During a public hearing at the Senate House both the sides fighting over a proposed ban on using gill nets in Alabama coastal waters for commercial fishing continued. It is going on since a year when the House passed a version of the ban, but the proposal died in the Senate. If it was passed then there will be voluntary buyouts of gillnetters and a possible ban if a five-year study showed the need for one.
The clause of the ban mentions that commercial fishermen are hurting the fish population in Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. But the fishermen disagree, saying they use gill nets to provide for their families and to feed others who purchase the seafood. The Members of the Senate Economic Expansion and Trade Committee voted against the bill.
In the hearing the opponents say the ban will put them out of work and destroy the coastal fishing communities in Bayou La Batre and Bon Secour. The incident of Texas and Florida were cited for reference, where the ban of commercial gill nets indicates increased fish populations after the practice was prohibited. The opponents said there is no scientific evidence and that other factors affect fish populations.
Ben Harvard, a commercial fisherman whose boats are in Bayou La Batre, said the bill puts fishermen out of business. The ban also mentions that Alabama is losing out because there has been a decrease in gamefish. There is an economic benefit of people traveling to the coast to fish, which proponents said creates jobs.
