The Need For Fish
Businesses Depend on The Catch
As the number of fish decline in the waters around South Florida, so may the profits of local businesses and fishermen.
While some have adopted new sustainable practices, others have not and the demand for fresh fish continues to grow. They must find new supplies or go out of business.
Conservation philosophies aside, many fish-dependent businesses in South Florida, from recreational or sport fishing to dining and commercial fishing, may soon face a tough question: What will be their future and South Florida’s without plentiful fish in Biscayne Bay and nearby waters?
Recreation
"Biscayne Bay is one of the best places to sail in the world," said Capt. Asaad Masoud, who owns RA Charters at Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove. "It's the only place you can sail [during the winter]."
Masoud, an active member of Sierra Club, knows the value of fish — even to the sailing business. The local fish keep the waters reasonably clean and attract dolphins. They also help to attract clients for Masoud's charter business.
"The ocean is being over-fished," Masoud said. "The whole planet is being raped by us."
If the bay is depleted of its fish, he wonders if even the sailing business will survive for long.
The Biscayne Bay Economic Study conducted by Grace Johns of Hazen and Sawyer, an environmental engineering firm, reported in 2004 that sailing was — and may still be — the fourth most popular recreational activity in Biscayne Bay. The top three were viewing the bay from shore while dining, shopping, jogging or strolling, swimming from shore and fishing from a boat.
People with boats pump a lot of money into the local economy and government.
Dockage fees, for example, are not cheap.
"There was a serious outcry by all the fishing and charter boats," Masoud said, explaining that Miami-Dade County raised docking fees for all the boats in Dinner Key Marina. Before, he paid about $500 per month. After the raise, he now pays almost $800 to dock at the marina.
The significantly higher dock fees have pushed many charter boats out of business or at least out of the marina, Masoud said. He added that continued degradation of Biscayne Bay will cause him to lose his clients and even drive him out of the charter boat business.
If the fish are gone or the bay polluted, he said there is no way he or others could continue to pay those fees or operate their charter businesses.
The potential losses would go beyond charter boats.
"The entire balance of the ocean would be off," said Rob Kramer, president of the International Game Fishing Association. "And it would affect more people than just fishermen."
Kramer said recreational fishing is a popular sport enjoyed by people who are concerned about fish stocks.
"Historically, fisheries have been managed for commercial fishing," he explained, adding that sport fishermen fight for the environment, against the excesses of commercial fishing industry.
"It becomes an allocation issue," Kramer added, referring to policy choices about where to invest resources and how to divvy up the rights to fish.
For example, Kramer pointed to the collaboration between sport fishermen and Florida legislators that passed the Sport Fish Restoration Act, which imposes an excise tax from 3 to 10 percent on different fishing necessities, such as tackle and fuel.
Under that law, the money raised by the tax, which is about $264 million per year, supports organizations and programs that conserves fish. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for example, is expected to receive $5 to $10 million per year, Kramer said.
Despite the loss of fish and the need for conservation, sport fishing has not declined in popularity. Based on fishing licenses granted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006 estimated that there were more than two million anglers who went out fishing in Florida's waters.
While those numbers thrill people like Kramer, they also worry them. If something isn’t done soon, those anglers will have little or nothing to catch.
Seafood: It Is (or Was) What’s For Dinner
The dangers facing the catch of the day also present dangers to South Florida restaurants, another important local industry. Seafood meals are popular selections when locals and tourists dine out for lunch or dinner.
In 2004, recreational activities such as dining made up 3.4 percent of Miami-Dade County’s economy, generating $3.8 billion and creating a little more than 57,000 jobs, according to the economic study. While South Florida has many popular restaurants serving cuisines as varied and diverse as are the residents of the area, the proximity of the bay and its fish make seafood especially important to many diners and restaurateurs.
Few dishes are as synonymous with South Florida as the stone crab.
Take Joe’s Stone Crab, one popular restaurant that calls Miami Beach home, just a short walk to the beach and Biscayne Bay. Most people have heard of it or one of the other local purveyors of the delicacy in the cracked shells.
The stone crab is caught in Everglades City on Florida’s west coast as well as off of Marathon in the Florida Keys.
Government policy and good conservation practice require that fishermen remove only one stone crab claw at a time. The fishermen twist and remove the larger claw, which can exert up to 19,000 lbs in pressure, and throw the crab back in the water. If the crab is female in its gestation period, then no claw can be removed and the crab must be returned to its habitat.
This sustainable practice allows the crab to survive while it regenerates a replacement claw and hopefully reproduces, so the crab population is not depleted. In other words, the fishermen can still catch crabs and the restaurant’s clients can still enjoy stone crab meat for many years to come.
Joe’s and other area restaurants have come to depend on the stone crab as a much sought-after local delicacy. People have been known to wait in line for hours at Joe’s, for example, to have the chance to spend as much as $50 or more for an order of the largest stone crab claws.
If not for sustainable practices, the stone crabs would likely disappear — and with them maybe even some famous local restaurants, such as Joe’s.
The Red Fish Grill at Matheson Park in Miami is another area restaurant that owes its identity, and business, to fish, though not only to the stone crab.
Seen in movies such as "There’s Something About Mary" and "Random Hearts," the grill relies on a steady supply of both locally and internationally caught fish, said Chris Klaic, the Croatian owner of the restaurant.
Klaic’s perspective is hardly unique in this business that serves the public’s taste in fish without knowing if we are eating our way toward the no fish tipping point.
