June 8, 2023 by Mike Sunnucks
The battle between pelican advocates and fishermen at the Skyway fishing pier is heating up. The conflict? Proposed fishing restrictions — including potentially reducing hours and closing sections of the popular pier.
Groups such as Friends of the Pelicans and the Center for Biological Diversity say more than 1,000 pelicans get hurt or killed by fishing lines each year at the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park. They blame fishing and want the state to ban multi-hook lures. They also want the state to close the park at sunset. The park currently allows fishing 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The aim is to reduce fishing line and lure entanglements involving pelicans, seagulls, and other birds.
Angling advocates worry the new rules will bite into fishing livelihoods and aim to significantly restrict fishing at the pier.
“They want to blame the fisherman,” said Jay Cross, one of the founders of the Skyway Misfits fishing group, which opposes a number of the fishing rules and restrictions under consideration by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Cross worries that some conservation and rescue activists are pushing for a significant scaling back or shutdown of fishing off the pier at the bridge.
“Now, they just want the pier closed down,” he said.
The fishing pier at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which connects St. Petersburg and Pinellas County with Manatee County, is the longest in the world. On both sides of Tampa Bay, the pier consists of undamaged sections of the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge. In 1980, the Summit Venture hit the southbound span of the bridge. Portions of the span collapsed, killing 35 people. A new bridge opened in 1987, and in 1992, the state tore down the center spans of the old bridge. The state converted the remaining spans into one state park. The park has a 1.55-mile pier in Manatee and a 0.55-mile pier in Pinellas County. FWC operates both piers 24/7, 365 days a year.
Bird conservation groups want those hours scaled back. They also want sections of the long pier potentially closed during certain hours or permanently.
More than 200,000 people visit the pier annually, according to FWC. Fishing has a $13.5 billion economic impact statewide and supports 120,000 jobs, according to state projections.
The Skyway pier’s length and height make it one of Florida’s premier fishing destinations. However, it also makes it dangerous for pelicans and other seabirds, according to Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD).
The 16-foot high pier, coupled with it length and deeper water near the channel make for longer fishing lines — and plenty of foraging seabirds.
“It’s high up and it’s far out,” Bennett told The Gabber Newspaper. “We all know this is part of a crashed bridge that goes so far out in the bay. There have to be preventative measures put in place.”
CBD and other groups, including the Friends of Pelicans, the Humane Society of the United States, American Bird Conservancy, and Conservancy of Southwest Florida wrote the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December and Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission in February. The groups pressed for actions and new fishing rules at the Skyway. They also called on both agencies to enforce the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The international treaty offers protections to 122 bird species. That list includes various species of ducks, flamingos, pelicans, swans, and storks, according to a 2020 list published by USFW.
The letter to FWS reads, “without the Service’s enforcement of the MBTA, we are gravely concerned that the continued operation of the Skyway Fishing Pier will continue to contribute to the catastrophic decline of coastal bird populations in Tampa Bay.”
Brown pelicans, prevalent in Florida, enjoy protection under the treaty. The treaty aims to protect avian species from harm and endangerment. Brown pelicans joined the U.S. endangered species list in 1970, and rejoined it in 2009. Florida, along with Texas and other Gulf coast areas, has an estimated 650,000 brown pelicans, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
In their letter to FWC, the groups contended more than 2,000 birds, including pelicans, have gotten hooked and entangled over the past two years.
The groups wrote the FWC in February stating, “many of these birds have sustained grotesque and painful injuries from multiple hook gear, including torn pouches and severed ligaments, which may require surgery or euthanasia. Still many other birds are not so fortunate as those rescued. Rescuers and members of the public have observed even more pelicans and other coastal birds injured, drowning, or dead around the Skyway Pier and nearby rookeries.”
The conservation and rescue groups want the agencies to impose new rules and restrictions on types of fishing lures and hooks. Additionally, the groups also want the state to limit the number of fishing rods each fisherman can use.
In the FWS letter, the groups called for requirements that fishermen 12 or older must physically hold a pole at the Skyway. The groups also call for a ban on treble hooks, sabiki rigs, and other multi-hook gear and allowing one hook per line. Finally, the groups want the state to close sections of the pier and limit nighttime hours.
