September 19, 2018 — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is getting an additional $1.2 million to enhance research and increase production of redfish in Port Manatee, the state announced Monday.
The new funding should help recover Florida’s fisheries from the ongoing red tide sweeping Florida’s Gulf coast and wreaking havoc on Pinellas, Sarasota and Manatee County beaches.
Florida’s commercial fisheries generate $17.7 billion of sales and support nearly 93,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 2015 Fisheries Economics of the United States.
In addition, recreational fishing has an $8 billion economic impact in Florida and supports nearly 115,000 jobs, according to a National Marine Fisheries Service report last year.
“Florida is the ‘Fishing Capital of the World,’ ” FWC Executive Director Eric Sutton said. “Not only are our fisheries robust, but they are also incredibly resilient to the impacts of natural events, like red tide.”
Read the full story at Florida Politics