Everglades still open for fishing
High water levels do restrict access to most marsh areas
Closures in the Everglades because of highwater levels from record winter rains have caused some confusion for anglers, paddlers, air boaters and others who enjoy spending time in the River of Grass.
The reason is the “CLOSED” signs posted at boat ramps. At first glance, you’d assume there is no boating or fishing access.
In actuality, shore anglers can fish from the ramps and boaters can fish in the canals.
“The interior marshes are closed,” said Barron Moody, the Fisheries Administrator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s South Region. “We’ve done this in the past. More typically we’re dealing with highwater closures in the summer rather than the spring.”
The marshes are closed except for a few areas to prevent white-tailed deer and other animals from being stressed by humans. The highwater has flooded many tree islands where animals typically hang out, so they are crowded onto the few islands that are still abovewater.
Areas of the marsh without a lot of tree islands are open to air boaters, anglers and kayakers. They include a big part of Water Conservation Area 2A north of Sawgrass Recreation Park and WCA 3A South east of the Miami Canal and between Alligator Alley and the L-67A Canal. The details are available at myfwc.com/viewing/recreation/Moody said highwater disperses fish throughout the nearly 700,000 acres of the Everglades Wildlife Management Area. While that makes fishing tough now, it will make for better fishing down the road.
“It’s not going to be bad for the fish,” Moody said, noting that bass have access to an abundance of quality spawning areas. “In fact, some of our predictive models showthat a couple of years from now, ifwe have lowwater, we could have really strong fishing in the canals.”
Moody added that fluctuations inwater levels benefit the Everglades, although extreme high water is harmful to habitat.
The good news there according to FWC commissioner Ron Bergeron of Weston is that water levels in WCA 3A have dropped eight inches since Gov. Rick Scott worked with a host of state and federal agencies to let water flow south into the L-29 Canal along the north side of Tamiami Trail and under the roadway into Everglades National Park.
“We’ve got 1billion gallons a day going through the 19 structures on Tamiami Trail and the 1-mile bridge,” said Bergeron of the flowage easement, adding that private lands have not been impacted.
“There’s been no flooding. We had some minor complaints froma couple of farmers and we went down there and set up a pump.”
Bergeron also emphasized that the unprecedented movement of freshwater out of the conservation area has benefited the park and Florida Bay. He said water had never been allowed to flow under the 1-mile bridge, whichwas completed three years ago, until mid-February when the easement took effect.
“It’s going to Florida Bay, which is dying from lack of water,” Bergeron said.
The drop inwater level in the conservation areas has opened more tree islands to wildlife. Bergeron went to Hackberry Island severalweeks ago and not only saw deer tracks everywhere, but also panther tracks. Cameras were placed on the island and three days later therewas video of a panther, which can be seen on thewebsite savetheglades.org under “High Water Update.”
Yet another benefit of the flowage easement: Bergeron said not as much water from Lake Okeechobee has to be sent down the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers to Stuart and Fort Myers. He said lake water is instead being cleaned in stormwater treatment areas before being sent south.
“The good thing is we’ve got more water going out than we’ve got coming in,” said Bergeron, who said the Everglades water level needs to drop18 more inches by May to reach its average level heading into the rainy season.
“I do applaud the federal agencies, the Corps of Engineers, the park, DEP, water management, FWC and Gov. Scott,” Bergeron said. “I’ve got to say that this is government working in the best interests of the public to minimize the damage to one of the natural wonders of theworld.”