Today my colleagues and I held our 2nd marine fisheries regulations workshop, which I felt was a major success. The workshop was intended for park rangers, resource managers, and educators who commonly interact with saltwater anglers in the region. The goals of the workshop were to:
1) Improve the audience's knowledge and understanding of current marine fisheries regulations and increase their ability to communicate with anglers about these rules, and
2) Increase the local network of agency staff capable of identifying and reporting marine fisheries violations.
I co-taught the workshop with Joy Hazell, the Sea Grant Extension Agent in Lee County and Lt. Mitts Mravic of FWC law enforcement. We had approximately 50 participants representing local, county, state and federal agencies in addition to not-for-profit organizations, and private industry. Workshop topics included:
- Updates to state fishing regulations
- Goliath grouper science and management
- Federal gag grouper regulation changes
- FWC law enforcement updates and discussion
- Sustainable fishing practices
- Gulf of Mexico seafood safety
- Tarpon genetics recapture study
I should note that some of the topics presented didn't directly deal with fisheries regulations, but we decided to include them (ie. oil spill update and sustainable fishing practices) based on feedback we received from a 6-month follow up survey sent out to last year's participants.
Recipients received resource folders and will be provided with all of the presentations so they can share the information with others. Participants were also given pre/post tests to assess their short-term knowledge gain on the topics presented as well as evaluations to assess the overall quality of the workshop. I'm proud to say that post scores on average increased by 35.6%! If you would like a copy of the presentations as well, don't hesitate to contact me. Enjoy the rest of the pictures!
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| Emily Muehlstein with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council discusses with the group her role as the Council's new outreach coordinator |
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| I provide participants with information on the new federal gag grouper regulations |
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| Lt. Mitts Mravic discusses gill net cases he and other officers have been involved with in recent months |
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| Sea Grant Agent John Stevely was kind enough to help us show participants how to dehook a fish |
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Workshop participants try their hand and using a dehooking tool. |
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| Sea Grant Agent Joy Hazell educates the class on goliath grouper management issues |
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| Workshop participants on average increased their post test scores by 35.6% |
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