Jon Reynolds, a Florida Keys charter boat fishing captain, opened up a plastic trash bag Thursday night during a meeting with federal regulators and pulled out a huge ball of thick monofilament line that’s used to target en masse mahi mahi, also commonly known as dolphinfish.
He removed the discarded line by hand from the ocean during a recent outing on his Drop Back charter boat, which he operates out of Islamorada.
“To even have this in a fishery anymore in 2022, this is disgraceful — to even do to the ocean,” Reynolds told National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials at the meeting. “Our customers are sickened by the fact that our country is even allowing this gear to be deployed into the water. I mean, this is absolutely insane.”
