Net boats in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area
I thought that if anyone were interested in continuing the discussion of net boats we could do that here instead on talking about them on the REPORTS page.
A street musician sets up right outside my business and starts playing his trumpet. The fact that he has a family to feed is not my concern. The fact that it intrudes into my space IS my concern. That's pretty much where I am with commercial net boat fishermen. They can fish all they want to - as long as it's somewhere other than near the recreational fishing pier. I've complained about the netters! It's a long way for enforcement personnel to come to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach to routinely police the area, which is why netters bend the rules a bit or a lot (no one really knows if nobody's policing the area).
Part of my complaint with net-boaters is philosophical. While they may work hard to earn a living, they don't significantly contribute to local economies like recreational fishermen do. The spanish mackerel taken from (figuratively) the shadow of the pier may be sold outside the region, "netting" the local area a loss in value. Ditto with other valuable food fishes that can be netted up, processed and shipped away with no positive result for the local community/area from which the resource was taken with nothing put back.
I think that since this is a nation of laws, legislation must be introduced to protect the recreational fishermen's interests in the local resources. What are net boat fishermen to do? They can turn right out of Mobile Bay and do their fishing elsewhere!