Divers with 3 decades’ experience in Southeast Florida are reporting increasing numbers of adult snook on deep wrecks and reefs—out to 90 feet and deeper. Snook have long been reported on deep reefs but not in these numbers. Plus, they’re living in very cold, dirty water and where larger predators, such as goliath groupers, abound. Bottom water temps when this video was taken were 65 degrees, thanks to natural upwellings. The video was taken July, 2007. There are dozens of warmer, food-rich locations within four miles of this wreck, but the fish stayed here all summer despite numerous upwelling events.
Alarmingly, scientists have recorded snook spawning on offshore wrecks, where they say fertilized eggs have little or no chance of reaching estuaries. Unless the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Spawning Potential Ratio (SPR) numbers are wildly wrong, which is unlikely, snook are not moving offshore because inshore populations are swollen. On the contrary, the FWC recently reduced the slot and bag limit due to concerns over increasing pressure.
Experts hypothesize that a number of stressors may be “synergizing negatively” to push snook offshore. That is, a number of stressors may be combining to make inshore waters uncomfortable for snook. These stressors could include dirty canal discharges, intense fishing pressure on spawning aggregations in the inlets and so-called “beach nourishment.” Veteran guides in the Palm Beach, Jupiter and Stuart areas outspokenly blame the latter as the most aggravating stressor. These projects routinely bury nearshore reefs, and according to a recent paper in the Journal of Southeastern Geology, the materials used in these projects are so brittle they break apart and re-suspend, creating chronic turbidity in the nearshore environment. These veterans say that turbidity repels important forage sources, such as the plantivores, and that the material has migrated offshore to bury or scour reefs in the 20- to 40-foot range—formerly snookville.
It’s time for regulators to stop thinking in terms of individual stressors and for them to recognize the cumulative and synergizing nature of these stressors. It’s also high time that Florida’s beach management strategy move away from dredging and filling beaches with offshore sediment, and concentrate on keeping native beach sand in the system.
