Comment from Frank May

As A lifelong resident of the gulf coast I have seen red grouper numbers go from abundance to almost nothing. It seems with the red snapper and amberjack regulations the red grouper have become the only thing left for the commercial fishermen and their numbers have been severely depleted. Many commercial and charter fishermen are now "string gear" fishing in the off season. They are using really light tackle on multi hook bandit gear to catch white snapper, beeliners, triggerfish, and other "trash". THEY ARE ALSO CATCHING THE LAST OF THE RED GROUPER, MANY OF THEM JUVENILES. As you know, red grouper are "habitat engineers", they find and maintain hard limestone bottom so crustaceans move into the area. this creates a food chain that can be seen on your bottom machine in the way of bait shows or fish marks. Ten years ago these bait shows were numerous in the gulf, and red grouper were abundant. Now most of the numbers that used to mark fish do not even show up on your bottom machine, indicating that the number of red grouper needed to maintain the bottom to creat the food chain are not there. PLEASE HELP CORRECT THIS