Francis the main part of the discussion was the killing of breeding stock on their way to the spawning grounds. They close most important species to fishing during spawning down here, that is why snook and many others are closed twice a year during that period. They also spoke about the politics of commercial fishing in the bay by bending to the commercial fisherman and allowing Omega to plunder the Menhadden fishery. A biologist spoke about the mycobacterial infections in Rockfish and the lack of disclosure from Virginia and Maryland regarding this issue because the state governments would cause a problem for the commercial fishery if it was leaked to the media and may cause a scare like physteria did. They also spoke about the sewage and water treatment runnoff and Baltimores disregard of the EPA standards for sewage dumping into the bay. Florida has many citizen watchdog groups that monitor any water problems and make sure it is dealt with. Dirty water keeps the tourists away and boating and sport fishing is a religion down here.
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