CORTEZ – The historic net camp just offshore of the fishing village is being refurbished thanks to the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH) and some local commercial fishermen.
Nathan Meschelle, FISH board member and vice-president of the Cortez chapter of the Organized Fisherman of Florida (OFF) and FISH board member Lance Plowman gave an update on the net camp repairs at the FISH board meeting on June 3.
“We’re getting the roof on there and that front deck before the hurricanes start,” Meschelle said. “We’ll be working on it the next few weekends and try to get that roof on there.”
The net camp, known as the Curt Johns net camp, had fallen into disrepair, and until recently, had a hole in the roof, debris on the back deck and an unnamed person living in it.
OFF members conducted a coastal cleanup in April and brought back boatloads of debris from the net camp to be discarded. The net camp occupant was trespassed and renovation began.
The structure is owned by John Guthrie. FISH undertook the renovation to maintain the historic building.
Net camps are wooden structures built in the water on stilts that were used by fishermen to hang hemp and cotton fishing nets to dry before the advent of modern materials. According to historic photographs, there were once dozens of net camps on Sarasota Bay off Cortez.
The historic Curt Johns net camp is one of two off Cortez. It is next to the 2017 net camp owned by Raymond “Junior” Guthrie, which Florida courts have ordered to be removed at the request of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection due to its non-historic status and the state’s ownership of the submerged land upon which it was built.
