South Carolina spear fishermen are dead against the fishermen of Florida who takes good stock of fish from their artificial reefs. A group of South Carolina fishermen, manages offshore fishing, are in dispute with the spear fishermen from Florida as they are exploiting the rules by taking thousands of pounds of game fish from the state’s artificial reefs.
The South Carolina fishermen informed that two or three boats per year come northward and spend a couple of weeks diving at the state’s 52 reefs, looking for flounder, scamp and big grouper. Sgt. Steve Pop with the Department of Natural Resources said that the reefs are supposed to be for weekend fishermen who don’t have the time or experience to fish at natural live bottoms.
Pop also told that this is not a violation of federal law. But it is an issue. Wildlife officials plan to talk to the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council about the practice. The group makes rules for fishing in the Atlantic off Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Charter boat captain Eric Heiden of Georgetown opined that the commercial boats can wipe out a reef in a day or two before moving on to the next one.
