Fishing is a passion, a culture, and an economic engine in Florida, and efforts to preserve it and enshrine hunting and fishing in the state constitution will be on the ballot this November.
Opponents of Amendment 2 say it's a waste of time.
"Why do we need to put this in our state constitution?" said Eve Samples, the executive director of the environmental group Friends of the Everglades.
"We already have a protected right to fish and hunt in Florida, it is protected very clearly in state statute and there are no efforts afoot to remove those protections in state law," she said.
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But veteran Miami charter boat captain Bouncer Smith has a concern that laws that exist could change and restrict fishing and hunting in Florida. He also called out activist groups opposed to the sports.
"They’ve been known to violently block access to national parks, they’ve been known to stand up on a bank and throw rocks at fishermen trying to fish," Smith said. "It happens, and we need to be protected from those illegal actions."
Constitutional Amendment 2 would "preserve forever fishing and hunting, including by the use of traditional methods, as a public right and preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife. Specifies that the amendment does not limit the authority granted to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission under Section of Article IV of the State Constitution."
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Opponents noted “traditional methods” and concern about illegal, outdated fishing techniques, like using giant nets to catch fish in bulk.
"Nearshore gill-netting was banned in the state constitution years ago in Florida because there were a lot of problems with it," Samples said. "Could this amendment open the door for bringing that back because that was a traditional means of fishing?"
"That would make me totally opposed if netting could come back," Smith said. "And as I understand it, it does not open the door for reversing the netting rules, and it does not prevent the Marine Fishery Commission from passing bag limits and size limits."
Bag limits refer to limits on how many fish a fisherman can catch in a day, and size limits are references to the minimum size of a fish you can keep.
In order for the amendment to pass, 60% of voters must approve.
