Welcome to

A Circuit Judge is calling the states net ban a “legal absurdity.” Judged Jackie Fulford has been mulling her decision for a year before ruling in favor of mullet fishermen.

For eighteen years, Mullet fishermen contend that the net ban approved by voters is good, but the rules the state adopted on net sizes is killing more fish than its saving.

“That’s what we use daily, catch 98 fish that you can’t sell, every two you take to market. This net right here will catch a higher rate. Then this net will catch almost a 1 to 2 percent bi-catch with a 98 or 99 percent catch rate,” says Ronald Crum, Bait Store Owner.

Judge Jackie Fulford Ruled against the net ban saying there is a conflict between what voters approved, a 500 sq ft net and what regulators adopted, a limit on mesh size.

Within hours of the decision, the state appeals which effectively keeps the current band in place.

At My Way Seafood, 50 pounds of mullet came in a first thing Wednesday. “To catch 50 pounds this guy fished all night long. He probably caught at least 1,000 smaller fish juvenile that he had to kill to catch that 50 pound,” says Jason Turner, Seafood Dealer.

After almost two decades the amendment’s author is frustrated. “And so we don’t quite understand why the Wakulla county fishermen, you know, can’t agree with about 18 years worth of rulings,” says Ted Foresgren, coastal Conservation Assn.

Jonas porter was the first person ever arrested for using an illegal net in 1995. He’s been fighting ever since. “It’s what people dying overseas for. They’re fighting for their heritage, to keep their heritage from changing. That’s what I’m fighting,” says Jonas Porter, Mullet Fisherman.

And he is relishing, for the first time, being told that he’s right.