It’s a gruesome winter for Florida’s coastal wildlife, with multiple slashings of pelican pouches in the lower Keys and killings of bottlenose dolphins in Panhandle waters.

“I’m still getting calls! If we don’t find them they’ll die!” Maya Totman cried half-frantically in a hurried phone call. She was on her way out the door to try to save more brown pelicans.

Totman runs Florida Keys Wildlife Rescue. Waterfront Times caught her for scarcely a minute between rescue runs from headquarters on Big Pine Key. We had asked for a breakdown of slashings, fatal and non-fatal, but Totman was in too big a hurry to keep score.

Bobby Dube, Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) Commission’s enforcement spokesman in the Keys, had told us reports were scattered from Sugarloaf to Key West, a distance of roughly 25 miles. He knew of about six cases, all reported in five days, and thought two of the victims had been found dead. Totman had more cases going on in mid-January.

It’s hard to imagine anyone slashing a pelican’s pouch, but it had happened before in the lower Keys. There was a rash of cases in December 2013, with the regrettable non-result that nobody was caught. That left the motive open to guesswork.

“It might be teenagers,” Dube said, “or maybe some fishermen who don’t want pelicans interfering.”

It isn’t hard to hook a pelican. Toss a few scoops of chum into a current and the birds will gather around waiting for fish to come in for a sniff.

Their only defensive weapon is the sharp claw-like end of the beak, which can puncture a man’s hand. Slashing the pouch makes it impossible for a pelican to eat or to feed its chicks. If the wound doesn’t kill the bird, it starves to death.

There’s a $1,000 reward for the discovery of culprits.

There are photos that may be disturbing at www.floridakeyswildliferescue.org. Scroll to the bottom of the home page and click the “Learn more” link.

The dolphin killings were committed with a gun in one case and a bow and arrow in the other. NOAA’s office of law enforcement said a juvenile archer was caught for shooting a bottlenose with a steel-pointed hunting arrow in Escambia County waters, near Pensacola.

That happened sometime in the last week of November. The dolphin was found dead Dec. 6 at Orange Beach, Ala., with the arrow still stuck in its back.

NOAA said necropsy results indicated the dolphin survived for five days, eventually dying of infection.

Investigators said lots of local publicity and $24,000 in reward offers helped them find the archer, who confessed, but they would not say if the suspect is male or female or tell his or her age — or even what penalty might be imposed.

Federal policy is to withhold details that would tend to identify a juvenile violator to the public.

The other dolphin, killed by gunfire, was pregnant when it was shot in Choctawhatchee Bay at Miramar Beach, east of Pensacola, before Thanksgiving.

No one had been charged with that crime by late January, despite a $2,400 reward offered by Whale and Dolphin Conservation for information leading to arrest and prosecution.
If you know who did it, call NOAA’s enforcement office in Niceville, Fla., at 850-729-8628 or the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at 1-800-853-1964.

Data needed

If you’re bottom-fishing the Gulf of Mexico on a private boat for any of 10 fish species — two kinds of snapper, three kinds of grouper, greater and lesser amberjack, almaco jack, banded rudderfish or gray triggerfish — you must help the state collect catch data.

“Must” means you have to do it, starting no later than April 1. That may not be what you had in mind when you criticized FWC for basing size and bag limits on inadequate data.

The agency uses the best data it can get, adequate or not. If the info’s bad, the argument goes, so are the catch regulations.

“You’ve asked for better data and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has listened and taken action,” says the announcement of the Gulf Reef Fish Survey. “The easy no-cost process will help the FWC paint a clearer picture of how many people are targeting Gulf reef fish, like red snapper and gag grouper, and what anglers are seeing on the water.”

There’s potential for confusion in the survey’s exemption of Monroe County waters. Monroe County means the Keys, which form part of the visually inexact boundary between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf. A large portion of Everglades National Park’s Florida Bay is in the county.

So what marks the exclusion area?

“It would be the county line,” said FWC spokeswoman Amanda Nalley. “It basically excludes all waters off Monroe County.”

But how far off? In view of the lack of water markers saying something like “Leaving Monroe County. Come back real soon!” Nalley said an attempt will be made to map the boundaries for purposes of the survey.

There are other exceptions: If you’re less than 16 years old, or you only fish the reefs on a charter or headboat with its own recreational fishing license, you don’t have to participate individually.

