B_&_T_J_2015_

B

M I K E H O D G E

is a freelance outdoor writer

who lives and fishes in Florida

Profiles in Conservation

Ken Wright

When Ken Wright looks back on his tenure as the Chairman of the

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, his legacy is

defined by a single species of fish and one rule.

Tarpon are now catch and release.

Both pieces of FWC regulation came during the final stretch of

Wright’s FWC tenure nearly two years ago.

“It was the most significant thing that I did on the Commission

while I was there,” Wright said. “If I had stayed another 10 years,

I would not have done anything that would have been more

meaningful to me than getting those two rules passed.”

To recap, first the FWC Commission made tarpon catch and

release only (except for a provision allowing tarpon to be kept

for world records using a special harvest tag). This addressed

concerns about some of the handling practices being used by

anglers that increased the mortality of tarpon after release.

Second, the use of the boca grande jig for tarpon fishing was

banned. This new rule, which went into effect in November of

2013, provided closure to an issue that has divided Boca Grande

residents, conventional and fly anglers, tournament organizers

and conservationists for years.

“It’s meaningful in a couple different ways,” said Wright, a BTT

Board Member, who won the Flats Stewardship Award at the fifth

BTT Symposium last fall. “For me it represented a challenge. (No

jigging rules) had been attempted before. It was just the challenge

to pick it back up. In spite of the limited number of tarpon I’ve

managed to catch, I’ve always loved the whole notion of tarpon

and tarpon fishing. I like the fish. I like the way you fish for them.

I like everything about it.”

“The first order of business, strategically, was to make tarpon

catch and release. Once you make them catch and release, then it

makes the second part of it in terms of gear restriction become

that much easier.”

The biggest obstacle in implementing the rule was selling

conservation to a handful of fellow commissioners unfamiliar

with tarpon and fishing etiquette.

“Listen I can’t say enough about that commission, every one of

them,” Wright said. “Nevertheless, they were not tarpon

fishermen; they were not tarpon anglers. Take someone, for

instance, from North Florida who is into quail hunting and deer

hunting, and then try to engage them passionately about an issue

involving tarpon in a relatively small geographic area, that was a

challenge. Yes, there’s the limited number of people who fish

for tarpon. I get that. It’s not like red snapper. It is a small

geographic area around Boca Grande Pass. But that is a special

place for the aggregation of tarpon, how the tarpon work,

where they go, the way they migrate. That was the challenge to

get them engaged. They were engaged.”

And history was made.

Photos by Pat Ford