This is my post for #freewriters 2863 prompt lawyer of last resort hosted by
Everyone has an opinion, and one person or organization should not have the power to change history as they see it.
the day we took our nets home
In 1994, lies were told to the general public about how commercial fishermen used their nets and what they caught in them, many lies were placed on the TV, radio, and newspapers. The fishermen did not have the funds to fight these lies.
If a net catches everything that swims, why did we have to have so many different kinds, depths, and mesh sizes?
This was another lie.
The Florida Legislature allocated $1.1 million to convert net fishermen to shellfish farmers, in an effort to create alternative job opportunities for commercial netters and others. The Florida Legislature also appropriated $20 million for unemployment benefits and created a net cash buyout program when the net limitation amendment went into effect.
They want to say it was net limitation amendment isn't that a crock of crap? It was a total ban on nets.
My husband has been fishing for 53 years, me for 42. When the net ban went into effect, we got into raising clams, we used our own money. We were not offered or received any of the 1.1 million they say they gave us. We also never received any of the 20 million for unemployment. Who got this money, because no one we know got it?
selling the nets
What they did "give" us, and I use that word lightly, is they bought our nets from us. They did not pay us what we had invested in them. But at that time, they were useless to us, and something was better than nothing.
In 2015, our fight was taken to the lawyer of last resort, the Florida Supreme Court, and our appeal was denied.
When we were fighting the net ban, Jeb Bush was our governor and he was giving a speech in our town. He was for the net ban, he is a big time sport fisherman. My oldest daughter got close enough to him to ask what her parents were supposed to do to make a living in the river. His reply to her was, "They need to buy a bigger boat and fish over 3 miles in the ocean".
The only time we have fish that far offshore is when mackerel and bluefish are migrating in the fall and spring. All the other fish stay just offshore of the reef. We did buy a bigger boat, but the cost of fuel was more than the fish that were caught.
photos are mine