If you’re 65 or older and exempt from buying a license, you’re not exempt from being part of the survey.

Other than signing up so the state knows you and all the other Gulf reef fishing-doers out there, as of now you’re not expected to do anything active.

Other than knowing whether you’re within or without the Monroe County line, signing up might be the trickiest part. You can do it online by starting at this web page: https://license.myfwc, which is where you would buy your fishing license — except that you’re not buying it now. You’ll see a box to enter your date of birth and one of the “lookup method” entries such as your Social Security number.

Then, unless you already have a customer account for FWC licenses, you’ll be asked to create one — even though you’re not buying anything.

That just gets you into the system. Once there, click on “Purchase a license” even though you’re not purchasing a license. Then look inside the saltwater fishing link for the Gulf Reef Fish Angler item and click it into your shopping cart (even though you’re not shopping), and finally check out as if you had bought something.

Last, print a copy to take with you on the Gulf in case you’re asked to prove you’ve signed up. All that looks like fun, doesn’t it? What, no? Oh.

In that case, you can sign up in person at tackle shops, sporting goods stores and your local tax collector’s office, assuming someone at one of those places knows what to do. It may be easiest to do it by phone at 1-888-FISHFLORIDA (347-4356)...

NOAA sets its sights on Biscayne

After generations of mostly unchecked environmental abuse, Biscayne Bay could be getting a big break as a “Habitat Focus Area” designated by NOAA. That comes with big dreams.

Here’s what it could mean, according to NOAA’s announcement: “Scientists and resource managers are concerned that water quality issues could result in widespread loss of seagrass cover. NOAA will work to better understand water quality issues... NOAA scientists will also restore, improve, and protect fishery habitats. In addition, NOAA will restore and maintain sustainable fish stocks, reduce marine debris impacts, and improve shoreline protection.”

From what we’ve learned so far, such a long-term project is between the dream phase and the first preliminary studies.

How can all that be done with results beginning to show in three to five years, an early estimate? And how much of the bay will it cover eventually? Biscayne’s a big bay, about 44 miles from Haulover Inlet at the north end to Card Sound Road at the south. Its width varies from less than one mile to nearly eight.

It’s too early now to answer those questions, according to NOAA spokeswoman Jenny Lyons. “We are just in the beginning phases of research and need to look at the issues the area faces. Those may include vulnerable habitats impacted by overfishing, coral bleaching, coral disease, seagrass die-off, algal blooms, invasive species, beach loss, or intensive recreational use, as well as by hurricanes and other storms.”

Except in small locations like Oleta River State Park, the northern and central portions of Biscayne as nature made it vanished generations ago, starting with the early development of Miami Beach.

The same thing was likely to happen in the south until 1968 when much of that portion was designated a national monument, now Biscayne National Park. Even so, water quality, habitat decline and fishing pressure are serious unsolved problems there today.

You can find the back story at this link: www.habitat.noaa.gov/habitatblueprint/southeast_caribbean.html

Boaters arrested

Two Miami-Dade men have been arrested and charged with drunk boating as a result of serious on-water collisions that occurred last March on Biscayne Bay.

FWC law enforcement says Misael Amaro, 23, of Miami and Jorge Ortiz, 26, of Aventura caused accidents in Biscayne Bay, and both had blood-alcohol concentrations exceeding the minimal standard for drunkenness. On March 9, investigators said, Amaro was running a 36-foot boat that hit an 80-foot yacht. He and his passenger were hospitalized with serious injuries.

On March 30, Ortiz’s 20-footer with seven other people aboard crashed into several steel dredging pipes floating in the Haulover Cut sand bar area. Ortiz and two passengers had to be airlifted to a hospital. Of the other five, four were injured.

“Operating a boat while under the influence of drugs or alcohol is extremely dangerous,” said Maj. Alfredo Escanio, FWC regional commander. “We simply do not tolerate it.”

Although the accidents happened last March, Amaro and Ortiz were not arrested until mid-December. FWC spokesman Jorge Pino said that was because it was necessary to question everyone on the three boats involved, among other things: “Investigating a serious boating accident is similar to a homicide investigation. It’s a very intricate thing. They require a lot of information gathering. Just a simple accident is a little easier, but if there are serious injuries or a fatality it takes forever.”

Maximum penalties are a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.