Print Rate Sheet 
Commentary: The eco-terrorists of Boca Grande and more
06 July 2012
Last week we printed some comments from stories on our web site, bocabeacon.com, in reference to tarpon preservation. We didn’t have room to run them all, so we thought we would continue this week. The comments below were received after we ran a commentary by Rick Hirsch called “PTTS doing more damage than jigging” that originally ran late last year. Since June’s protest, a lot more people have taken a second look at the piece and expressed their opinion.
These comments are in their unadulterated forms, and have not been changed or altered at all from the web site.
#7 Jig Man 2012-07-02 15:41 It’s a good thing I have children because otherwise you all might pull the wool over my eyes. Fishing is fishing. Why don’t you protest bass tournaments that use artificials? You’re arguments are terrible and the public agrees. You’re being anti-capitalist, eco-terrorists who “OCCUPY” Boca Grande like college drop-outs with no clue on how to grow up and believe, much like the liberal media, that bashing your opponents and spreading malicious lies with no photo evidence other than doctored pictures taken from peoples facebook pages from 5 years ago. Its pathetic and you all should learn to share the pass instead of trying to kick out anyone who poses a threat to your guide business. ARE YOU AMERICANS OR JUST COMMIE HIPPIES SCREAMING FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE THINGS FAAAAAAIARRRRR??? Man, what a bunch of children ... Move if you don’t like it. No one is forcing you to live there ... :) #6 tarpon lady 2012-06-30 05:40 #5 Gary Colecchio 2012-06-27 09:29 #4 Joe Laform 2012-06-26 15:42 #3 Capt. Don Mull 2012-06-18 11:21 #2 Capt. Mark Futch 2012-06-16 12:08 #1 Mike Manning 2011-12-05 15:23
You sound like eco-terrorists. A bunch of tree hugging hippies that stand for the crying tarpon. We all know you’re pissed because you’ve been losing charters ever since the PTTS came to town. Just admit its about filling your wallets and not about saving tarpon. If it were REALLY about the tarpon, you wouldn’t omit certain information, like the fact that there are ‘live bait’ tournaments held nightly AFTER the PTTS has a day tournament. Why wouldn’t you cancel the “worlds richest tarpon tournament” instead of hosting it DIRECTLY after another tournament? Doesn’t that hurt the stressed fish even more? Of course it does ... but instead of admitting that fact, you purposefully don’t mention it and then say “well we see dead tarpon the next morning after a PTTS tournament.”
Quoting Gary Colecchio:
“Save the tarpon of Boca Grande Pass now launched their website designed to attack the sponsors and owners of this unsportsmanlike tarpon fishing tournament”
A boycott is a legitimate means of bringing about change. The modern tea party movement traces its roots to a similar boycott in colonial Boston against tea imported from England. It was a means to bring about change.
The Save The Tarpon boycott of PTTS sponsors is having an effect. It has prompted many PTTS sponsors to reexamine their relationship with this event. Some have publicly withdrawn support. Others have stated their intention to follow. All are watching closely.
The PTTS has become a liability. Sponsors and advertisers don’t shell out good money for bad publicity. Miller’s Ale House, for instance, has found itself publicly tied to a PTTS team discovered to be in repeated violation of the regulations that govern tarpon fishing. Not the image a respected brand wants to project. Its parent company, another PTTS sponsor, also finds itself guilty by association. The PTTS is becoming a bad business decision.
The PTTS defends its conduct by noting it’s legal. They will agree to stop, they say, when told to stop. It appears STS is simply taking the PTTS up on its offer.
Quoting Joe Laform:
Wow! I never thought about the damage the PTTS is doing to the fish and to the pass ...
Maybe because its an invention? To suggest that this relatively new tournament has more effect than 80 years of converting breeding females to fly food in dumpsters by local for-profit business is just silly. So just who authored this petition?
According to the Naples news Rick Hirsch lives in New York and vacations in Florida.
He fishes exclusively and is connected with the Boca Grande Fishing Guides Association members. This group of “traditional live bait ” guides has been fighting for 15 years for exclusive use of the pass using a listed set of rules published in the local press and Chamber of Commerce.
Their goal is to rid the pass of “off island ” guides. Their strategy has been if they can ban the use of artificial baits (jigs), the outsiders would leave. Of course this tournament is now a target because it shows that recreational fishermen need not employ local guides and successfully catch fish themselves.
BGFGA has demanded Florida Fish and Wildlife study the snagging issue, at taxpayers expense and rejected the findings when it did not substantiate their claims. They have since sued the state, as well as make other outrageous, unsubstantiated claims such as outboard motors (employed by jig guides and recreational fisherman, vs their traditional inboards) scare the fish and change their migratory habits.
This issue is not one of concern for the health of the tarpon fishery, all science points to a healthy fishery, but an economic one and a turf war engaged in and accelerated in the last decade.
Doubt it? From Save the tarpon’s facebook page: “Save The Tarpon of Boca Grande Pass now launched their website designed to attack the sponsors and owners of this unsportsmanlike tarpon fishing tournament” It seems to me that if the true concern was for the fish, that would be voiced more prominently.
Wow! I never thought about the damage the PTTS is doing to the fish and to the pass, I think one way of hurting them is to let the sponsors know we will no longer support there products or buy there equipment, we have a voice there are many more of us consumers, than they are PTTS tournament fisherman.
There is no reason except for profit to destroy The Boca Grande Tarpon Fishery. The use of jigs should be outlawed. Live bait is more challanging. I love tournament fishing but when a tournament hurts the fish, the tournement need to STOP. The state need to get off there lazy butt and do something TODAY. It is almost to late, If you want to kill fish kill the Jewfish on the Tarpon ... the Jewfish tast better ...
Well said Rick. Occupy Boca Grande Pass on June 17 at 9:30 and let the FWC know how the public feels about the destruction that has occured on their watch. As a grade on this fishery the FWC gets an F for failure.
Lol: That is great!!! I’m glad someone did something like this about that crazy mess out there. The funny thing about that whole thing is there are several guides that brag about all the things they do for the Florida fishery!!! But they are right there in the middle of the worst thing that ever happened to the “Boca Grande Tarpon Fishery!” I sure hope someone is able to stop the PTTS. I also tarpon fish everyday from April 10th to end of July and the only time you see dead tarpon are the day after the PTTS Tournaments.
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