Believe it or not, there’s a new bill in the state legislature that would wipe out the constitutional status of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and put management back in the hands of the same legislators and executive branch officials who had allowed runaway commercial netting and other problems.

State Sen. Bill Posey of Rockledge, near Cocoa Beach, filed the joint resolution (2680), which would ask voters to approve a change to the constitution putting wildlife management under the governor and cabinet. The action would un-do the unification amendment, which put marine and fresh water jurisdiction under the same agency. Previously, the former Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission had been a highly acclaimed constitutional entity since 1941.

Posey’s bill is among several attempts to weaken the gill net ban of 1995 and other measures that sportsmen fought for over decades.

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