Playback Rate 1

Timecode: 00:00:00

RedSnapper_14and3QuarterInchFish_Cox_Felix_PortAransasTX_23February2000_Reel2077.wav

Felix Cox [00:00:00] For several, for several years, this, especially this reef fish fishery, for several years, this derby fishery, derby-style of fishing, has driven people nuts.

Felix Cox [00:00:10] I mean, it just drives them up against the wall because it, it, you get half the price that you ought to get for your fish. And, you waste twice the resources that you ought to, and you're demanded to destroy your own livelihood out there.

Felix Cox [00:00:23] And when you're trying to catch other fish and throwing these away.

Felix Cox [00:00:27] And then the size limits, the unrealistic size limits: in deep water, you should have no size limits, to begin with. I've been an advocate of that for years. And, and other people are coming around to that philosophy, also, understanding that when you've a fish, a dead fish is a dead fish. You know, if you catch a, a fourteen and three-quarter inch fish, and throw him away to catch one that's 15 inches, what good have you done, really?

Felix Cox [00:00:51] You know, have you, have you conserved anything, if he's dead, when you throw them away? You try for a quarter of an inch longer fish, and destroy him. And, you do that time and time again, and you've knocked your own self in the head, of course.

Felix Cox [00:01:04] So, being, being confronted with these sort of lose-lose situations like that, time and time again, disheartens a person. It has certainly disheartened me.