Bennett also wants to see more “full-time rescuers” on the pier. CBD and other groups would like to see FWC contract with a rescue group or hire personnel to provide more immediate aid to tangled and distressed birds.
“It’s been up to volunteers to do it,” she said.
Friends of the Pelicans, one of the lead groups at the pier, declined requests for a telephone interview, citing scheduling issues. The group did not respond to emailed questions about the Skyway issue.
In a September 2022 letter to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, FOTP founder Jeanette Edwards petitioned the north Skyway Fishing Pier to close, at least temporarily. She also wants the pier to close at sunset and for FWC to investigate potential animal cruelty toward pelicans and other birds.
Rescue groups point to discoveries of pelicans and other birds they say have been mutilated or scalped. Subsequent investigations have yet to show that anyone harmed the birds intentionally. Still, Edwards and other pelican activists want FWC to send undercover officers to the state park to investigate.
Bennett said the state agency could also potentially look at constructing a new pier, scaled down from the current bridge span.
A return letter from USFWS Assistant Director Jerome Ford to the aviary advocates called the bird situation at the Skyway “concerning.” However, the letter focused more on working with other groups and interests on the issue.
“The issue will require the collaboration of many entities. It is important that all ideas are included to create a reasonable resolution,” Ford wrote.
Bennett called the response “disappointing” and wanted to see more action from the Biden administration on the Florida matter.
FWC started its most recent look at the Skyway fishing/bird dispute last year, soliciting public comments. The state panel held a meeting on the matter in February in Jacksonville and instructed staff to come with a set of proposals for a July meeting.
Potential state rules include restricting sabiki and other multi-hook rigs and creating an annual education requirement on bird safety for Skyway fishermen. FWC staff said pelicans have a higher death rate at the Tampa area pier than other fishing spots in the state.
Fishing advocates — some of whom rely on fishing for their vocations and livelihood — oppose some of the restrictions.
Gigi Cross, with Skyway Misfits, said rescue activists unfairly blame fishermen for pelicans found “scalped” at the Skyway in January.
“That was not true,” she said. “It’s all lies.”
Cross also said some some bird rescuers feed pelicans and other birds at the pier, adding to the problem. The law prohibits feeding the birds, but some say the state has not consistently enforced the law.
CBD’s Bennett said rescuers do not use chumming to rescue seabirds. “The rescuers’ practice is to only use bait to lure the birds but not to feed them, she said.
But Cross said relations are so sour between anglers and pelican and bird groups that the issues and motivations come into question.
“It’s not about the pelicans. It’s about fishing,” she said. “They are anti-fishing.”
Rob Cross, her husband, said if the Skyway effort is successful some bird rescue proponents could potentially bring more rules and restrictions to other fishing piers across the state.
“They want to take this program to all the piers in Florida and implement it,” he said, pointing to fishing rules implemented in Naples in 2021. Those include a ban on fishing on Sundays.
Bennett said every pier and fishing spot offers a different situation. But she added that birds, including brown pelicans common to Florida, feel the brunt of fishing and deserve more consideration.
The Skyway Misfits group questioned the pelicans advocates’ data on entanglements and bird deaths.
“It’s fear mongering,” Jay Cross said.
Robert Neff, who works with the fishing group, challenges some of the entanglement data. He said some of the pelican death and injury data provided to FWC includes birds found on St. Pete Beach, in Palmetto, and on Interstate 275. He also questioned whether some of the pictures provided to the state agency of injured or dead pelicans are from the Skyway, saying in an April 28 communication with FWC that some of the pictures show birds with fishing hooks not used at the state park.
Neff also said the bird and pelican’s protectors are creating issues by feeding birds.
“The hotspots have been created because they are feeding the birds,” he said.
FWC referred to meeting presentations, public comments, and announcements about potential Skyway fishing rules in response to questions from The Gabber Newspaper.
by Mike Sunnucks
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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Florida, Skyway Bridge, Skyway Fishing Pier ‘, Tampa Bay
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