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Tag: Mullet

Diorama depicts mullet netting methods

Diorama depicts mullet netting methods

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Fishing, Outdoors.

CORTEZ – A refurbished diorama depicting now-defunct mullet netting techniques used by early Cortez fishermen was unveiled at the Cortez Cultural Center’s environmental learning event on April 20.

“Cortez is all about fishing. It is mission critical for Cortez,” Cortez Village Historical Society (CVHS) President Cindy Rodgers said as the diorama was introduced.

Gill net fishing, seine fishing and stop fishing have all been outlawed in Florida, but for many years those were the standard techniques for catching mullet and all are represented in the diorama.

The diorama was built by John McDonald and Dr. Bill Baum and had been displayed at the Florida Maritime Museum before it was gifted to CVHS, where it sat covered on the center’s back porch. Over the years, the miniature boats had cracked and the diorama was in need of overall repair.

Its refurbishment was made possible by a monetary award in January from the Anna Maria Chamber of Commerce.

“It did sit here for a while and we thought we have to do something with it, and we weren’t able to do it,” Rodgers said. “So with that award, I contacted the Anna Maria Artists’ Guild and Judy Vazquez happened to answer the phone and the next day Judy and Luann Widergren were here and said they wanted to do it.”

Rodgers said the artists lovingly worked on the project day and night.

“Judy is a mosaic artist, so she had this idea to jazz it up. She had this idea for broken glass, and added paint and sparkle,” Widergren said. “It needed some sprucing up and I tried to restore the boats and added some vintage colors. For the fish camp, this is architecturally what you would have seen.”

Susynne McElrone, a volunteer at CVHS, and a former commercial fisher in Alaska, discussed the three mullet fishing methods represented on the diorama.

“I would invite everyone to come up close and see the details here and see what strikes you, the shore, the nets, the fishermen, the stories behind this and the love that went into it,” she said.

The Cortez Cultural Center is located at 1655 Cortez Road W. and is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cortez founded on mullet

Cortez founded on mullet

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Community News, Cortez.

CORTEZ – A visit by Dr. Angela Collins to the Cortez Cultural Center furthered the organization’s mission to “preserve the past and protect the future.”

The University of Florida Sea Grant marine extension agent told visitors last Thursday all about mullet, the reason Cortez was founded in the late 1880s, and still its most profitable crop.

Fisheries are part of Florida’s second-largest economic driver, agriculture, Collins told a group of about 25 visitors, many of them tourists, supporting the state’s largest industry.

Collins quizzed visitors about why mullet jump. It could be to rid themselves of parasites, or because they like it, people ventured. Scientifically, no answer has been discovered, but scientists have learned that when you see a fish jump in Florida, nine times out of 10, it’s a mullet, she said.

The fish can live to be 13 years old, are scavengers, and it’s tough to catch them with hook and line.

As a result, ancient tribes in Florida used gill nets to catch the fish, using coconuts as floats and shells to weigh them down, and herding them into dead-end canals to have fresh fish close at hand, Collins said.

Cuban fishermen traveled to Cortez to catch mullet, especially during Lent in February and March, when demand was particularly high since many Catholics eat fish on Fridays in Lent when other meat is forbidden.

In the late 1960s, the mullet fishery shifted more to roe – fish eggs – than the fish itself, due to the high prices it brought in foreign markets. Mullet became known as “Gulf of Mexico gold,” Collins said.

“Sailfish is the state fish of Florida,” she said. “It should be mullet.”

Gill nets continued to be used until 1995, when voters passed a state Constitutional Amendment banning them, believing mullet fishing was depleting mullet and other bycatch species caught in mullet nets. Mullet fishermen now rely on different types of smaller nets, she said.

Cortez is special, Collins said, with its status on the National Register of Historic Places, its 95-acre FISH Preserve on Sarasota Bay and some descendants of original settlers from Carteret County, North Carolina still living in the village.

As a working waterfront on very valuable Florida property, Collins said, “There is no place left like Cortez in Florida.”

Stone crab season is back, are they worth the hype?

Stone crab season is back

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Fishing, Outdoors.

CORTEZ – Some people wait months for the return of the claw, the local signature delicacy, while others can’t wrap their head around the love of the pricey stone crab.

While some seafood aficionados clammer for bluefin tuna or their favorite caviar, if you’re in Cortez or on Anna Maria Island between Oct. 15 and May 1, it’s stone crab you covet.

Stone crabs are caught in traps that are baited with fish, and, unlike unluckier crabs, only the claws are harvested. It is legal in Florida for fishermen to remove both claws if they are large enough, but some only remove one claw to give the crabs a better chance at survival. After a legal-sized claw is removed, the crab is returned to the water where the lost claw will regenerate after a few molts. Because young crabs molt up to three times each year, they are more likely to successfully regrow their claws than an older crab that only molts once a year.

