sports fishermen apparently realize the grass flats <br />are suffering from pollution and chemical runoff, but he wondered' - <br />what steps they have taken to do something about it. As to the <br />continued use of gill nets having a Fong term negative effect on <br />the sport fishing industry. Mr. Sembler stated that his family <br />has been in the fish business in Sebastian since 1901, and <br />Sebastian is still a very good and popular fishing place while <br />Vero Beach is practically wiped out. Mr. Sembler contended that <br />the reason Sebastian has remained a good fishing area is because <br />it doesn't have wall-to-wall sea walls, condominiums, finger <br />piers, etc.; it doesn't have development being pushed in on the <br />snook and trout estuaries; and it does have mangrove shoreline <br />and grass flats. <br />Re the Resolution's claims that a sports fisherman releases <br />his undersized fish alive while the gill netter releases fish <br />dead because of suffocation and also that gill nets kill all fish <br />entrapped in them, whether protected or undersized, Mr. Sembler <br />advised that he has been keeping records of the length of the <br />fish coming in over his dock at Sebastian, and of 194 trout that <br />have come in, they have had two that have been 1211, which is the <br />legal limit, and the average Length has been over 15". Mr. <br />Sembler emphasized that he has documentation and facts to support <br />his statements. He further noted that he has seen many sport <br />fishermen with strings of fish 9, 10 or 11 inches long. Mr. <br />Sembler further pointed out that the 3" size mesh net has been <br />voted in, and any undersized fish can easily get through that <br />size mesh. <br />Mr. Sembler believed the highlight of the resolution was the <br />statement that a gill net is a known entrapment for manatees. He <br />informed the Board that Captain Patterson, a member of the Marine <br />Patrol for many years, could verify only two instances where a <br />piece of gill netting ever has been found on a manatee, and they <br />50 <br />