Now they don't sell stone crabs at all. But most grocery stores and seafood dealers don't knowingly violate the law, he said. The situation is different with recreational fishermen. He picks up the package of small black sea bass - and another package he bought a year before with even smaller fish. Look at this.
Field is a retired bank examiner.
And for the past few months, he has been burning phone lines between his home on Fripp Island and government offices from Florida to Washington, D.C., urging them to do something about the lack of enforcement. Last year, they caught 23,233 pounds - a 60 percent drop. We've had a 20-inch size limit for four years. In 1994, fishermen caught 237,145 pounds of black sea bass. Last year they pulled in 132,946 pounds - a 55 percent decline.