The harvest can vary greatly each year depending on a multitude of factors, including weather and environmental conditions.

“In the season of 2018-19 when we had red tide really bad, we didn’t have any stone crabs that season,” said Karen Bell, president of A.P. Bell Fish Co. in Cortez. “This year the catches have been steady, mainly enough for local consumption. We’re shipping a little bit out, like north Florida, we shipped a few hundred pounds yesterday. About 600 pounds are being shipped to Atlanta tomorrow.”

Bell says they are getting an average of 400 pounds of claws a day on average, although they have seen as much as 1,000. According to Bell, red tide doesn’t seem to be much of a factor in this year’s harvest, although it could be playing a small part in harvest numbers that are below those of previous seasons.

One thing that has not changed this season is the incredible demand for a delicacy that is among the most expensive you are likely to find at any seafood counter. Other than bluefin tuna, some rare caviar and less than a handful of other exotic seafood, stone crab claws are some of the most expensive sea treats anywhere. Prices this season range from around $30 a pound for the smallest claws to well over $55 a pound for the largest size, known as ‘colossal’ claws. When you factor in the fact that around 65% of the claw is shell and not edible, the actual price of meat yielded will range from $60 to well in excess of $100 per pound. If you order at a restaurant, you could add as much as 40% above the retail price, depending on the establishment.

“I don’t care what they cost, stone crab claws are as much a part of south Florida as people driving with their left blinker on,” joked Martin Evans, who had just finished a meal at Anna Maria Oyster Bar with his fiancée, both of whom shared a stone crab claw appetizer. “It’s not something you order every time you go out, but they’re here and we love them, so today we treated ourselves.”

Bell says A.P. Bell is selling the claws as fast as they can get them and even though the price is up this season, demand is bigger than ever.

“Our prices are up $4 or more a pound from last year and people don’t seem to even blink at that,” said Bell. “I don’t understand it, but the demand is huge and the boats are doing really well because of it.”

If high-priced stone crab isn’t your cup of tea, there’s another fish that keeps Cortez boats busy in the winter months. After the cooler weather moves in, mullet season begins in south Florida.

According to Bell, mullet is the fish that built Cortez.

“Most of the families that came here from the Carolinas were mullet fisherman in North Carolina that came here in the late 1800s; it’s just always been a staple here. Every Friday the families ate mullet,” said Bell.

It’s not just the meat of the fish that makes mullet a favorite in many cultures; the roe (eggs) is considered a delicacy in cultures around the world. Cortez mullet roe is shipped to Taiwan, Italy, Spain and even Egypt.

Bell also noted that while mullet is seen as a low-grade fish by many in the U.S., that is not the case. Mullet is high in omega oils, and in general is a very healthy fish. A great deal of the fish caught in Cortez go to Haiti, Columbia and other destinations south of Florida. Mullet season typically runs from November to January.

It’s stone crab season on the Island, and although the harvest is not what it has been in years past, they are back to the delight of locals and tourists alike.

Mullet

Mullet off to slow start

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Fishing, Outdoors.

CORTEZ – It’s after Thanksgiving and a cold front has passed through, but what should be mullet season hasn’t really started yet, thanks to red tide, commercial fishermen say.

Mullet are not schooling around the docks or jumping in the Cortez Kitchen off the fishing village like they should be this time of year, said Karen Bell, of A.P. Bell Fish Co.

“We still seem to have concentrations of red tide that are killing fish here,” she said.

Until local mullet begin to spawn, Bell is buying mullet from north Florida, Alabama and North Carolina, she said, recalling that her father used to say that mullet stay in the Manatee River to avoid red tide.

“But when they come out and hit the red tide, we don’t know what will happen,” she said.

“It’s too soon to tell if the red tide has impacted adults, because they have to leave the estuaries to get out for spawning,” said Angela Collins, extension agent for the IFAS Florida Sea Grant Marine Extension Program in Palmetto. Red tide could affect where they swim, and could also impact their larvae, she said.

“I hope they make it out past the red tide before they spawn,” said Charlie Hunsicker, director of the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department, noting that mullet were taking refuge at Robinson and Perico Preserves.

At Robinson on Monday, red tide levels were high, and dead mullet floated along the shoreline.

At Cortez Bait and Seafood, fishermen brought a few mullet in last week, but it was too windy for some boats to be out, Kim McVey said, adding, “I hope red tide won’t affect them.”

Mullet are few and far between at the moment, said Bob Slicker, of the Swordfish Grill and Tiki Bar in Cortez, adding, “But I’m optimistic.”