Concerned about a series of less restrictive rules proposed for permit, Florida Keys fishing guides have asked state regulators to postpone a vote until more research is done, including a comprehensive stock assessment.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission board today will review the proposals for permit and African pompano, which include allowing divers to spear them in state waters.

After listening to a lengthy presentation, commissioners will decide whether to give the agency's fishery biologists and managers direction to move forward with the changes. If they do, the board would vote on the rules in November and implement approved ones in February, said Aaron Adams, director of operations of the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, a conservation group of anglers.

Adams said he and other guides and fishermen want to see more studies and data on fishing mortality rates before any changes are made, as no comprehensive stock assessment of permit has ever been done.

"It's better to err on the side of the resource than on the harvest side," he said.

Adams said draconian rules often are the result of not limiting the harvest until it's too late, and called that type of fishery management "reactive."

"By and large that has not worked," Adams said. "We want to be proactive."

Banning permit fishing while they are spawning from March to August is an alternative Adams and other conservationists support. The proposed rules would not do that.

They would, however, extend state rules into adjacent federal waters where there are no rules.

The agency also is considering imposing a combined bag limit of six permit and pompano per day and a size limit of 11 to 20 inches, and a daily commercial trip limit of 250 fish.

The Lower Keys Guides Association issued a statement late Thursday reminding the state agency that the discussion about proposed rule changes started with the desire to add protections, not lessen them.

The group said the proposals fail to protect a "Florida treasure."

Fishermen throughout the world spend millions of dollars in the Lower Keys "pursuing a lifetime achievement of catching a permit on the flats," they say.

The group has lobbied to make permit a game fish so they could not be commercially harvested.

With the marked decline in the Keys' bonefish population and tarpon, the importance of permit to the local fishing community has grown markedly in recent years.

"Most of the world records for permit have been landed between Big Pine Key and the Marquesas," the statement says, "so Key West is the epicenter of permit fishing, further reinforced by hosting the only two permit fishing tournaments in the world, both of which are strictly 'catch and release.' "

Stock assessments and spawning protections are essential, the statement says.

"Good management dictates not killing fish before they spawn," the group wrote, citing the state agency's own report that warned the harvest of juvenile permit could have significant impacts on the species.

The group also reminded the agency that its website states it is "powered by science-based leadership to create a sustainable and healthy future for Florida fish and wildlife" and that it "will be the recognized leader in science and management of Florida's fish and wildlife."

"Their recommendations for permit rules make a mockery of these noble statements," the guides wrote.

"They have either ignored or rejected the limited information known about permit in making their decisions, which appear to derive from a combination of bureaucratic inertia and a willingness to succumb to lobbyists promoting a short-term outlook at the cost of the long-term health of the fishery."

tohara@keysnews.com