Goliath grouper aren’t in the book

The FWC has a wonderfully helpful policy of using red ink when printing anything that’s changed since the prior edition. A quick read-through of all the red ink regulations is a good way to check that I haven’t missed anything important among the dozens of newsletters and updates issued by the FWC during the last six months. I skimmed the red text entries and found a few that might impact Southwest Florida anglers.

There was a specific issue I wanted to research: The recreational harvest of goliath grouper. These fish have been fully protected since 1989. That’s when jewfish (as were called then) harvest was prohibited.

I wanted to refresh my memory on the details of the new lottery system of allocating goliath grouper harvest permits, but I couldn’t find it in anywhere in the new regulations booklet. In fact, I could find no mention at all of goliath grouper anywhere in the publication. Hmmm.

That seemed odd, so I pulled out a copy of the previous edition from July 2022. Turns out goliath grouper were not listed anywhere in that edition either. So I went online to MyFWC.com and found the same thing in the online copy of the newest booklet, and also in the online “Quick Chart” of saltwater fishing regulations.

Finally, in the “Recreational Seasons At-A-Glance” chart, I did find goliath grouper listed under “Prohibited Species” (without permit). Hmmm.

I did eventually find the new goliath grouper harvest information on MyFWC.com by navigating to the “Regulations By Species” section, then to reef fish, then to goliath grouper (or go to https://bit.ly/FWCgoli).

Success! The harvest regulations and plenty more information about jewfish finally sat at my fingertips. But there is nothing at all about this species in the “Fishing Regulations” publications, either printed or online.

Surely it is an oversight to not include any information at all in the places where most anglers look for fishing regulation information. Especially on a species which is not only one of the largest fish most anglers are likely to ever catch, but is also one which has generated more controversy than most others in Florida. Hmmm again.

Shore enough

The answer to the question that’s being asked by so many people: They’re shore flies. Those annoying swarms of tiny, eighth- inch long black insects that have been over and around upper Charlotte Harbor for about the last three weeks are shore flies. Not miniature love bugs, not overgrown no-see-ums, not sewer flies, not mutant mosquitoes. Shore flies are what have been speckling boats and boaters.

Here is an excerpt from a recent communication between Ralph Mitchell, Charlotte County Extension, and Lyle Buss of the Insect Identification Lab, Entomology and Nematology Dept., University of Florida:

“I think you’re right that it’s a shore fly. Stephen Brown forwarded a similar case to me a few days ago. I’m hoping to get a sample to check the ID. Back in January of 2017 and 2018 they were in high numbers on Marco Island, and the species was Scatella tenuicosta.

“We don’t know much about these flies, but many species in this genus live in muddy shores, especially organically-rich mud, where they feed mainly on algae. They seem to be a nuisance for a couple weeks, and then disappear. They don’t bite, so perceived bites may be imaginary, unless no-see-ums are active now too.”

My memory is not perfect, but I don’t recall seeing swarms of this little bug here before, at least not in these numbers. But my experience with bugs in Southwest Florida only goes back to about 1970. Maybe some real old-timers (or even young-timers with a better memory) can chime in with observations about previous swarms.