Boot Key Harbor
"Marathon- the Heart of the Florida Keys"

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July 15, 2000 KEYNOTER NEWSPAPER

Fisheries council OK's Tortugas plan. No-take zone means no fishing.
and . . .
Panel votes to ban divers in Tortugas zone.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, a federal council, gave approval to a controversial Tortugas 2000 ecological reserve plan on a 15-2 vote. This federal panel has rule making authority over all the Tortugas South reserve, covering the critically important spawning grounds at Riley's Hump, and a small corner of the larger Tortugas North reserve. This plan prohibits ALL types of fishing from both commercial and recreational fishermen - even catch and release.

The Council then voted to recommend to the National Marine Sanctuaries Program that diving, even no-take diving be prohibited. Leslie Wheylan of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation said that concern about no-take diving is unfounded. This action on diving is only the council's recommendation on final rulemaking. The action on no fishing is regulatory.

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