10/2/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CCT 2195 �+ BOOK U PAGE 42 education of novices who do damage unintentionally, and he believed that much more could be accomplished by working together. Chairman Lyons thanked Mr. Sembler for his presentation and felt that he had put his finger on one very important point, which is that there is a difference in what happens in various locations in the river as there is no question but that the southern end of the river in the Vero Beach area has suffered greater deterioration. He also agreed that we need to find a way to get together and have a combined effort to solve some of the reasons why we don't have the productivity down here that we used r to. He did not believe the Sebastian area fishermen come down to the Vero area, and Mr. Sembler confirmed that was a very infrequent occurrence. Commissioner Bird noted that we do not know the ultimate answer, but he felt it is the Commission's responsibility to preserve, protect, and hopefully improve the quality of fishing, which is so important to both interests. We certainly are not looking for a way of limiting people's livelihood, but sport fishing is important too, and he hoped the two groups could live together. He did differ with Mr. Sembler's statement about sea walls and condos; undoubtedly we are growing, but we are not a Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale and never will be as he believed we stay fairly well on top of that situation. Chairman Lyons felt that one of the problems is that our grass beds in this part of the river have been disappearing quickly. He stated that he did put together a committee on grass beds to try to come up with data on this, but the history is so poor that you cannot find who is doing it and even if you feel you know, you can't prove it. Commissioner Bird suggested it might help if we could schedule a meeting to be held just for the specific purpose of discussing the river and bring in some other areas of expertise - Fish & Game, Harbor Branch Foundation, etc. 52 S