"I never had a problem in getting the fish," Klaic said, adding that the most ordered fish in the restaurant is the Chilean Sea Bass, followed by the snapper.
Sadly, though, the Chilean Sea Bass is on its way to being one of the most endangered species due to overfishing around the world, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the snapper is one the same path.
Although a good supply of fish is important, Klaic said the biggest difference is that clients are currently paying 30 to 35 percent more for their food than six years ago, and those increases reflect both increased costs and some tighter supplies.
But Klaic said he is not worried about the supply of any particular fish because he can always tailor his menu to what he can find.
"If you cannot get a yellowtail snapper, you get something else," he said. "On a daily basis, we change the menu."
Scientists and conservationists worry, however, that one day there will not be any fish for the menu because, like the Chilean Sea Bass, a fish in demand eventually becomes overfished and its fisheries mismanaged.
But the plight of any endangered fish has not been the work of a single, very good restaurant. It is a popular fish at many area restaurants, as well as markets.
An example is Carlos' Seafood Restaurant and Take Out, which opened five years ago in Miami. Virginia Murillo, co-owner of the restaurant, said customers like to see the fresh fish right before it is fried rather than seeing frozen seafood that comes in a box and snapper is one of their favorites.
However, she added there is still a demand for imported goods such as shrimp and conch, which have to come frozen.
Even though the customers prefer fresh Floridian fish, she and her husband, Carlos, still choose not to buy directly from individual local fishermen. Instead, the Peruvian couple buys from a retail market in downtown Miami because the seafood is USDA approved and cheap enough to keep all the meals on their menu under $10. Much of the fish is still caught locally, however.
If prices continue to rise and it becomes harder to afford buying seafood, Murillo said they would close the seafood restaurant and use the same property to open a discount store or a different kind of restaurant entirely. They know that if the fish supply declines, leading to higher prices or unavailability, their restaurant cannot survive.
Commercial Fishing and Fish Markets
Not everyone relies on restaurants for their seafood fixes.
Since the early 1970s, the Golden Rule Seafood Market, owned by the Mullins family and located in Perrine, Fla., has been selling fresh fish, crabs, lobsters and shrimp caught by themselves and other local fishermen. While many fish markets exist in South Florida, few have been around as long or have as deep local roots as Golden Rule.
Jeffrey Mullins said they go out every morning to catch fish or crabs. He will stay out about four to five hours just for the blue crab. Being out on the water, Mullins said, is his favorite part of the job.
Brother-in-law Walter Flores accompanies Mullins.
"Being out in the water is a lot nicer," Flores said in comparison to working in the market. They have crab traps and fish off of Black Point Marina in Biscayne Bay near the Turkey Point nuclear power plant.
They also buy fish from the northern side of the U.S., Venezuela and the Florida Keys.
"Everybody down here does not know what a northern fish is," Mullins said. "They prefer local fish."
The market primarlly sells local fish, including a variety of snappers — the same snappers that are quickly becoming endangered. Despite their success as a market and in finding good, plentiful fish, the people at Golden Rule have some concerns. They, too, believe the local fishing stocks are being depleted.
But Mullins did not completely blame that on irresponsible fishermen, though he says that is part of the reason.
"Everyone fishes in one area," Mullins said blaming the local government for crowding certain areas by limiting where fishermen can go. "So, it helps deplete the fish faster."
As a result, he explained that they can buy less of what his customers want at times and the declining supply drives up prices, too.
"You got to work twice as hard to get half the catch," Mullins said. "Less regulations would make cheaper prices for you and more of a catch for us."
Captain's Tavern Seafood Market and Restaurants located in Pinecrest and Florida City depends heavily on local fishermen because the owners say they want to sell the freshest fish of the highest possible quality.
Bill Bowers, owner of Captain's Tavern for 37 years, has seen how fish have become more costly.
"The reason I got into the business is because it was profitable then," he said.
Bowers is optimistic that the business can survive an economic low, high fuel prices and a possible depletion of the most sought after fish by continuing to find the freshest and highest quality fish. To do so, he looks for farmed fish and offers incentives to local fishermen such as free ice and paying the fishermen 25 cents more than other buyers.
Audrey Bowers, co-owner of Captain's Tavern, explained that the business keeps up because she and her husband sell in volume mainly to their two restaurants. If it weren't for the restaurants, she said, the market would not survive economically because it consumes the largest number of seafood from the market. In other words, the restaurants are the market’s biggest clients.
The chef of one of the restaurants agreed, adding that he would lose even some of his loyal customers if he could no longer buy wholesale priced fish from the market. The restaurant would have to increase the prices on the menu potentially pushing away even the most loyal customers.
It’s Not a Fishy Business
As of 2002, commercial fishing in Biscayne Bay contributed an estimated $28 million to the local economy, providing almost 500 jobs and $1.8 million in tax revenues to Miami-Dade County, according to Hazen and Sawyer’s report.
"There are no recent numbers because it is such a dynamic industry," said Bob Jones, executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association. He believes the industry probably already contributes $1 billion to South Florida's economy as a whole.
The economic contribution of fish and the businesses they make possible is not limited to recreation, dining and commercial fishing. Other fish businesses include international and national exporting, marinas, hotels, festivals, charter boats and any business that provides equipment to all the others.
"If all impact from all seafood consumed in Florida was ever calculated, I'm sure the number would be much higher but developing those numbers is above my pay grade," Jones said.
That math may be above his pay grade but, in light of all of the people who depend on fish and fishing for their livelihoodsl, the math may be easier and more devastating than many realize: Zero fish will mean zero dollars from fish.
